An innovative house building company based in North Lanarkshire received a visit from a Scottish Government minister recently.
Shona Robison MSP, the Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government, took the opportunity to see for herself the unique work that Enevate Homes is undertaking in engineering new-build homes in Scotland.
The company, which has its factory in Wishaw, design and build modular homes, using a unique building system which features engineered structural steel frames to construct units for new houses and flats, home extensions, and even garden pods.
The process lends itself to a wide range of bespoke projects as the units can be used to form virtually any building type.
The system ensures that the majority of “construction” takes place off-site at its Netherton Road factory.
Architectural Manager Paul McIntyre told Lanarkshire Live: “We pre-manufacture the buildings in the factory here until they’re about 80 to 85 per cent complete.
"They have bathrooms in, windows fitted, concrete stairs installed, plasterboard on and painted, skirtings and doors fitted, and then they are shipped to the site in Dundee by truck and landed by crane.
"You can build a whole floor load of flats within a week on-site, then you build the whole building in a modular element. They are stacked vertically to create the building. The system was developed here in Wishaw.”
The patented construction technology means that framed units can be built up to 14 self-supporting storeys high, or over 50 per cent higher again (22 storeys) with a concrete core.
The company currently employs 64 staff, with 56 of them skilled trades people and eight office workers.
Ms Robison had visited an Enevate Homes site in Dundee earlier this year and was so impressed that she was keen to see for herself the production process.
“The visit went really well,” Paul continued. “In our workforce we have a mix of joiners, welders, panel builders, electricians and plumbers. The Minister had a factory tour, through the different departments and got to see the stages the building goes through.
“The benefits to using our system is that it’s quicker, cheaper, the buildings are lighter in weight so there’s less demand for foundations, and it’s greener.
"The weather doesn’t affect working either as they are being built in a factory. And the buildings are engineered rather than constructed so we work to tolerances less than a millimetre.”
Housing Secretary Shona Robison said: “We are exploring how advances in modular housing construction could help Scotland achieve its goals in delivery of energy efficient homes and net zero targets so it was great to hear about the benefits and manufacturing process from the team at Enevate Homes.”
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