Canaston Place Shortlisted At The Inca Awards 2026

Canaston Place has been named a finalist in the Low Rise Residential (Render) category at the INCA Awards 2026, following an entry submitted by Director Charlie Sherlock.

The awards are run by the Insulated Render and Cladding Association, the recognised trade association for the external wall insulation industry in the UK. Entries are scored by an independent panel of industry judges, and the category recognises residential projects below 11 metres where the quality of the render finish is central to the result.

Canaston Place is a completed whole house retrofit programme delivered for Cardiff Council across an occupied block of eight flats, forming part of the council’s wider energy efficiency and decarbonisation work. The scheme brought together improvements to building fabric, renewable energy, structural remediation and indoor air quality, with residents remaining in their homes from start to finish.

Works included external wall insulation, inset solar PV with a full re-roof, a purpose built solar inverter and battery shed, cavity wall extraction and reinstatement, prefabricated metal balcony replacements, mechanical ventilation and air quality sensors, new windows and doors to all flats, flat roof insulation, gas meter box reintegration and extensive groundworks.

The project began with a defined specification but changed considerably as intrusive surveys and open up works revealed the true condition of the building. Exposure of the rear balconies found severe concrete decay, leaving them hollow in places and structurally unsafe. The originally specified insulating detail was unworkable, so the team redesigned the approach on site, cutting out the failed balconies and installing prefabricated metal replacements. The scaffold was reconfigured to maintain a compliant fire egress route for every resident throughout, with one way push handle exits, emergency lighting and daily barrier management.

When the roof was stripped in preparation for the inset solar panels, the existing bitumen felt was found to be porous and partly decayed. A full re-roof followed, with new felt, batten and counter batten installed to correct decades of deflection. Fire stopping was fitted at all party wall junctions and within conjoined chimney stacks and signed off by the fire engineer, with cavity socks installed to prevent fire spread into the cavity and roof void.

A mid-programme client request to relocate the inverter and battery unit triggered a cable specification upgrade to prevent voltage drop over the longer run. The new route passed through an existing chimney stack containing asbestos, requiring specialist management, and the cable was ultimately trenched out into the garden to reach the new solar shed. Each change was resolved safely and without moving a single resident out of their home.

The finish that the judges will assess is the visible part of a much larger piece of work. Behind it sits a block that is warmer, cheaper to run and better protected against fire, delivered around the daily lives of the people living in it.

Winners will be announced at the 45th INCA Awards on Thursday 12 November 2026 at The Midland Hotel in Manchester.

To find out more about our retrofit and decarbonisation work, visit rmwgroup.co.uk