Wavensmere Homes - The Forge

Background

Wavensmere Homes are award-winning property developers that specialise in unique renovation projects and sites with history and character. The Forge is the developer’s latest completed project, located in the up-and-coming area of Digbeth, just a five-minute walk from Birmingham city centre. The scheme is constructed on the site of a disused factory and comprises of 142 one and two-bed apartments.

The Forge has been designed to be both aspirational and affordable, targeting first time buyers and investors looking for high quality city living. To ensure the properties appealed to a younger, professional demographic, it was important for Wavensmere Homes to get the look and feel of the apartments just right to deliver contemporary styling and a sense of space.

Keith Churcher, Senior Buyer for the company said: “Every detail of our apartments has been carefully considered to create a feeling of modern style and space – from the open plan layout of the kitchen and living area to clever little additions like handle-less kitchen door fronts and wall mounted sinks. When it came to the specification of the bathroom fixtures and fittings, we had a very definite idea of the finishing touches we needed to complete the look.”

The one-bed apartments at The Forge have a bathroom with bath and shower, whilst the two-bed apartments boast a full bathroom suite and a separate en-suite shower. All of the bathrooms in the development feature a contemporary style bathroom suite, full-height flat brick tiling with grey grout in bath and shower areas, and modern brassware provided by Bristan.

Keith continued: “The sanitaryware we chose for the Forge is square, so the brassware we specified needed to mirror those lines. Bristan introduced us to the Hourglass range of taps, and their chunky square feel was exactly what we had been looking for.”

The Hourglass range offers easy to use lever taps for a variety of applications – from bath to basin to cloakroom. Finished in a bright, luminance chrome, Hourglass taps’ square lines are softened with more feminine curves, making them ideal for both traditional and contemporary settings. The taps have a ceramic cartridge for durability and precise glide movement, and they come with a five-year guarantee for added peace of mind for the developer that the products they are installing are built to last.

Product Selection

“We wanted our brassware to make a statement”, adds Keith, “and when you see the Hourglass fitted on a sink or a bath, it really stands out. The Hourglass portfolio has a smaller tap for cloakrooms which is great for us because we can replicate the impact on smaller basins without it looking out of place. Plus, it gives consistency across the specification.”

Whilst the Hourglass has matching shower options, Keith and his team went with a Bristan Quadrato thermostatic bar shower to complete the spec for The Forge bathrooms and ensuites. The Quadrato shower offers a luxurious showering experience with both a large, overhead shower rose and diverter handset. Its angular design perfectly suits any contemporary bathroom design and is also a good style match for the Hourglass taps.

One of the big selling points for the Quadrato shower on large developments is the ease of installation and maintenance. The bar shower is supplied with the Wallmount 12 fixing kit, perfect for new developments where you may want to connect a water supply at first fix and install the shower at second fix. By using this approach developers and their installers effectively limit any interference with tiling or sealing work that happens after first fix, and reduce the risk of damage to the shower unit.

Easy to Install

The Quadrato also features front-of-wall isolation valves for quick and easy access for repairs and maintenance, as well future replacement.

But it’s not just great quality products which are easy to install and maintain which appeal to Wavensmere Homes when choosing its suppliers.

“We want to fit brands which people know and love, like Bristan, which have a great reputation for quality. Bristan is a name people trust and when our investors and buyers see it in our properties, they have confidence that we are building top quality properties and that we understand the importance of getting the details right”, said Keith. “We also try to specify British, homegrown products and manufacturers where we can.”

Having started on site in Autumn 2018, the first phase of The Forge scheme completed in July 2020. The whole project is due to be complete by February 2021.

Keith summarised: “Our years of experience in the industry tell us that kitchens and bathrooms are what sell a property, so it’s worth taking the time to get the specification of these key spaces absolutely right.

Peace of Mind

“We are really pleased with the products supplied by Bristan and also the excellent service it was all backed up with. We were working on site all through lockdown, and Bristan managed the supply chain for us and made sure the product supplies were there for our contractors when they needed them. This helped us keep on schedule, even in the most challenging of times.”

Warren Aikens, Area Specification Manager for Bristan said: “We worked closely with Wavensmere Homes to ensure we had the right specification to meet their very defined ideas on functionality and aesthetics for The Forge. The finished apartments have a real wow factor which will no doubt ensure the units are snapped up by buyers very quickly.

“The element of this project that we are most proud of though, is how we were able to deliver the stock required for the build under very difficult circumstances. It really illustrates why developers work in partnership with us and how we go above and beyond as a supplier – even in a global pandemic – to keep our clients’ property projects on track.”

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