New Build

We suggest that our clients make a wish list of their requirements by cutting out pictures from magazines and collect details of houses and designs they like, as this helps us to establish what type of design of house they would like to live in – planning requirements accepted!

It is also important that they also consider the environment they want to live in. i.e. Low energy or Passive House, environmental considerations for rainwater harvesting, solar heating, heat recovery systems, photovoltaic system, and ground or air source heating.

As Code for Sustainable Homes Assessors and Certified Passive HouseDesigners we are able to take into account at early design stages, measures required to achieve these levels of comfort & technical assessments.

Once we have designed your ideal home, the next step is to apply for planning permission. This is required for most developments. Local authorities consider all planning applications against a set of adopted policies contained in their Local Plans. These will tell you whether your proposal is likely to be acceptable or not. Evolved Design will check with the Local Planning Authority before submission as there are limiting policies that would prevent your intended use of the property or design.

Once this is completed Evolved Design will prepared any necessary detail drawings and plans and complete the planning application forms, certificates and any notices, enclose any other relevant information.

At Evolved Design we are used to ensuring that your application and Design and Access Statement meet with the requirements of the Code for Sustainable Homes and the Welsh Assembly TAN documents, which are mandatory for all new build projects in Wales.

Once planning is granted, we will then apply for Building Regulation Approval. The Building Regulations set out the requirements necessary to ensure a consistent and appropriate standard of health, safety, energy conservation and accessibility is achieved in building work, for both domestic and commercial proposals. They are regulations that are laid down by Parliament and are accompanied by a series of "Approved Documents" which relate to particular aspects of the Regulations.

These Approved Documents range from Structural performance, Part “A” through to Part “N” Glazing - Materials & Protection. The Regulations cover most building works including the erection of new buildings, conversion and extension of existing buildings, and the installation of heating, drainage or sanitary facilities and most must be completed in accordance to the information laid down in the regulations.

It is at this stage that we calculate the predicted energy performance of your new home and advise and provide effective recommendations for improving it. We will work with you and advise on the heating and ventilation specifications which provide you with a comfortable, cost effective home to live in.

Is the study of Earth's surface features. In a broader sense, topography is concerned with local detail in general, including drainage, surrounding building heights, vegetative and human-made features, and even local history and culture.

Topography specifically helps the planning process as it involves the recording of relief or terrain, into a three-dimensional quality of the surface, and the identification of specific landforms.

This involves generation of elevation data in electronic form and is including the graphic representation of the landform on a map, including contour lines, relief shading.

SAP Ratings (Standard Assessment Procedure) for Energy Efficiency Ratings for Dwellings is requirement under Part L Building Regulations.

SAP Ratings use the Government recognized Rating System of 1 - 100 to Part L Regulations that came into force on October 2010. To achieve a SAP Rating, detailed information will be required on all aspects of the design and materials to be used to include the type of heating you intend using, the size and type of windows and doors plus information on the type of wall and roof construction to be included.

At the Design Stage, a SAP Rating can point to where any recommendations can be given on how to improve the specification and improve the SAP Rating and Efficiency of the Building.

A Predicted Energy Assessment, PEA, will be produced, giving details of the Energy Efficiency and Environmental Impact of the new dwelling. A Building Regulation checklist will also be produced to ensure that all necessary criteria are being met.

Once your project is complete, we will check that no changes to specification have been made from the PEA and the Energy Performance Certificates (E.P.C.’s) will be produced. These are the Certificates required for Building Regulation compliance and give a rating between A and G according to energy efficiency and the environmental impact of the dwelling. Before E.P.C.’s can be issued they have to be registered by Landmark using a UPRN number, which is the (Unique Property Reference Number.) Once registered they can be retrieved from the Landmark Web Site and printed or forwarded on.

This information is also required by Building Control so that the dwelling can be signed off as being complete.

The Code for Sustainable Homes measures the sustainability of a home against key design categories, rating the 'whole home' as a complete package. The minimum standards for Code compliance have been set above the requirements of the current Building Regulations. New homes can achieve a rating on a scale of one to six 'Code Levels' depending on the standard achieved.

