The Brookwood Farm development of traditionally styled low carbon new homes near Woking, which looks set to be a model of sustainable building for social housing providers across the country, is rapidly taking shape and nearing completion with very minimal manpower.

Despite this winter being the harshest for 30 years, the construction of the main structures to roof height for the 12 new Code level 5 houses has continued apace requiring just four site operatives.  This speedy and efficient build clearly demonstrates the advantages of using the three-step building system from The Litchfield Group, which brings together thermally superior ICF Tech walls, Sheerframe windows and Masterdor doors for the building envelope.

Unlike the majority of zero and low carbon homes developments currently under construction or recently completed, Brookwood Farm is designed to closely replicate traditional British architecture.  The Litchfield Group’s system has been key to achieving this for several reasons.

The walls look exactly like a standard red brick and block construction from the outside but they’re dual skinned with ICF Tech’s insulating concrete form walls, which offer U-values as low as 0.11 W/m2K, air infiltration as low as 0.74 m3/m2/hr @ 50Pa and a Y value of just 0.04.

Sheerframe PVC windows with a low 0.8 W/m2K U-value and Masterdor door sets – which are all UK-designed and manufactured specifically for British homes - integrate perfectly with the walls to maximise thermal efficiency, air tightness and security.  The end result is a collection of new homes which would sit comfortably and sympathetically in almost any British town or village.

The Brookwood Farm development for Woking Borough Homes is one of the first of its kind in the country and when completed it will provide homes with one of the smallest carbon footprints in the UK.

Woking Borough Homes is part of the Thameswey Group, owned by Woking Borough Council.  Contractor William Lacey worked closely with the technical team from ICF-Tech to design homes which would offer optimal thermal and low-carbon performance.

Says Litchfield Group’s Mike Butterick, who heads the project team: “With the homes nearing completion on target for Spring, the viability of Code 5 and 6 low and zero carbon homes has been demonstrated once again.  Brookwood Farm clearly shows how meeting Code levels 5 and 6 is possible right now using our building envelope system, without having to reinvent the familiar design of British homes or relying heavily on unproven green technologies.”