What we did:
To meet the growing demand for new housing Carmarthenshire County Council embarked on a programme of providing affordable homes through the redevelopment of disused sites and assets. The project at 5-8 Spilman Street was part of this initiative. The building had previously been occupied by the Authority’s planning and building control departments which was vacated in 2019 and remained unoccupied. The redevelopment provided 12 new residential units over 3 floors as follows:
Ground Floor – 2 x 2 bedroom flats (disabled friendly)
First Floor – 4 x 1 bedroom flats
Second Floor – 4 x 1 bedroom flats
Existing rear extensions – 2 x 3 storey 1 bedroom units.
The project aims included the provision of safe, secure and energy efficient social housing through the use of a fabric first design with integrated technologies, to tackle and reduce fuel poverty for tenants.
Client:
Carmarthenshire County Council
On award the scheme had been primarily designed to RIBA Stage 4 and we were responsible for progressing all design works through RIBA Stages 5-7, including the coordination and integration of all design disciplines where required. Works included:
• Internal Demolition
• Asbestos Removal
• Internal remodelling, installation of steel structures, acoustics..
• Full renewal of building services, works to upgrade the thermal envelope of the building.
• Renewal of M&E services including installation of fire sprinklers.
• External works included erection of fencing, partial remodelling of car park, installation of bike store, construction of enclosed bin store and plant room.
Key things we had to consider:
The project was located in Carmarthen Town Centre on a busy main road surrounded by operational offices/businesses including a hotel. In addition to ensuring that effective and robust health and safety management processes were adopted these had to be developed whilst ensuring that they did not had an adverse effect on the day to day operations of the surrounding businesses. Again due to the location of the project on a busy main road and shared access to the site set up and the local authority building users car park deliveries had to be meticulously managed and co-ordinated. Scaffold erection and dismantling were organised out of hours to avoid peak traffic flows and inconvenience to road users and surrounding businesses.
Building standards we worked to:
- Adhering to conservation area rules.
- Welsh Housing Quality Standards.
- Carmarthenshire Home Standard
- LABC (Local Authority Building Control)
