We have a wide range of experience within the social housing sector. A large proportion of our past work has been timber frame, including two five storey blocks at Mackintosh Lane for Servite Houses. We have moved away from this on some new schemes, partly on cost grounds, and partly for thermal mass considerations. We have undertaken a number of concrete framed schemes, including Pembury Place for Peabody Trust and Spring Place for Community Housing Group – a 7 storey concrete frame abutting the North London Railway Line.
Our involvement in Modern Methods of Construction has also involved modular units (Mackintosh Lane ; 7 houses from 21 modular units constructed in Sheffield) and we are currently looking at bathroom/shower pods. We have a particular interest in sustainability and have been involved in some interesting schemes, such as Boatemah Walk for the London Borough of Lambeth. This included a photovoltaic roof, rainwater harvesting, FSC timber and natural paints. Our Wiltshire Road project is solar thermal, and Mora Burnet was fitted with a communal heating CHP system. Our interest extends beyond the headline additions to the importance of insulation, air tightness, sustainable timber, water conservation and sustainable drainage systems. Our interest in sustainable timber extends to Sandwood being one of the very few contractors to achieve FSC Chain of Custody status, and the only contractor to undertake a new build project (Boatemah Walk) which qualifies as an FSC mixed sources product.
We have been fortunate to work with some very talented architects including (but not limited to) Niall McLaughlin, who was the architect at Evelyn Road, Ash Sakula at Boxley Street, Anne Thorne Architects Partnership at Boatemah Walk and Wiltshire Road, Fraser Brown MacKenna at Pembury Place, as well as Penoyre & Prasad (Elsdale Street), PRP Wick Road), RGP (Mackintosh Lane), Dunthorne Parker (Merton Road), What Architecture (RoofTop Nursery) and Monahan Blythen (Spring Place).
We are particularly good at working within tight financial constraints while ensuring the design concepts remain uncompromised.
Although most of our work is purely residential, we have been involved in mixed use schemes, and have particular experience in supported housing, care homes and extra care facilities.
We generally work on a Design and Build basis but also on conventional and more innovative forms of contract.