Archive for category: Building News

ALTRO ADDS COLOUR TO REJUVENATED WAITING AREA AT SHEFFIELD CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL

A chance hospital visit resulted in a refurbishment of the Emergency Department waiting area at Sheffield Children’s Hospital, using Altro floors and walls and delivered at no cost to the hospital.

Over the last two years the NHS has faced unprecedented challenges that have made the British public more appreciative than ever of our health services, with more and more people wanting to give something back. When Ryan Spencer took his son to A&E for treatment, it set off a series of actions resulting in a rejuvenated waiting area that has made a huge difference to families and staff alike.

Ryan Spencer runs RLX Construction, but in 2020 he worked for Henry Boot Construction, a Sheffield-based company with a background in healthcare projects. Ryan explains how the project at Sheffield Children’s Hospital came about: “I took my son to A&E and as we waited, I though this is a great facility that has served so many children, but it was really looking a little tired, and a little outdated.

“So, I approached my employer with the idea of giving something back – using our contacts and experience, asking our subcontractors to work with us at a reduced price for this project, and asking our manufacturers to donate products. I got really good buy-in, and we were able to deliver a fresh, bright and colourful waiting area at no cost to the hospital.”

The Altro Whiterock walls were installed by Richardson Claddings. Fresco Flooring installed the Altro floors.

Jamie Douglas, Senior Capital Projects Manager at Sheffield Children’s Hospital, was delighted with the project, especially as it used products from tried and trusted manufacturer Altro. “We use Altro products across the hospital,” Jamie explains. “This project used Altro Fortis Titanium wall protection, and Altro Whiterock Chameleon and Altro Whiterock Satins – we know these well and use them a lot.

“For flooring, we tried something new – Altro Cantata adhesive-free floors. This was recommended to us because it is so quick to install, with little disruption. This is essential in busy areas such as these where we cannot afford downtime. We had not used adhesive-free flooring before but it is very impressive and we will certainly look to use Altro Cantata in other projects in the future.”

Ryan Spencer worked with Altro to put forward suitable products to the hospital’s art team who viewed swatches and colour palettes to make the final selections. The results are making a big difference to staff and to the families using the services, as Dr Cath Rimmer, Paediatric Emergency Medicine Consultant and ED Team Lead, explains: “The whole place looks so much better. It’s clean, fresh, and bright. It’s a far more pleasant environment to wait in for children and families attending the emergency department.”

Ryan Spencer was also delighted with the results. “It was not just about looks; this project had to deliver performance too. We opted for Altro Cantata because it could be laid over the existing flooring in this area that is in use 24/7, 365 days a year. The Altro wall products are fantastic because they bring colour and interest to the area with no compromise on hygiene and are so easy to clean.

“Our thanks to Altro for their help with this project. We use their products because they look great, they last a long time, but also because of the high quality customer service that backs that up.”

Altro Cantata™ is a tonal and modernist, adhesive-free floor that creates maximum impact with minimum downtime. It has been designed for hard-working public areas and is a durable 2.4mm floor. It gives you 14dB impact noise reduction, to quieten busy spaces, plus comfort under foot to help reduce fatigue. It is ideal for busy spaces where disruption needs to be minimal, is easy to clean and maintain and has no associated adhesive odours. At the end of its life can be removed easily, allowing it to be reused or recycled.

Altro Fortis Titanium™ offers durable protection for walls, doors and corners. Doors and plaster board walls can easily be damaged, be it scrapes and knocks as people pass, or more serious dents and holes caused by wheeled traffic. Altro Fortis Titanium has been specifically designed to protect these surfaces and is dense, impervious and resistant to bumps. It features a lightly textured surface, which camouflages scuffs, keeping the wall area looking better for longer.

Suitable for busy public areas that are subject to high levels of traffic such as in education and healthcare, Altro Fortis Titanium is impervious and easy-to-maintain and co-ordinates with Altro Fortis corner protection.

Altro Whiterock Satins™ is a range of colourful, satin finish wall sheets with all the hygiene and durability of Altro Whiterock. Versatile and sophisticated, vary the mood to stimulate or soothe. Great in wet environments, wards and kitchens. Altro Whiterock Satins can be combined with Altro non-sparkle safety flooring to achieve the required Light Reflectance Value difference needed for the requirements of the Equality Act 2010.

Altro Whiterock Chameleon^TM is glossy, vibrant and vividly colourful hygienic wall cladding, available in 16 high impact, high-design shades to add a little bit of affordable luxury to a range of environments. Offering all the benefits of Altro Whiterock, Altro Whiterock Chameleon is very durable, with a smooth, watertight, wipe-clean surface.

www.altro.co.uk

Sloping ceilings at a Plymouth primary school feature Zentia products.

A new school for a new community in Plymouth has relied on ceiling solutions by leading UK manufacturer Zentia for delivering both form and function.

Some 1,200m² of Zentia’s Perla OP 0.95 Tegular 600mm x 600mm tiles, which were the first mineral tile in the world to win Cradle to Cradle status, feature in the classrooms, offices, stores and communal areas at state-of-the-art Morley Meadows primary school.

Part of Persimmon Homes’ Saltram Meadows development in Plymstock, the £5.8 million primary school also features Zentia’s 100% humidity resistant Hydroboard 600mm x 600mm tiles with Prelude 24 non-corrosive grid in the kitchen, showers, toilets and changing areas.

Designed by Stride Treglown architects, and delivered by main contractor Halsall Construction, the two-form entry school accommodates 420 pupils, with part of it able to be cordoned off so it can be used by other community groups out of hours.

