Certainly there were several milestones, not least the opening of a new 18,000ft² factory on Oregon’s Selkirk site in November. The new factory marks an important step in Oregon’s development as a company, and is a vital part of plans for growth. Together with the company’s Burton factory it represents a 50% increase in manufacturing capacity.
So far 2014 has proved the investment in capacity to be a wise one, with housebuilders responding to pent-up demand and the availability of finance through Help to Buy. Both Selkirk factories and the facility at Burton have been working full tilt since the beginning of the year, and Oregon now employs over 100 staff.
"With the improvement in available credit for mortgages and the introduction of Help to Buy, the housebuilding industry has moved from demand constrained to demand led," said sales and marketing director Elaine Wilson. "This makes the speedy production and delivery of homes a key determinant of housebuilders’ profitability. A fast and accurate supply chain is key and the quality of product and speed of build is a great help to housebuilders right now, contributing to performance on site and speed to market."
Labour shortages and supply chain difficulties with masonry building materials have led to more UK housebuilders considering timber frame, in order to keep build rates in line with sales, she added.
"This will be further boosted by the demands of the new Part L when these start coming through. Inherent low U-values and airtightness, compared to other forms of construction, leaves timber frame ideally placed to help developers meet the new and improved targets," said Ms Wilson.
"The introduction of the Fabric Energy Efficiency Standard (FEES) is a positive step too as it will help limit the use of poor fabric performance and the need for costly renewables. As a result, specifiers are discovering that, by its very nature, timber frame is the ideal construction method to use when a fabric first route is established as the build choice for any project."
Over 2013/14 Oregon has been involved in some particularly interesting projects across the UK. One such is CALA Homes’ Trinity Park Edinburgh. An elegant Georgian-style development of 81 villas and apartments located in a desirable residential district of Edinburgh, this development proved both demanding and rewarding.
Oregon’s role was to design and deliver a quality frame, to exacting specifications, including all energy compliances, which helped CALA win a key "industry Oscar," the What House? Gold Awards for Best Development and Best House.
A long-time partner to CALA throughout the UK, Oregon was involved as part of the design team right from the start, and began an extensive design co-ordination process with CALA’s technical team, to develop innovative timber frame details that would deliver the Georgian features the architectural design demanded. These included detailing for the interface between some lower level masonry and high level timber frame, where similar U-values were required over identical footprints; and an innovative solution for a particularly awkward cavity barrier detail.
"Many of these details have proved so successful that they have since been used on other CALA projects," said Ms Wilson.
The project for Wates Living Space in Yorkshire deserves mention not least because of its variety of locations and sites. Oregon delivered 340 units, most of which were two storeys, over 24 sites, ranging in size from 4-40 units, often in tight, built-up urban areas.
The project was delivered in Oregon’s closed panel system Oregon IP and it represents the company’s largest insulated panel project to date. Key to the brief was that Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4 should be achieved on a fabric first basis – and it was.