The key design categories included within the Code are:

• Energy
• Water
• Materials
• Surface water run-off
• Waste
• Pollution
• Health & Well-being
• Management
• Ecology

The Code builds from the design level onto the final completed project as Homes are assessed at design stage, but additionally require verification at post-completion stage ensuring that what has been specified is actually used.

In addition apart from the above design categories, it also includes new areas of sustainability design such as Lifetime Homes, ensuring that the home can be adapted to suit the future needs of the inhabitants.

From 1st September 2010, it has become mandatory for all new homes in Wales to achieve a Code for Sustainable Homes rating.

Passive Houseis a German method of building principals based around achieving a high level of comfort through excellent building fabric efficiency.

As Certified Passive HouseDesigners our aim is to provide you with an air tight, thermal bridge free construction that requires minimal heating, and, with the introduction of mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, provides you with a healthy home with even temperatures throughout.

The myth of not being able to open windows in a Passive Houseis not true, you just accept that the energy will be lost and not recovered to heat the new air entering the building. The performance of these buildings, a window open or not, is still far higher than provided by any other construction regulatory system in the UK.

The principals of Passive Housecan be adopted to suit any design of home and even renovation projects can aim to achieve the EnerPHit standards.

Evolved Design can supply all the necessary elements of the build construction to meet all specification needs, by carefully arranging with strategic partners the supply all the elements, including the procurement of the timber frames, Ziegel Blocks, the Insulation materials, and the Doors and Windows packages to meet the design and specification required.

Different construction methods can be used to provide alternatives to both the finishes and the product specification requirements.

The groups of construction are:

• Timber Frame Cavity systems – Utilising a timber frame designed to achieve the thermal performance required. This can be done by using either a solid timber stud, and engineered I beam construction or by using a twin frame system which minimises thermal bridging in the frame. We discuss with you what the best option for your project is.
• Solid External Wall construction - Ziegel Smart wall construction offers excellent thermal performance and thermal mass from a single layer of blockwork and this can be further improved by adding an extra layer of external wall insulation to give improved insulation results.
• SIP Structural Insulated Panels manufactured using two skins of structural boards with a petrochemical building insulation which acts as a bonding layer to the structure creating a continuous layer of insulation.
• CLT Systems are Cross Laminated Timber structures manufactured by laminating layers of timber into a solid structural panel to provide the floors and walls of the structure.

Please see details of our Carbon Smart Wall Systems as some of the options that we can provide.

Evolved Design are able to offer a range of services to project manage the construction which is tailored to your needs.

For those that want a complete Turnkey operation we can offer a service that will take you from the design through to handing over the completed house.

Options to this are:

Shell Only. Our design of house to your specification, installed, roofed (not including tiles/slate finishes), windows and doors installed, basically secure & watertight, so that we hand over the keys for you to complete the internal fit out.

Evolved Design specialises in the supply of alternative insulation products such as Sheep’s Wool, Hemp insulation, Woodfibre & Cellulose insulation materials to provide the energy efficiency requirements to meet current, and higher insulation performances.

We can also design projects using standard mainstream insulations such as glass or rock fibre. We do advocated that the use of petrochemical based foam plastic insulation materials should only be considered where the design of your house requires this form of insulation, as this is not an environmentally friendly product nor compatible with a lot of structures, in particular where a natural breathing structure is required to achieve high levels of insulation.

Evolved Design is able to offer thermal calculations, U Values, to show the thermal performance that will be achieved for all areas of the building. We are also able to offer condensation risk analysis, Dew Point calculations, Thermal Modelling to remove thermal bridging for New Build and Renovation Projects.

Evolved Design is able to offer a surveying and drawing service for renovation projects looking to improve the thermal performance of their properties by applying external or internal wall insulation.

We are able to provide a range of breathable insulations with various render or clad finishes to meet your requirements.

The External and Internal Wall Insulation systems that we offer are suitable for both New Build and Renovation Projects.