Dozens of houses built using a concrete panel system are being demolished in West Sussex to make way for affordable homes built using timber frame or wood-based structural integrated panels.
Contractor Geoffrey Osborne Ltd has started work on the £5.4m first phase at Nappers Wood, Fernhurst, for developer Martlet Homes. The three-phase programme will cost £7.1m.
A total of 54 flats, houses and bungalows are being demolished and replaced over the next two years, with a further 25 homes being built alongside. Buildings being demolished were constructed using the Orlit and Cornish concrete system but Osborne said they had now outlived their design life, were uneconomical to heat and did not comply with modern standards.
The new homes will use either timber frame or Osborne’s structural integrated panel system, which comprises a central core of expanded polystyrene between two layers of OSB.
Martlet Homes’ project manager Beverley Gearey said: “Energy efficiency is high on our list of priorities for creating sustainable homes that our customers will want to live in, both now and in the future.”
