Our key suppliers
Every home we build starts long before the panels leave our workshop. It starts with the relationships we have built, many of which go back 20 years, with our strong supply chain from those who mill our timber, make our natural insulation, supply our fixings, and work with us to prove what is possible, delivering beautiful, healthy, highly efficient and low carbon homes.
We source locally wherever possible. Our home grown timber is milled just 30 miles from our workshop, with the larch cladding for our prototype was grown a stones throw away. This is a deliberate choice to lower the carbon miles of our homes, to ensure high quality products from trusted partners, and because we believe the UK’s construction industry can effectively utilise local resources.
Below are some of the key companies that make a MAKAR home possible.
“It is a huge opportunity. I’ve seen inside the workshop and the feedback from people living in these homes. It’s incredible.
If we are going to solve the housing crisis, we are going to need local solutions. When you think about how often houses are built with materials that have come from so far and cost so much in carbon, and here we are with a building that stores carbon and hasn’t needed much transport to get the timber here at all. That is just amazing.
I can tell the companies involved are so excited to be a part of this. It’s great to see so many local businesses grabbing that opportunity.”
Emma Roddick MSP
Pre-Production
hsbcad
MAKAR is a design-led, closed-panel manufacturer. When we went looking for software that could handle our n-SIP system, most products fell short. hsbcad was different. Their offsite construction platform hsbView met our requirements from the start and, critically, they were prepared to develop it further with us.
Moving from 2D drawings to full 3D models changed how every part of our company works. Design, workshop, assembly, and costing all run from the same live information. A full week of drawing production time per project has been cut. Errors that used to reach the workshop floor are caught before anything is built. Each designer can now take on three additional projects a year.
We push its limits alongside them. Our closed-panel system has driven development of the platform in ways that benefit other offsite manufacturers too.
“It’s almost night and day — the difference between working from 2D drawings and creating comprehensive 3D models that serve multiple purposes.”
Thomas Wooley, Architectural Technician, MAKAR
Off-site Construction
Logie Timber
Logie Timber mills and supplies the timber for MAKAR homes, and are just 30 miles from our workshop. A longstanding partner-supplier, MAKAR were one of Logie’s very first customers, and we are delighted with their expertise in crafting premium Scottish timber with care, precision, and a deep commitment to sustainability.
“[MAKAR’s] process has been refined and perfected over many years, resulting in a truly exceptional product, and we at Logie Timber are proud to have played a small part in their ongoing success story.”
Logie Timber
West Fraser
West Fraser manufactures the Oriented Strand Board used in MAKAR’s closed panels at a site 13 miles from our workshop. That proximity cuts transport carbon and gives us direct access to a product we know.
Most housebuilders never measure the airtightness performance of their OSB. We do. Our testing shows that West Fraser’s product significantly outperforms many alternatives — less air passes through the panel, less heat escapes the home. In a typical UK house, air leakage accounts for 15–30% of heat loss. Better-performing OSB, built into our closed panels, means MAKAR homes hold on to that heat without additional intervention.
Read more about the blind testing that demonstrated lower air leakage performance with West Fraser’s SterlingOSB Zero.
Ecological Building Systems - Gutex
Ecological Building Systems supplies Gutex wood fibre insulation, which forms the outer wrap of our n-SIP panels. Gutex is made from natural wood fibre and allows moisture vapour to pass out through the wall rather than accumulating inside it. Their Gutex multi-therm mitigates thermal bridging and prevents summer overheating through its low thermal diffusivity, slowing the rate of thermal transfer.
Using natural fibre insulation has many benefits, including lower embodied carbon, better moisture regulating performance and improving indoor air quality by reducing the amount of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) that are in our buildings.
“On this particular type of modern method of construction, wood fibre is used as a sort of external tea cosy or sheathing. It reduces thermal bridging and improves the U value significantly. So, where you've got a timber stud coming through a structure, having insulation wrapped around that will improve the thermal performance a great deal when you have such a large amount of insulation—here the timber frame is 220 millimetres deep and fully filled with natural fibre insulation, with the wood fiber sheathing right across the walls and roof—the U values are extremely low, leading to low heat loss and improved U values.”
Andy Cook, Ecological Building Systems
PYC Group - Warmcel
PYC Group supplies Warmcel, the natural cellulose insulation blown into the core of MAKAR n-SIP panels. Made from recycled materials, it fills each panel, ensuring there are no gaps or cold spots.
Its thermal performance is a vital contributor to the thermal efficiency and low running costs of our homes, as it forms part of a breathing wall system that manages moisture vapour without trapping it.
We have worked with PYC for many years, developing a supply chain relationship of consistent quality product, responsive service, and no fuss.
Rothoblass
Rothoblaas supplies the screws, airtightness membranes, and tapes that hold our closed panels together and seal our building envelope. Every product is specified on technical performance, and delivery is fast.
BeA
BeA supplies the nails and fastening systems used throughout our workshop production. When it comes to nails for cladding, those nails have got to be stainless steel, to ensure that as our homes are exposed to the Scottish elements those nails don’t rust and create a really ugly black streak down the panels. These nails have domed heads which, once they fix the cladding in place, give the panels a really aesthetically pleasing look.
