Cumbrian homeowners are already reaping the real-life benefits of the partnership approach British Gypsum is taking with a number of regional property developers throughout the UK, in a bid to raise the quality standards of new build homes.
Sarah White, Residential Sector Manager at British Gypsum, explains: “We have been working closely with a number of housebuilders, helping them to improve the build quality of walls and floors by providing them with solutions that raise the standard of the products specified and the homes built - with extremely positive results.”
Now complete, one such example is the Cumbrian Homes development at Carleton Manor Park, Penrith. The company introduced a range of innovative solutions from British Gypsum into its offer to enhance the customer experience and improve the build quality of walls and floors, in line with its belief that a developer’s role is to bring the latest products and technologies to home buyers.
New Carleton Manor Park homeowners Mr & Mrs King moved down to the development after six years in Scotland. Previously, having lived in nine new build properties across the UK, the couple knew exactly what a “great” home looked like but also knew some of the drawbacks of buying a new build.
However, having moved into their new four bedroom detached home, which contains a range of innovative materials from British Gypsum including Gyproc Habito plasterboard, Thistle Magnetic Plaster and Silent Floor, the couple are delighted by the superior feel of their home.
Mrs King said: “When we initially considered a Cumbrian Home we knew it would be high quality, but we couldn’t really imagine how the materials from British Gypsum would improve how we live in our home - but they really have, it’s quite tremendous.”
In 2016 British Gypsum commissioned independent research amongst new build homeowners to identify some of the highlights, and pitfalls, of owning a new build home. 26% of the respondents cited “flimsy walls” as an issue associated with new build home ownership and a further 32% complained about noise travelling between rooms as being an issue. Mrs King’s experience of their new home is in complete contrast to these findings, partly to do with the product innovations incorporated.
Bill said: “In previous homes I’ve really had to be mindful of the volume of the TV so I didn’t disturb Elizabeth in another room. In our home today, I can comfortably watch TV in one room while Elizabeth watches another TV in a separate room, neither of us have to compromise. When we talked to Cumbrian Homes about Silent Floor, we knew it was an appealing innovation, but we didn’t know how it would translate to our lives - well it certainly has in many positive ways.”
British Gypsum’s research also highlighted that 15% of new build homeowners are put off DIY tasks because of flimsy walls. By contrast Mr King was delighted to learn that their Cumbrian Home features Gyproc Habito plasterboard throughout the property, completely eliminating any tricky DIY jobs, allowing TVs, heavy pictures and mirrors to be hung simply using a screwdriver and a screw.
Mr King explains: “We chose our curtains and blinds and booked a date for the company to come and hang them - they anticipated it would take several hours. The chap turned up and getting his power tools out to start the job we told him that all he needed was a simple screwdriver. He looked at us very sceptically. In less than two hours he’d hung all the curtains and blinds. He was very impressed and for us, the clean up took just a matter of minutes. There was virtually no mess - nothing like what you’d get if you were using a drill and wall plugs.”