Social housing provider Stonewater is building thirty-nine affordable new homes at Shiremoor Hill, Merriott in Somerset, in partnership with local housebuilder Galion Ltd.
To support its commitment to delivering high-quality, sustainable homes with a strong focus on energy efficiency, build quality, and customer wellbeing, Stonewater selected the Celcon Vertical Wall Panel (VWP) system from H+H.
These storey-height aircrete panels are designed for the rapid construction of external walls, separating walls, and internal partitions. When combined with prefabricated timber floors and roofing systems, they deliver a complete Category 2 MMC solution.
Building energy-efficient homes
Marie Riordan, Director of Development (South & Central) at Stonewater, explains: “The use of a modern construction system supports our drive to improve consistency, reduce on-site risk and enable better control over build quality and programme.
“Speed of build is important, but not at the expense of safety or quality. We’re delighted with how well the Celcon Vertical Wall Panel system has worked in practice, particularly in reducing some of the typical risks associated with traditional construction.”
For affordable housing providers like Stonewater, build quality is critical. In addition to providing safe, comfortable homes, it is responsible for maintenance over the long term, so durability and consistent performance are essential.
Aircrete is well-suited to this brief. It is robust, resistant to damp and mould, fire-resistant, and offers excellent thermal performance. When supplied as storey-height panels, it also supports a more airtight building fabric – the reduced number of joints means fewer potential weak points in the envelope.
Tim Barnes, formerly Head of Construction at Galion Ltd, comments: “The benefit of the system is ease of installation, but more so the quality of the internal walls that we can produce. There are far fewer joints and the airtightness is excellent.
“For this site, there was a requirement to build to EPC B. The houses will achieve EPC A, with SAP scores of 93-96, thanks to the combined performance of the Celcon VWP system, solar panels, and air source heat pumps, exceeding Stonewater’s expectations.”
Speed of build
Another reason the VWP system was specified for the Shiremoor Hill site was the time-saving it offers.
Tim explains: “The speed of using VWPs is comparable to timber frame, while avoiding the compaction and movement that can occur in loaded timber frame structures.
“The team are installing around 65 Vertical Wall Panels a day; to put that into context, that’s equivalent to around 1,100 standard lightweight blocks. Compared to the traditional method, this enables us to knock three weeks off the superstructure build programme quite comfortably.”
Design flexibility
The development includes a variety of homes, from four-bedroom houses to three-bedroom bungalows. The homes will feature PV panels, air source heat pumps, wastewater heat recovery, and EV charging to support high levels of energy efficiency.
Riordan commented on the ability of the VWP system to deliver the range of homes across the site: “It was important to adopt a system that could deliver a range of house types to meet local needs. The flexibility of the approach has enabled a varied mix of homes to be delivered efficiently, while maintaining consistent quality.”
A first for WholeHouse
Shiremoor Hill is the first social housing project to be delivered using the WholeHouse solution from Travis Perkins. This BIM-based platform enables users to design, configure and generate accurate construction drawings and bills of materials quickly and efficiently.
Michael Leverton, Head of WholeHouse, says: “The platform provides pricing and embodied carbon data for different building elements, enabling housebuilders to make informed design decisions upfront.
“The Celcon Vertical Wall Panel system is a good fit for the WholeHouse platform. It’s an MMC system that offers speed of build, but it uses local trades and doesn’t have the upfront cost of offsite or timber-frame systems. We’re really pleased to be working with H+H and keeping masonry at the forefront of building.”
Looking ahead
As demand for affordable housing continues to grow, systems that combine speed, consistency and proven performance will play an increasingly important role in delivering homes that stand the test of time.
Find out more information about the Celcon Vertical Wall Panel system.
