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Thursday 20th March 2008

Sedgemoor District Council’s housing association has chosen Acheson & Glover’s Novabrik external cladding for an affordable, eco-friendly housing development in the pretty village of Nether Stowey near Bridgewater in rural Somerset.
 
The homes have been built by Merlin Timber Frame as airtight units with integrated heat recovery ventilation systems to meet Super E standards of energy efficiency.
 
The choice of Novabrik was partly down to the rural location of the development. A traditional appearance was essential to blend in with surrounding properties. Novabrik however provided other important benefits as well, according to Merlin contracts director, Duncan Attwell.
 
“Novabrik is an entirely dry-built cladding system so we didn’t need to bring any wet trades on site, keeping the site clean & tidy and giving us much better use of our labour resources. As well as this, we were able to carry on fixing even through wet weather conditions that would have stopped bricklaying dead,” he says.
 
Ray Brookes, managing director of sub-contractors, South Wales Building Services, who installed the Novabrik says: “It’s a very straightforward product to use. Acheson & Glover, provided training and we were able to complete the cladding of all seven houses in just eleven days”.

Novabrik is a BBA Certified and NHBC approved system comprising brick sized interlocking tiles which lock together to form a weather-proof, ventilated outer skin for timber framed, steel-framed or concrete panel structures. It is also suitable for use with conventional block-work walls or ICF (Insulated Concrete Form) systems.
 
Originally developed in collaboration with Canada’s National Research Council, Novabrik is manufactured by Acheson & Glover under licence for the UK and Irish markets.
 
The main benefits of the system are that it can be installed very quickly – in as little as half the time of traditional brick - and because no wet trades are needed, installation can continue in virtually all weather conditions.