Jenny Hampton reports on a house made of plastic, where brick walls have given way to polystyrene panels with pre-punched holes for windows and doors
In 1980, Bill Browne saw a building system in America that he thought would revolutionise construction in the UK. As he stands in front of a Hamsterley house on the Wynyard estate near Middlesborough in 2002, Bellway Homes has finally realised his vision.

Browne is the managing director of WA Browne, a partitioning and dry lining specialist based in the North East. The radical system he discovered in the US 22 years ago is external insulation and finishing systems (EIFS) or, to put it simply, polystyrene. The system was first developed in Germany after the Second World War, but remarkably the house in Teesside is the first commercial residential property in the UK to use it.

EIFS is a series of prefabricated polystyrene panels, which are lifted into place on site and attached to a lightweight steel frame by Browne's staff. The panels are coated with flexible chemical render to prevent cracking, and can also be used to create lintels, window surrounds and external features.

"I wish I knew why it has taken housebuilders so long to take up EIFS, because it's cost me a lot of money," jokes Browne, who invested in a factory to produce the material in the early 80s, only to close it again due to lack of interest.

"There was no need for housebuilders to change their ways then," he explains. "Housebuilders are so concerned with how the City perceives them, it is difficult for them to innovate."

He believed in the system so much he even built his own house out of it, eight years ago. "I presented it to various housebuilders, but the industry wasn't ready for using alternatives to brick then. It is a lot more open to suggestion now, because of a drive for efficiency after the Egan report, skills shortages and changes to the Building Regulations." Browne has re-opened his factory for Bellway, and is the only supplier of EIFS in the UK.

There’s no need for bricklayers and it can be put up in a fraction of the usual time

David Thomas, technical director of Bellway Homes North East, admits that building a one-off with a new system is costly, but says that EIFS is worth it. "We are trying to get an edge in the marketplace by using different materials and innovating. There's no need for bricklayers using this system and it can be put up in a fraction of the time." EIFS cuts at least 10 weeks off traditional build time. On the Bellway site it also reduced waste, the EIFS house producing only one skip, compared with the three from a traditional build.

"We also use its high thermal efficiency [the EIFS house has a U-value of 0.25, compared with 0.45 for traditional build] as a selling point. Buyers are much more aware of energy efficiency than they were six or seven years ago.

"People are wary of buying a house that looks different to a traditional one because they don't want to stick out. But that's what's so good about EIFS: the aesthetic quality of it is of a high standard as it can be used to create external features and looks like a rendered house."

It is also easy to repair, says Browne. "We built a TGI Friday's in Croydon using EIFS, which a lorry backed into. We simply cut out the section that was damaged, sprayed a panel to match the finish and fitted it in. You couldn't see the join."

The only drawback is that lifting panels in high winds isn't possible. As Bellway was lifting the panels in January, that affected the construction programme.

Repairing damaged sections is easy. you can’t see the join

Besides the advantages of using EIFS itself, attaching it to a steel frame brings extra benefits, says Thomas. "Because the frame and the panels are so much lighter than brick and block, the foundations don't need to be as strong. I saw a project in Edinburgh which saved £360,000 in foundations using a steel frame."

The services are run through a steel channel, which is cut out at the factory, so there is no need to drill and no possibility of cracking, which is a risk with brickwork. In the future it will be possible to pre-plumb and pre-wire in the factory, says Browne, so all that needs to be done on site is to connect up the services.

The shape of the steel frame also means that the roof of the house does not have to be a dark and dank loft area filled with timber joists. In the Bellway house, the roof space was used for two bedrooms and a bathroom, allowing the property to be sold for £370,000 rather than the £280,000 the brick and block version would have gone for.

For readers still not convinced by the idea of a polystyrene house, the first houses built using EIFS are now 60 years old. Its wind resistance exceeds the British standard by 50% and the British Board of Agrément has given it the thumbs-up for impact resistance.

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