AN age old problem in the house-building industry has been cracked for the first time – here on the South Bank.

Humberston-based John Collis Group has trialled a revolutionary product that bonds staircases to walls in new builds, preventing cracking where the two materials join.

It has been brought to market by West Yorkshire-based TrimFlex, a company that identified the area's construction firm as a perfect partner for the test, after contacting Cleethorpes staircase manufacturer Traditional Joiners and Carpenters.

Now a recently occupied new-build semi on Benjamin's Walk, a 21-plot development on the boundary of the resort with Humberston is home to the prototype.

Managing director of TrimFlex, Keith Rigby, a time-served joiner with more than 38 years' experience in the house-building industry, said: "This is the first house in the world with this system, it has never been done anywhere else.

"We first made contact back in November when building seemed to have stopped everywhere. John was one of the few builders still building. We took the product to him and he listened to us, and here we are now. It is good clean well-run building site – just the sort of place where we want to be testing it."

Two closely fitting plastic channels, the lower one fixed to the staircase, the upper channel fixed to the plasterboard, slide within each other – allowing vertical movement of up to 20mm.

It is this flexibility that is the key to the product's innovative approach, solving the problem simply and unobtrusively.

A decorative touch also includes a detachable front section that is shortly to be available in a range of finishes, including light and dark hardwood effects, metallic chrome and brass looks.

A further planned development of the detachable fascia is a fire exit aid – a system of illuminating the exit route.

Although the major building guarantee organisation, the NHBC, actually allow a 4mm gap in current house-finishing standards, the team believe this is because no product has solved the dilemma as yet, and will be lobbying the NHBC to firm up regulations.

Mr Rigby said: "If you bought a car for a tenth of the price of a new house, and a 4mm crack opened up from front to back, you wouldn't expect the dealer to say it was normal – that you should fill it up yourself – would you? We've shown that for the sake of £20 or so – it simply doesn't have to happen in the first place."

It has environmental credentials too. A 4mm crack, over the length of the staircase, creates potential for heat loss.

Currently manufactured in the West Midlands, the Huddersfield-based company is keen to keep it so, and is fighting cost pressures to move it out of the country. And an important name in the building guarantee field – Zurich – soon recognised the merits of the system.

Paul Rigby, sales director, said: "We contacted them, sent them a sample and received an encouraging response almost immediately."

TrimFlex is now working closely with Green Britain – whose core business is energy saving lighting systems – and Vents UK Ltd., producers of energy efficient ventilation systems for the domestic, commercial and industrial markets.

Steve Dixon, proprietor of Traditional Joiners and Carpenters, based at the Poplar Road Business Units, added: TrimFlex came to me to ask my opinion, and I said that it looked like a good idea, but that it really has to be seen to be done. I put them on to John Collis and he very kindly agreed to do it."

Andy Silvester is project manager for John Collis Group at the Benjamin's Walk site. Of the finished staircase complete with Trimflex mechanism, he said: "It looks a lot better than what you would be left with before, it used to be a right problem with cracking. It is a very neat job and is easy to install. I think we will look at this idea on every home."