Based in the countryside in Hertfordshire, our customers thought about their furry, flying neighbours when they decided to design and build a new home.
What is a bat box?
Bat boxes are artificial roosts designed to encourage bats into areas where there are few roosting sites. There are various designs of bat boxes, from wooden ones that you can make yourself to external ready-assembled boxes that can be mounted on trees and buildings, or integrated boxes that can be built into external walls.
In our project in Hertfordshire, we have integrated bat boxes on the south west facing gable end wall so that the building can be a home for more than one family.
The bat boxes we used are from Habibat and create an appropriate environment for bats to roost during the day.
Installed after the Facit Chassis™ is built but before the external timber cladding is put in place, these bat boxes are barely noticeable once the home is completed.
Integrated into the structure, they appear as small rectangular gaps in the cladding and help with the conservation of a native species, contributing to a healthy biodiversity in the environment.
The bat survey carried out in April 2017 states that, "Any measures to enhance the roosting opportunities within the development, such as the provision of incorporated bat boxes or external bat boxes, would be of biodiversity benefit and potentially could result in positive ecological benefit in the long term."