construction

UK manufacturing is at a seven month high, accounts for around 10% of economic output and employs around 2.6million workers, whilst construction accounts for around 7% of economic output and employs approximately 1.4million workers.

Increased labour rates and shortage of skilled labour is going to be an issue in traditional construction and it will drive prices up and cause project programmes to lengthen.

I hear every day from roofing contractors across the UK and other areas of construction, of how less and less trades people are now available.

Offsite contractor, M-AR has launched a brand-new CPD module focussed exclusively on modern methods of construction (MMC) and exploring how best to maximise the benefits of offsite.
 
Typifying M-AR’s open and collaborative approach to improving standards across the industry, the new CPD is designed to provide architects, specifiers, cost consultants and end clients alike with insight on the offsite manufacture and installation process as an alternative to traditional build.

In the UK water conservation has been on the agenda, and largely dismissed by the public, for years. Our growing population and increased demand through lifestyle choices, will result in critical water situations more regularly, especially in the driest parts of the country.  

Minimising the environmental impact of homes at both the construction and occupation have recently become key issues. Groundbreaker Systems have been working on ‘green’ solutions for over 20 years.

Despite the challenges, the construction sector faces the Crest team have been designing and producing some new brick types which have recently been added to the range. Crest has one of the best collections of bricks available in the UK and is delighted to offer Merchants, distributors and housebuilders 3 new clay facing bricks.

The Oast House Restoration is beautifully crafted, designed by the Crest team this is a quite stunning multi-coloured tumbled brick, perfect for rural, traditional and prestige type properties. These bricks are a mix of reds, browns with white highlights scattered throughout and black highlights featured on selected bricks to add an ‘aged’ appearance. Its rustic brick colours would work well with a selection of our roof tiles including the Wolds Classic Clay Roof Pantile, ‘Classic’ is a mix of different colours & finishes.

Prefabricated Glass Reinforced Plastic (GRP) products, such as bay window roofs, door canopies and dormers, are enabling the construction industry to work far more efficiently, with offsite and modular construction processes helping to increase productivity.
 
However, increased speed is not the only benefit these products are providing, as Andrew Almond, Marketing Manager at Stormking, a specialist manufacturer of offsite prefabricated GRP component products, explains:

Our factories maintain good stock levels and delivery lead times, merchants and distributors are turning to Crest to help them through these challenging times.  

The construction material shortage remains challenging for building and construction businesses as demand outstrips supply. With little improvement in the availability of many key building materials, such as timber, bricks and roof tiles, and with suppliers’ delivery times increased sharply as the supply chain works hard to keep up.

Crest’s manufacturing partners have been actively increasing the supply to merchants, distributors and housebuilders to help remove the tremendous pressure they all face. We have adequate production capacity and the ability to manufacture more bricks and roof tiles to further help the supply shortage.

Still time to register now to get free entry
Just days away, the award-winning UK Construction Week returns from 5-7 October at the NEC in Birmingham and is a one-stop-shop for all things construction, including CPD sessions, product demos and free information on all the latest regulations, digital technology and MMC solutions, innovative materials and new suppliers coming into the UK market. It is the first major live event in the construction industry for two years with over 300 exhibitors, bringing together the whole industry across three days.
Each day of the show will have a topical theme, with day one focusing on sustainability, day two on diversity, equality and inclusion in construction, and day three on the big issues around quality, social value and building safety.