H+H’s Thin Joint system has been used in a fabric-first approach to the design and construction of a low energy apartment block on a constrained site in Brighton.
The planners insisted the four-apartment scheme had to comply with Level 4 for the Code for Sustainable Homes. This demanded a 25% reduction in CO2 emissions when compared to Building Regulations (2010). “The scheme had to achieve Code Level 4, so not only did we have to achieve a very good thermal performance but good sound resistance and airtightness too,” says Michael Alderton, director of contractor Canning Ericsson. “The H+H Thin Joint aircrete construction system appeared to be the best solution to achieve this,” he adds.
This was the first time the contractor had used the H+H This Joint system for an external wall construction, although Canning Ericsson had used H+H’s Jumbo Bloks to build the internal partitions on some of their previous developments.
The Thin Joint system worked well with the limited storage available on the tight site, which has been slotted into the end of the back garden of an existing home. Because of the limited storage space just-in-time deliveries of blocks were made by PBS, a local H+H Aircrete merchant.
“Using Jumbo Bloks and the Thin Joint system was ideal because the mortar comes bagged and can be mixed in buckets, so we don’t need to have piles of sand and other materials lying around and taking up space,” says Michael Alderton. “The Jumbo Bloks are lightweight and relatively easy to cut and shape when compared to dense block so it definitely saved time – I’d use it again”.
