To reduce the risk of working at height and revolutionise the speed of the new build market, the UK's leading trussed rafter loft conversion specialist, Trussloft, has developed Moduloft.
The innovative concept delivers a fast, convenient and complete solution to roof and loft construction in social housing ensuring a smooth and quick move-in for residents and importantly, significantly reducing the need to work at height.
According to The Health and Safety Executive*, statistics show that falls, including falls from height, remained the most common cause of death in the workplace, accounting for 56% of construction worker fatalities in 2012/2013 (22) versus 51% in 2011/12.
As such, factory engineered offsite Moduloft pods are available as a standard shell or as a finished room in the roof with electrics, plumbing, windows and doors all pre-installed with Forticrete's eco-friendly Gemini range of interlocking roof tiles, fitted as standard. The pods are built and then delivered to site when needed, reducing the potential risks associated with working at height, and in the process eliminating storage requirements, maximising crane time, reducing ancillary overheads such as scaffolding and labour, while reducing the risk of onsite construction delays due to adverse weather conditions. Specialised Trussloft installers then lift on each of the new, weather tight Moduloft sections into place.
Once fitted, it only remains for the join line to be felted and tiled, and interior edges sealed and skimmed to make the roof space ready for use. The roof units can be fitted with various and multiple types of insulation, and include cavity space for mechanical ventilation, water tanks and storage. End to end; most installations are completed within just two weeks – up to 50% quicker than an onsite roof and loft construction.
"Thanks to the government’s ambition to raise the requirements for the sustainable performance of new homes through the uplift in Part L of the Building Regulations, it is becoming increasingly difficult and costly for housebuilders to achieve the required standard through traditional forms of construction. As such, forecast demand for house builders in the future makes offsite the ‘only way to build’,” commented Tim Benson, director at Trussloft.
“Therefore we set about devising an off-site engineered solution which would not only revolutionise the way in which housing is delivered, but importantly, massively reduce the need for on-site construction, providing customers with a safer and easier solution to aid the construction of cost effective, sustainable homes."
Furthermore, bespoke details can also be incorporated into the design, such as dormer windows and chimneys, and tiling is fitted offsite at the manufacturing stage with any overlapping areas finished quickly onsite.
As well as being extremely energy efficient, Forticrete’s Gemini roofs tiles are aesthetically pleasing and high in quality. They have been specifically designed as interlocking tiles which are just 270mm x 337mm overall, yet because of a carefully judged central groove and innovative ‘double cambered’ design, they have the appearance of two traditional plain tiles side by side when laid, effectively laying two tiles at a time.
These next generation tiles offer significant cost and environmental benefits, with the cost to lay them also considerably reduced. They also offer more flexibility; whereas most traditional plain tiles can only be lay to pitches of 35° and use up to 60 tiles per m2, these interlocking tile solutions are fixed with only a single nail and clip, are able to be laid to pitches as low as 22.5° and only require 16.3 tiles per m2, a significant reduction.
All Moduloft loft conversions are backed by a 10 year insurance guarantee, with all planning, engineering and building control done by Trussloft.
