PIPES, VALVES & FITTINGS
How confidence in MMC is redefining the future of construction
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As the industry sets out to tackle the challenges of net zero, the Building Safety Act and a shrinking workforce, it must also address a 40-year low in the supply of new housing following the UK Government pledge to build 1.5 million homes over the next five years. Here, Gavin Robinson, Polypipe Building Services’ national business development manager - added value solutions, discusses how rising confidence in modular construction is redefining how manufacturers operate – and helping the industry meet these challenges
he industry is changing – a cursory scan of construction newsfeeds or a quick chat onsite makes this clear. And though Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) have been slower to take hold
in the UK than in Germany and Japan, projects such as the tallest modular building in the world, completed in October 2022 (a 44-storey steel frame tower in Croydon), indicate that new ways of building are being embraced. This newfound confidence is also well timed. According to a 2023 report by Make UK Modular, the Government’s housebuilding targets cannot be met with the current labour force available, not without radically changing how we build our homes. Add in pressures to improve sustainability, both in terms of construction methods as well as the buildings themselves, and we are now seeing the significant changes being made by architects and designers being passed onto subcontractors. As a result, at Polypipe Building Services, we have seen a doubling in demand since 2020 for our Advantage Service, which supplies bespoke solutions, prefabricated off- site, for a wide range of commercial projects, including apartments and mixed-use buildings. We’re also seeing that many of the companies landing some of the biggest contracts are those specialising in modern construction techniques – such as bathroom pods and steel framing. Increasingly, homes are being built by modular manufacturers, something which would have been unimaginable less than a decade ago. These sorts of developments are why we at Polypipe now have a strong focus on providing drainage and supply systems which support modular projects.
Having made a significant investment in our manufacturing facility in Aylesford, Kent, we now have the technical capabilities needed to fully prefabricate our Terrain drainage stacks, which are manufactured from high-density polyethylene (HDPE) to individual project specifications. HDPE is ideal for this purpose because it offers greater design flexibility than traditional materials and can address the specific challenges of modern construction projects. All our Terrain products are also 100% recyclable, which means at the end of a building’s life, the drainage system can be recovered, recycled, reprocessed and reused to manufacture further products. Our Advantage Service also designs and
prefabricates fully customised water supply systems, using components and pipework from our MecFlow Supply Systems range. MecFlow products use state-of-the-art composite materials and advanced jointing techniques that remove the need for hot works – saving time while delivering reliable joints with minimal waste. Today, specifiers are looking to design engineers and fabricators to create systems that meet exact project specifications while ideally making installation more efficient and cost-effective. These sorts of systems remove the need for specialist on-site installation teams and can be fully tested before being delivered to site. Building in this way also leaves a smaller carbon footprint as tailor-made prefabricated systems reduce the amount of waste generated on-site, and scheduled deliveries minimise transport emissions through fewer lorry deliveries, thereby benefitting those living nearby in terms of reduced noise, pollution, and disruption. An analysis conducted by our Advantage team revealed that many large-scale drainage projects involve repeating similar configurations across floors, with large amounts of time spent on repetitive sizing, cutting and welding jobs. We therefore developed our Terrain FUZE Stax series, a range of stacks prefabricated in the most common configurations, that are 65%
24 BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER JANUARY 2026 Read the latest at:
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faster to install than loose components and significantly reduce on-site waste. The benefits of moving towards off-site and modular construction in terms of efficiency, quality assurance, health, safety and our environment mean the advantages of MMC will have a significant impact on the industry. Shifting to a controlled factory-based manufacturing process also drives continuous improvement, as manufacturers can identify and eliminate suboptimal aspects of production while generating efficiencies. This approach can also provide secure, stable jobs for workers who might otherwise be unable to enter skilled sectors, while increasing the number of design and engineering roles. This is why at Polypipe we’re recruiting more engineers and extending our fabrication facilities so we can expand within this sector.
Creating a modular construction industry capable of overcoming the challenges of a labour shortage will be no small feat. We need to build a modular supply chain based on innovative products and processes, which can generate the capacity to build the homes the UK needs. Modular manufacturers are learning fast from other established production sectors, including aerospace, on how to become more efficient, effective and scale up to support the change. Manufacturers like Polypipe will play a pivotal role in providing effective solutions to current challenges and helping to shape an industry that’s ready for the future.
For more information about the Polypipe Advantage Off-site Prefabrication Service, go to
www.polypipe.com/advantage
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