Friday 9 August 2019

Employment Opportunity

Mark Lovell Design Engineers are looking to add a new graduate Civil and Structural Engineer to their team. We would envisage the ideal candidate to have 3-5 years experience. However, this does not necessarily exclude those that do not quite fall within these parameters.

The practice has been established for over 20 years and has a reputation for producing creative and elegant solutions to engineering problems. The office is based in Devizes, Wiltshire which has significant benefits for lifestyle and good working conditions.

We would ask interested candidates to please write to Mark Lovell with an introductory letter and copy of their CV.

Friday 7 June 2019

Party Wall or Boundary Wall

The redevelopment of urban brownfield sites and extending/altering properties within towns is something most of the adult population gets involved with at some point in their lives. Most people, albeit in a rudimentary manner, have a limited awareness of the process and generally know that Planning Approval may need to be gained from the Local Authority to legally facilitate the works.

Many people, if asked, would specify that Planning Consent for the works may be required and would at least check whether their proposed works needed consent or not. However, the Approval process does not stop there; contrary to ill informed beliefs!

Some slightly more informed on the process would specify that the construction works would also need Building Regulations Approval.

The majority of the population believe that if you have Planning Consent and Building Regulation Approval, that you can then legally proceed with the construction works, setting aside issues such as Listed Building Consent. The construction density within our towns and cities is intensifying to such a degree that this statement is rarely true and lawful. Many of you at this stage are saying; Why?

In the UK, in 1996, the Party Wall Etc. Act 1996 gained statute. However, the definition and legal impact of this piece of legislation is somewhat lost in its name; “Party Wall Act”. This Act does not only legislate and control works to walls which are shared by adjoining owners. It also puts controls and restrictions on works by an owner, even when carrying out works totally on their own land.

These works must be designed and constructed to a pre-agreed standard by both parties or their nominated and appointed Party Wall Surveyors/Engineers on each side of the boundary. The approved works must respect the boundary owned by others and their neighbours, nearby structures and buried services. It is a criminal offence by the owners instructing the works not to do so in situations where the Act has been enacted. These construction works can immediately be stopped by the adjoining owners gaining and serving a County Court Injunction/Summons against the owners of the works for not complying with the requirements of the Party Wall Etc. Act 1996.

It is strongly recommended that all proposed construction works are reviewed by a professional person to check whether a Party Wall Agreement is needed or not. It is suggested that an Agreement is needed on many more projects than one would realise.

Another passing comment to consider, which many householders and builders are not aware of, even when an extension does not need Planning Approval or a Party Wall Agreement, it may still need Approval from the Local Water Utility Company for works in the vicinity of their plant/apparatus! A blog subject for another day.

The “Google Age” self-administering approach by the general public on these items has made the potential for very costly oversights far more commonplace.

Wednesday 17 April 2019

The Ongoing Legacy of Legislation

The regeneration of new large scale housing schemes appear to be springing up around the country to meet the shortage of dwellings. Many of the schemes, from a cursory point of view, appear to be system timber panel type frames which are rendered or brick faced. Many of these schemes are being built on sites with are known to suffer from an increased flood risk.

It is believed that the reasons for timber construction are: increased speed of construction over traditional houses and a lower, more affordable price. These lightweight timber systems are compact, highly insulated and energy efficient in heating terms.

The pre-finished panels which form many of the standard systems are factory manufactured (MMC) and clipped together on site within a few days.

Building Regulations Standards dictate the fabric U values required and the high levels of air tightness of the built form. Government policy has dictated these changes to try to reduce carbon emissions.

It should be remembered that thermally lightweight buildings heat up very quickly, which is beneficial for buildings which have intermittent use but would question the logic for every day housing. The Government has funded many schemes to help homeowners of poorly insulated old properties to reduce their heating bills. It should be remembered that many of these properties are formed from traditional construction and would generally benefit from being warm in winter and cool in summer.

However, Building Regulations Standards have, in one way, been instrumental in increasing the energy consumption and carbon footprint of the built form in the UK. The highest energy demand for the country now exists in the summer period. The reason being is that it takes three times as much energy to cool a building per degree centigrade than to heat it. Therefore, with increasing mean global summer temperatures and the trend of building thermally lightweight properties which overheat rapidly in warm conditions, unless air conditioned, the dwellings become hostile environments for humans to live in.

An old, but well insulated traditional masonry and mortar type house, on an annual basis, is much lower in energy use terms than the new modern lightweight prefabricated ones. There are other limitations with MMC houses which can be discussed with and argued by anyone wanting to engage with this discussion on housing design: is there anyone there?


The question to ask: is the country invested in new housing which is fundamentally flawed in its design? Are we building “White Elephants” which will rapidly need to be replaced in the coming decades? In times of limited resource availability, should we not design and built houses with an expected service life of 120 years and which also run passively needing very limited technical fixes to make them serviceable?


Thursday 10 January 2019

Skills, Training and Planning

The Blog section of the website has, for a while, become like the forgotten poor relation, we have spent so much of our time and energy talking and thinking about the impact of the “B” word! It has consumed not only our energies but most of the UK's as well and has become a two year Hokey Cokey! Are we near to the end of the dance yet?

The construction professions in the private and public sectors which design, develop and build the infrastructure for the country are trying to plan for the future whatever that might become. The construction sector has lost capacity and capability since the financial crash of 2008, irrespective of what level of funding is or may be available going forward for future projects, the UK needs to facilitate the training of people to fill the growing skill gaps within the construction and infrastructure sector. In many sectors of our market, the magnitude and scale of the loss of skills and experience is becoming critical, maybe to a point where many will not be able to be re-established as the ageing workforce is not able or being given the opportunity to pass on their trade or profession to apprentices. The fabric of the built and social environment depends on being viable and functional.

Industry needs to be helped to train much needed apprentices and technicians as school leavers are being unnecessarily encouraged by current trends to go to University, where at the end of their studies, many will have created themselves significant personal debt and probably will have little prospect of finding suitable or rewarding employment which will enable them to repay these debts. The current trend appears to be that many of these personal debts will become written off over time by the tax payer. A better and more realistically socially engineered government policy could easily limit and avoid this mounting problem.

Our private, business and national financial models need to be changed from growth based systems to sustainable ones. Planet Earth and humanity cannot continue to be be lead by short term financial gains, a new Era in our evolution needs to be “Born” and not just spoken about. Little has been achieved by Earth Summits over the last thirty years!

mark lovell design engineers

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Structural and Civil Design Engineering Consultants based in Devizes, Wiltshire