“We are pleased to help MAKAR with their lean manufacturing system, delivering from our UK warehouse in 2 working days.
The other thing we also provide to all our customers in Scotland is access to their own mobile engineer. That is really important for MAKAR as their nail guns and staple guns are essential to producing their products. So ensuring that those products are well serviced and maintained really helps MAKAR and helps them with their health and safety as well.”
Neil Hoskins, BeA
Assembly
Ethos Safety
Manufacturing in a controlled workshop environment removes most of the risk factors that make traditional building sites dangerous: Fewer people, known conditions, and predictable workflows. Ethos Safety has helped MAKAR build the systems, checklists, and training to demonstrate and maintain that advantage rigorously.
Every panel that leaves our workshop carries full traceability documentation. Graeme Clark of Ethos Safety has helped us develop that culture over the years, and notes that MAKAR’s speed in responding to assessment findings is unusual in the industry.
“The assembly phase for off-site constructed homes like MAKAR's prototype is far simpler and quicker, with very predictable workflows, meaning far less time, complexity and risk on site. A lot of the traditional risk elements we look out for are de-risked, like large amounts of working at height, manual handling and injuries through slips, trips and falls. For the guys on site this means it is inherently safer than traditional construction.”
Graeme Clark, Owner, Ethos Safety
“When we are normally doing a house, the crane is on site for up to 5 days. But with this prototype the crane will be on site for less than 2 days.They are typically on site for one or two days.”
Steve Stoddart, Stoddart Crane Hire
O’Hare Groundworks
O’Hare Groundworks are a longstanding partner of MAKAR, as a small experienced Groundworks and buildings contractor covering the Ross-shire, Inverness, Moray and Highland area. They cover all aspects of groundwork jobs, including underbuildings for new builds and extensions, all drainage works for sewer and surface water, treatment plants, septic tanks, landscaping and driveways. They take huge pride in what they do, delivering a high-quality level of workmanship.
A9 Access
A9 Access provides reliable, safe and cost-effective scaffolding solutions for MAKAR homes assembly phase.
Stoddart Crane Hire
Stoddart Crane Hire is a family run business that manages our panel lifts during our rapid assembly phase.
For each panel, from lifting it to putting it into position using the crane, it takes about 20-25 minutes, enabling the rapid assembly of our homes in a matter of days.
Nordan
Nordan has supplied MAKAR with high quality windows and doors for over 20 years. Their products are specified for thermal performance, longevity, and material quality, meeting the exacting standards our Passivhaus-aligned approach requires.
Nordan deliver reliably to the Highlands and Islands, with a local representative who deals with issues quickly. For our prototype affordable home, Nordan donated all the windows.
Nethy Steel
Nethy Steel are a Highlands company that provide roof coverings for MAKAR home, using tried and tested materials in Scotland. Worked with MAKAR for a number of years now, because their quality of work is very very high. Due to the metal cladding having zero tolerance, it is quite important that the joiners do their job to the best of their ability.
Metal roofing is really quick to lay, much quicker than common slate or tile products, and with highly skilled joiners, the roofs continue to look good for their whole lifespans, in excess of 20 to 50 years.
“What MAKAR are trying to do here in terms of changing and improving the housing crisis in the Highlands a super exciting project. It is a great collaboration for Nethy Steel to be involved in. To create something that will change the future of housing in the Highlands is really amazing.”
Nethy Steel
Lindab
Lindab supplies our guttering and rainwater goods across MAKAR homes. They offer high quality drainage systems combining durability, flexibility and ease of installation.
Rainline’s hard wearing properties ensure decades of performance without rusting or leaking.
Completion
Airchange
Airchange tests every MAKAR home with a blower door: a powerful fan fitted to the front door that measures exactly how much air escapes through the building envelope. We target 0.5 air changes per hour (ACH).
Most volume housebuilders accept 3–5 ACH. The gap between 0.5 and 3 ACH is equivalent to leaving the front door open by 50mm, permanently. Over a year, that is an enormous amount of heat—and money—lost.
Airchange also installs our MVHR systems, which recover heat from extracted air and supply fresh, filtered, pre-warmed air back into the home continuously. They are a consistent driver of improvement in our homes’ airtightness.
“We specialise in airtightness and ventilation, which means comfort, health, durability and efficiency. Much modern construction still treats energy efficiency, airtightness and ventilation as additions rather than fundamentals. That approach came from post-war building practices that prioritised speed and volume over long-term performance.
Airchange approaches buildings differently. We start from first principles - understanding how air, heat and structure interact - and design from there. ”
Jamie Reid, Airchange
Nilan
Our prototype affordable home is fitted with a Nilan unit: a single box, roughly the size of a large fridge, that provides mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, space heating, cooling, and domestic hot water. Everything a home needs to stay warm, stay fresh, and have hot water — in one product.
AES Solar
AES Solar has installed photovoltaic systems on MAKAR projects for many years. Our homes benefit from current best practice and the impact on running costs is significant.
