Extra Care Window Project
Window Specification for Cheshire Extra Care Project
Eurocell has supplied more than 500 windows to Cheshire Extra Care, a £200m+ PFI housing scheme – one of the largest of its kind in the UK.
Cheshire Extra Care is a design-and-build project awarded to avantage, a consortium made up of Harvest Housing Group, MJ Gleeson Group and Nationwide Building Society. An approved Eurocell fabricator supplied and installed the windows on behalf of main contractor, GB Building Solutions. The Eurocell fabricator was appointed following a thorough tendering process, principally because it had an exemplary track record with
Gleeson in the areas of quality and customer service. These factors were vital to ensuring the project was finished on time and to the required standards.
The Cheshire Extra Care housing project consists of five sites across the North West, each with access to a broad range of amenities and services that are designed to maintain the independence of the elderly residents. With the number of people over 85 years of age across the UK set to increase rapidly in the next few decades, Cheshire County Council initiated the project in response to the growing need for a new generation of ‘housing with care’ for the elderly. When completed, Cheshire Extra Care will provide more than 430 extra care dwellings across the five sites.
More than 500 windows were fabricated using the Eurocell Eurologik window system in white. Many windows were fabricated in a top-hung style, which met the brief for optimum window ergonomics. Top hung windows have handles on the bottom of the opening sash, within 1000mm of the floor, giving residents with limited mobility a much more comfortable reach when opening and closing a window.
Cheshire County Council also required windows with superior thermal efficiency to meet the BREEAM ‘Very Good’ standard – which is beyond the statutory minimum of current Building Regulations. BREEAM ‘Very Good’ is achieved by meeting a selection of credit-based environmental performance criteria, including Low-E glass on the windows and high levels of insulation in the walls. BREEAM is the Environmental Assessment Method developed by the BRE (Building Research Establishment), which assesses the environmental performance and sustainability of buildings.
Low-E glass was used for the larger glazed areas and certain south facing windows on this project. This type of glass reflects heat from the sun during hot summer days, preventing solar gain, whilst keeping heat from the radiators in the rooms during winter.
The fabricator supplied more than 100 windows to each site on a detailed call-off that delivered against the rapid build schedule expected by Cheshire County Council. Building work was able to progress quickly because many of the structural elements, like the windows, were pre-fabricated off-site.