London & South East

Manson House Care Home

Manson House Care Home- Bury St Edmonds, Suffolk

Manson House in Bury St Edmonds, Suffolk is being redeveloped and refurbished to create a newly improved and extended care home.

The £4.1 million phased project involves the demolition of two buildings, the construction of 14 new flats and a new bedroom wing linked to the main house to provide additional residential care facilities and increased accommodation.

Work on site started in April 2012 and is due for completion in January 2014. The main contractor is Kier Living of Whitham, Essex and the architect is HPN Ltd ofNewmarket,Suffolk.

John Barton, Director at HPN Ltd said:

“On the site at the outset of the project was a residential care home and a number of stand-alone buildings which had been developed in a random fashion over a long period of time. Whilst the buildings were not in a bad condition, the positioning of them on the site did not maximise the use of the space and the site was not being used to its full potential. On completion of the project, there will be 23 flats and a larger, more efficient care home.

“Within the development there will be two new blocks of flats, one of six units and one of eight. The block of six flats will be three storeys in height and the block of eight will be two storeys. All of the flats are one-bedroom units with a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and living area.

A new bedroom wing will also be constructed comprising 12 en suite bedrooms together with a link over an existing single storey wing. This will be linked with the existing main house.

All of the new buildings will be of masonry construction with tiled roofs, pre-cast concrete slab floors and trussed rafter roofs.

John said:

“There have been a number of issues for the construction teams to work around, the main issue was that the main care home building had to remain in use and occupied by the residents.

“The work is being undertaken on a phased basis to allow for minimal disruption. The first phase comprises the construction of six new flats, the refurbishment of the top floor of the residential care home and the installation of a new main kitchen and kitchen staff room.

Manson House Care Home- Bury St Edmonds, Suffolk

“Whilst the scope of construction is relatively of a standard build, the main house itself is a Grade II* listed building, consequently a lot of discussions took place at a very early stage of the project with the Local Authorities conservation officer and planning officer. In addition English Heritage was also consulted and all of their advice and comments were incorporated into the scheme before we submitted the planning application. Whilst these consultations took a lot of time it was worth it as the application once submitted went through the planning process remarkably easily.”

Once works started on site, archaeological investigations had to be undertaken on the area of the new build works and the discoveries made has delayed the works slightly. Further archaeological investigations will also be required on a future phase when two further buildings are demolished.

John said:

“All parties involved in the project; the client, ourselves and the contractor are all firmly committed to the project and its ultimate success.

“This is an important project to us and is probably our largest project currently. It is great to be involved with the client, The Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institute and Kier Living the contractor.”

WM Co Ltd

WM Co Ltd are a brickwork contractors with 12 years experience as a company. Based inChelmsford, they offer specialist packages including; labour, plant, materials and also provide for the more traditional ‘labour only’ contractor requests.

The company has worked with RG Carter, Geoffrey Osborne and Ashe Construction and works largely within the commercial sector on projects such as schools, hospitals, care homes and social housing.

Danny Williams from WM Co Ltd said:

“On Manson House we achieved the brickwork contract from Kier Construction. We have worked on a number of care homes and social housing contracts before so it was a good project for us .

“Our core company strength is in providing a well co-ordinated and project managed brickwork package from tender stage through to contract completion.

“We continue our drive for complete client satisfaction through effective, practical solutions. We are confident of being able to guarantee full commitment throughout specialist’s masonry contracts regardless of size or market sector.”

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