A TEESSIDE firm is pioneering a new house-building technique using energy-efficient polystyrene instead of bricks-and-mortar.

Billingham firm W A Browne fixes polystyrene panels on to pre-fabricated steel frame sections in its factory, and these are assembled on site.

The technique is known as the external insulation and finishing system (EIFS), and has excellent properties of insulation and durability.

There are no seams in the exterior panels to allow heat to escape, or cold draughts to get in, and there are conventional internal walls. The polystyrene panels can be coloured, and made to resemble stone, brick or stucco. Decorative architectural features are also easy to manufacture.

W A Browne is using the sytem exclusively under licence in the UK. It is the first British firm to offer a full construction and installation service. Set up in 1979, the company now employs 250 and has its own computer-aided design facility.

Bellway Homes commissioned it to build a Georgian-style home at its executive Wynyard Woods development, near Sedgefield.

All the home's services are carried within its internal steel framework. This saves ten sq m of space - enough to create an extra family room.

There are also traditionally-built homes on the Wynyard site, but there is great interest in the £350,000 polystyrene house.

Bill Browne, managing director of WA Browne, said: "The commission for this house has attracted much interest, but it is not an untried technique. I built my own house the same way eight years ago, and have been monitoring its energy efficiency ever since. Only when I felt confident that it was completely successful, did I decide to promote this method.

"Naturally, the company is delighted that one of the country's top builders has commissioned a property using this system."

He said the system was used extensively in Europe and North America. It was developed in post-war Germany, when there was a shortage of traditional building materials, and the method spread to other countries in the Sixties, but was little-known in the UK.

Mr Browne said it allowed great flexibility. Panels could be fixed together to create a variety of house shapes. The polystyrene could be used for decorative features, such as cornices, columns, arches and keystones, at a fraction of the traditional cost.

Cladding design and manufacture takes about ten weeks; on-site erection can be completed in five days.

If the system was widely adopted, with standardised components, it is estimated that the cost of EIFS homes would fall considerably . The lightweight steel frame reduces the need for deep and expensive foundations