Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
Sussex independent builders merchant Chandlers has worked on a pioneering eco-home development in Eastbourne.
Chandlers Mews is a development of five homes from PR Homes and has been called after the builders merchant in recognition of the integral contribution Chandlers made to the project.
The collaboration was marked in a ceremony on Thursday (August 4) to officially hand-over the road sign naming the development.
Chandlers provided 90% of the resources used in the development, from foundation materials to bricks and paving slabs, along with all the essentials, including sand and cement throughout the entire construction. Chandlers specialist bathroom branch in Lewes provided all the bathroom materials.
The development is on a site of abandoned garages which were overgrown with weeds, full of rats and used by local drug-users. Developer Gary Ross told buildersmerchantsjournal.net that the local council – in particular the planning department – had been “fantastic in working hard to help us develop this site and get rid of the eyesore”.
Chandlers’ business development executive Mark Tuppen said that the whole development was an incredible learning curve for the merchant, however one that will allow the company to develop its sustainable offer event further.
“We’d been working with P&R Homes for some years and basically knew that whatever they needed for this new type of development, we would have to source. It has meant we have been working with new suppliers and new types of products.”
The houses feature sedum-covered roofs, giving neighboring houses an outlook over green roofs rather than normal roofing; this played a big part in getting the neighbours onside, Ross says.
“It was a new way of working for us but the surrounding householders wanted something better than the garages but that wasn’t simply dense, traditional housing.”
The houses’ eco credentials include the sedum roofs – which have very high insulation properties, rainwater harvesting and solar panels for hot water.
