Hambrook House

Hambrook House is located on the previous site of Lambeth Council’s housing offices and offers 48 homes to the local area. The deputy leader of the council, Paul McGlone, said “The housing crisis in Lambeth needs direct action. These homes are an important step towards our plans to build 1,000 new council homes”.

Challenge

It was important to the client to design the balconies to ensure resident privacy. Vertical bar balustrades offer greater privacy than glass, but residents can still feel the need to use privacy screens, often made of combustible materials.

Hambrook House was situated in a busy London hub and the site proximity to a neighbouring Tesco’s retaining wall meant a tight tolerance of just 3 inches (75mm) for the install of the balconies. To minimise cost and with other trades needing crane time, the site team were keen to make use of the crane and keep the project programme on track.

Solution

To provide optimum privacy for residents the vertical bar balustrades were custom designed. The bars were spaced and oriented at multiple angles effectively reducing the visibility from the outside while maintaining good light access to the balcony and apartments.

The tight space alongside the local Tesco would posed a significant challenge for balcony install. Leaving just 3 inches to manoeuvre the balconies into place our Glide-On™ system provided vital flexibility and ease of install. The offsite modular design arrived to site pre-slung and ready to simply slide on to the pre-cast arms and easily bolt into place.

According to the project manager the system was “far better” than previous experience with steel bolt-on balcony methods and was “more user friendly with more tolerance”. He also commented that safety was like “second nature” to our accredited installers putting his mind at ease.

The efficient install freed the site crane for use elsewhere on site shortening the overall programme as the install was completed earlier than expected.

Installation Process

Step 1: Cast-in anchors were cast into the slab & incorporated thermal break connections offering superior rigidity to the balconies.

Step 2: Cassette® balconies were preassembled offsite, including the balustrades, decking & soffits.

Step 3: Cassette® balconies were transported with balconies ‘nested’ onto each pallet making transport both cost effective & safe. Balconies were pre-slung offsite ready for installation upon arrival.

Step 4: Once lifted into position, the Cassettes® simply Glide-On™ to the pre-erected support arms, before completing the simple mechanical fixings.