Rule Britannia! Top Class Eastern Euro Off-Site Construction Collaborating with the Brits
Securing highest quality Off-Site Construction supply chain outside the UK was our mission. With the UK's construction industry under significant pressure, due to a dire skills shortage, we wanted to create a solution, with the support of our 20 partners, which would benefit homeowners of all levels and requirements, to support the UK Construction Industry and our partners in the Baltic's. The UK Housing Crisis and my somewhat diluted semi-Socialist ideals aside, the solutions that these partners deliver are considered streets ahead in what is precision engineering created under controlled conditions. Beautiful homes being created in both Panel and Volumetric Modular Construction up to half the speed, investors enjoying the speed of ROI in particular.
Our research and of course 'top quality gossip' with experts in the UK Industry demonstrates around 3-4 core Off-Site UK Factories producing a variety of product including Steel Frame & CLT, the remainder are apparently, small, very new, not actually in production or proven as yet, not managing over & above their own pipeline, but none the less competition planning to enter the market place which is a good thing for the UK - but without skilled workers how does that work exactly? A British factory asked me recently if I could ship over Lithuanian and Ukrainian workers for them?? Already a large proportion of construction workers in the UK are from Eastern Europe already as we all know (at Berkeley Homes about half of the contractors are from Eastern Europe Mr. P reports) and on most large sites it's not unusual to find around 10 spoken languages, with dual-language signs. Severe adjustment needed with a distinct lack of training albeit the Government doing their best to attend to assist our British workforce.
According to the Guardian Newspaper "The most frequent nationalities of people resident in the UK and working in construction in 2014 – these people have arrived in the UK in the past 10 years, from figures by the Construction Industry Training Board:
- Poland: 30,120
- Romania: 24,842
- India: 7,704
- Bulgaria: 5,443
- Latvia: 3,830
- South Africa: 1,316
- Hungary: 1,448
- Australia: 937"
Given the choice to lay bricks or create scaffolding in our climate is apparently not so appealing to UK youngsters, compared to being office bound, and who can blame them! My short period of what I call real work lasted 4 years in 'hard landscaping' blessed therefore with a 'healthy mattress bank balance', mighty fit, tan and a white van to go with it. I decided that there were easier ways to earn $ and told by my self-made father at the time if I carried on working like that I would kill myself, slight exaggeration but the words were quoted. A big goodbye to the 6-pack, hello Corporate World and expanding waist line.
PANEL HOUSING (& ASSOCIATED CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS)
I've created plenty of blogs the past few months sharing my passion for 'Volumetric Modular' which can be ideal for a number of purposes including; mainstream residential, commercial, schools, student, PRS etc. - anything that is standardised but more flexible than some think. This particular blog is focused towards 'panel construction' which is even more flexible and welcomed by Architects who lust being 'creative' for their clients pushing the boundaries to create beautiful abodes and luxurious including high-end timber construction. Clearly evident that some Brits in the Industry need to brush up a little on what is actually available in the Euro market place, the UK is still behind with knowledge in comparison despite efforts to compete expanding out of a 'Cottage Industry' experts tell me. The Soviet era created elements of misery but at the same time a thoroughly robust industry with absolutely huge production facilities, many still in operation today (they are solid concrete from top to bottom and extremely ugly yet effective) and extended more recently to create super new state of the art facilities thousands of square metres, up to 6 plus lines of production. The cost of workers obviously a lot lower and including shipping still remain competitive with super quality build and dedication to enter the UK.
Panel homes as the name dictates are built using panels transported to the site. Typically, these homes require more finishing work than volumetric modular homes (95% done off-site), as the interior finishing work, such as painting, installing cabinetry and stairs, kitchens and bathrooms and installing flooring, must be completed on-site. Factory build-time is still similar to that of modular homes, but on-site build time is longer. It takes about a week to construct the panels onsite, then it will take further weeks to complete the interior work, depending on the extent of the work and the schedules of the sub-contractors which needs to be carefully thought out. The whole process is more time intensive and detailed;