Ben Adam-Smith explains what value engineering is and how it can help us to do more with less. He reflects on a short video about Slate House in Herefordshire that includes some great examples of value engineering.
This video was produced for Coaction, a fantastic training initiative that aims to upskill the UK construction industry and encourage higher quality, more sustainable building practices.
Coaction has allowed us to share this video with you, which explores some of the decisions made at Slate House and how they contributed to making a low budget but high value home.
Value engineering is about doing more with less
Value is defined as function divided by cost (value = function/cost).
If we increase the function the value goes up.
If we decrease the cost and value goes up.
The only thing we need to bear in mind is that performance must not go down.
Value engineering is about creating better solutions
Value engineering is a creative endeavour and as such there is no limit to what you could do, so long as you’re following the principles mentioned. In fact, just building to Passivhaus standard will entail a fair amount of value engineering (orienting your building well would be one example).
However, when it comes to housing there are some common examples which we are going to cover today.
Photo credit – Graeme Deas and Stuart Hedley
Passivhaus standard is within reach on low budgets (if you make good decisions)
This podcast is looking at some of the value engineering examples at Slate House in Herefordshire.
Graeme Deas and Stuart Hedley are the self-builders behind the project. Builder Mike Whitfield delivered an airtight, insulated shell with the ventilation system integrated, while Graeme and Stuart completed the internal fit-out.
Nick Grant from Elemental Solutions was their Passivhaus Consultant and also a strong advocate of value engineering.
Nick has been on the podcast before:
How value engineering could benefit a house build
Why an integrated design approach works well for self build
How to share knowledge, test and debunk
Nick is also Technical Director of UK Passivhaus Trust and a trainer with Coaction.
Keeping things simple is not what they do on Grand Designs
Graeme is a design professional so a lot of this came naturally to him.
Stuart, however, was tentative at first because all he knew about building houses came from TV shows and glossy magazines. Just remember that often even award-winning projects do not perform particularly well.
Although building to Passivhaus standard brings multiple benefits related to health, comfort and energy efficiency, is it worth doing if the house doesn’t make a statement?!
Constraints were embraced
The budget was a key constraint on this project but this also informed the choices ahead. If you like this idea of leaning into the constraints then check out our podcast with Andrew Michler on how to create beautiful designs through constraints.
Value engineering happens at the beginning of a project
Value engineering sometimes gets confused with cost-cutting but there’s an important distinction to be made: value engineering can only take place at the beginning of the project whereas cost-cutting is something that takes place at the end. The efficiencies that we’re talking about are decided in the early stages of the design process, not when construction is underway and we’re looking to downgrade materials, etc.
Photo credit – Juraj Mikurcik
Design from the inside out
A driving philosophy on this project was to design from the inside out, with windows being sized sensibly and picking out views.
Therefore nobody would be standing on the outside placing the windows where they would look good. The composition was something that emerged from the design process.
However, Stuart had initially stated that he didn’t want asymmetrical windows.
One of the few specifications I had was that the house should look good from the outside. And part of that for me was that it did not have asymmetrical windows. So I’ve really fallen in love with what I initially thought was rather an unexciting box.
Photo credit – Graeme Deas and Stuart Hedley
Keeping the shape of the house simple will make it cheaper to build
You may hear the term ‘form factor’ mentioned a lot. This refers to how much surface area is losing heat (external surface area) relative to the useful floor area.
So reducing this ratio as much as possible and keeping things simple will make construction easier and it will cost less.
A form factor below 3 is starting to get good.
We go into this in more depth in a podcast with Alan Budden on how simple design decisions can impact on energy performance.
Photo credit – Graeme Deas and Stuart Hedley
Photo credit – Graeme Deas and Stuart Hedley
Simpler windows perform better and are cheaper
Windows without extra frame and mullions and transoms perform better, and because they are simpler they are also cheaper. Although it’s logical, sometimes it can be a hard sell. For example, Ben and his wife Kay completely disagreed over the windows during their self build. It was only after a lot of discussion that Kay agreed to have windows without mullions and transoms. Even today, while she likes the view from the inside looking out she is still not sure from the outside looking in!
Avoid the wall of glass
Avoiding excessive glazing and sizing windows well will be cheaper and help summer comfort.
There may also be opportunities within a house to have a fixed window. Obviously you want openable windows in every room for ventilation and safety but their may be awkward spots, like above the kitchen sink. A fixed unit here will be another cost saving.
A concrete slab can take on two functions
At Slate House there’s a concrete slab which provides structure but because it’s been polished on top it can serve as the finished floor surface.
Photo credit – Graeme Deas and Stuart Hedley
A tin roof is another cost effective solution
So long as it is detailed simply then a tin roof is durable and low cost.
This, along with many of the other value engineering examples we’ve included, have also been a part of Juraj Mikurcik’s self build project Old Holloway.
Find out more
Check out the Coaction website
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