Housing chiefs building with Porotherm

Some of the UK's most influential property professionals have been learning about the benefits of Porotherm, the precision clay block walling system from Wienerberger.

Mark Clare, group chief executive of Barratt Developments, tried his hand at laying the lightweight honeycombed blocks during a trial at the Porotherm training centre in Longbridge.

Mr Clare was invited to try out the system alongside Andy Peters, managing director of the Barratt Homes Mercia division, and a number of other directors, as part of a programme to introduce the product to potential customers in the construction industry and demonstrate its potential to dramatically reduce construction times.

Launched to the UK market in 2009, Porotherm has been popular throughout Europe for more than 30 years.

The system is proven to enable faster laying speeds of up to 10 to 15 m2 an hour per man after training - more than four times faster than the time taken to lay traditional masonry.

Phil Noble, construction systems director for Porotherm, said: "As one of the UK's leading housebuilders, Barratt Homes is a long standing and valued Wienerberger customer and we were delighted to welcome the team to our training centre.

We are always keen to showcase our products and, while Porotherm is already widely used across Europe, it is quite a technical solution and so it's best for customers to get hands on themselves to understand why it offers such a great alternative.

"We originally invited the Barratt Mercia team to Longbridge to see the system in action which went very well, so well in fact that we were only too pleased when the team requested a second visit for Mr Clare to come and try it out for himself".

Ideal for use as the internal leaf of a cavity wall, the Porotherm system offers construction times up to five times faster than traditional masonry laying.

Phil Noble added: "Our research has shown that it can cut the build of a three-bedroom home by up to 17 days per property.

This could revolutionise the time scales and associated costs for a volume housebuilder, without compromising on quality, in terms of finish, performance and sustainability".

Although tried and tested on the Continent, the virtually dry, thin joint solution is a relatively new concept in the UK.

In conjunction with system distributor EH Smith, Wienerberger has developed a short introductory course at Smith's Longbridge headquarters, to demonstrate the system and its benefits to current and prospective customers, from bricklayers and site managers to specifiers and developers.

Feedback from 'trainees' has been positive with many commenting on the additional health and safety benefits of the system, including easy handling of the lightweight blocks and a reduction in cuts and grazes due to the snag-free surface.

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