Specialist sub-contractor Vizion Interiors had a team of up to 10 on site for eight months, installing a total of 1,650m² of the Zentia products on ceilings, that in the main part, unusually, sloped to degrees of 35® to mimic the sloping roof.

For form, the Perla OP 0.95 tile features a smooth, low-gloss monolithic visual with best-in-class fully painted edges for additional aesthetics as well as durability. The tile also features high light reflectance (up to 86%) to reduce reliance on artificial light and Class A acoustic performance to sound absorption 0.95αw.

For function, as well as its Cradle to Cradle certification, Perla OP 0.95 also provides optimum indoor air quality (due to ultra-low A+ VOC emissions) and is manufactured from up to 64% recycled content and fully recyclable.

Hydroboard also features Class A acoustic performance to sound absorption 0.95αw and light reflectance of 82%.

Vizion Interiors’ contracts manager Andy West said: “The Zentia products were already specified but we would have put them forward regardless because they are superior products which are more readily available, and we have a fantastic working relationship with the area sales manager.

“They had to perform both aesthetically and acoustically and we also promoted the Cradle to Cradle factor as well as the long-term potential recycling benefits. They look fantastic. The grid coped with the design magnificently and the client and local authority have all commented very positively.”

He added: “This project was challenging due to the design and numerous clashes on site with other trades. Setting out was laborious as all the classrooms had to follow the raking roof pitch but in the end it was effective.

Adam Church, director in charge at Persimmon Homes Cornwall, said: “Saltram Meadow is a major development which has already rejuvenated the area. As well as delivering much-needed homes, we are committed to providing the infrastructure essential for building a community for new residents and a key part of that is the school. The building offers an exceptional learning environment for the children living on the development.”

The distributor was SIG Plymouth.

CLICK HERE FOR THE ZENTIA WEBSITE

• open for emergencies 24/7,

• fully stocked, all models available

• ready to support any site,

• deliveries within 24 hours (T & Cs apply)

RINNAI – for LIMITLESS, UNINTERRUPTED FLOWS OF PRECISE TEMP CONTROLLED HOT WATER FOR ALL SITES, ALL HYGIENE REGIMES

Rinnai is maintaining its operational readiness over the Christmas and New Year period with emergency contacts and technical advice and support readily available for its continuous flow hot water heating units, featuring precision temperature control for thermal disinfection and safe use. Rinnai units can now deliver almost 1,000 litres per hour per unit.

The units can be installed – and working – in just hours. There have been multiple instances during the Christmas period where continuous flow units and systems have been able to provide uninterrupted flows of hot water to some sites which previously had stored systems that were regularly running out of supplies. Ease and speed of installation and precision temperature control, whatever the specific or unique requirements have proved critically important to several sites.

The Rinnai services during the holiday period are: –

•  
• Rinnai’s Runcorn UK HQ emergency weekend opening and sales support – open for any emergency / essential equipment provision of new units and for spares.
•  Weekend operational & technical support help line – simply call 01928 531870 and select sales and if the call is not answered immediately leave a voicemail and the company will respond within an hour.
•  Collection of new units/spares from Runcorn HQ for Saturday and Sunday. All will adopt ‘safe distancing’ in any contact for this or deliveries.
•  Emergency delivery on working days and weekends / out of hours – under “essential works” circumstances and, where possible, Rinnai will readily offer a delivery service to site.

 “Any site needing our products urgently can have instant access to them – we deliver direct to site for as long as it takes a courier to travel from our distribution centre to the chosen site. All orders are despatched within 24hours on a next-day service basis.” says Chris Goggin for Rinnai.

He adds, “Rinnai also offer a number of Essential Works services like a system health check should you require support on site, and we are also advocates of using digital camera technology to support on site issues.”

Backed with extensive warranties and fully qualified technical service and training Rinnai’s range also includes:

• Nexus electrolytic limescale inhibitor systems for lifetime efficiency and system protection.
• BMS controls and remote monitoring solutions for onsite and remote system monitoring.
• Flexible flue configurations including – Common header flues to streamline installation and multiple flueing systems.
• Valve packs and unvented systems to support secondary return systems for G3 compliance and ACOP L8 best practice.
• Multiple “in direct” storage vessels to support peak hour applications.
• Full application design service.
• Comprehensive training courses and CPDs.
• Energy and carbon footprint analysis of systems comparisons.

Rinnai is the world’s leading manufacturer of continuous flow hot water systems – it makes and sells two million units each year. The range of units can be manifolded to supply, limitless hot water to any site of any size. This means fast, efficient, temperature-controlled water on demand at the point of delivery – kitchens, showers, accommodation blocks, bathrooms, washrooms. It also means far less space spent on plant rooms and no or little maintenance as all units are proven to be robust with a long, long working life.

Installers and end-users can contact the company direct in gaining access to the supply of units –

Call   01928 531 870

or email sales@rinnaiuk.com –

or engineer@rinnaiuk.com

alternatively use the smart online contact points “Help Me Choose”

or “Ask Us a Question”, all held on the website homepage at www.rinnaiuk.com.

   For more information on the RINNAI product range visit

www.rinnaiuk.com

Mineral ceiling tiles by Zentia feature in a new extension to VELUX UK and Ireland’s HQ in Scotland.

Ceiling systems by leading UK manufacturer Zentia were specified for a new £7.7 million extension to the UK and Ireland headquarters of world-leading daylight solutions provider VELUX for a trio of reasons at least.

The project was the first time Zentia’s Ultima+ Finesse mineral tiles have been installed in Scotland where VELUX UK and Ireland’s headquarters have been located on a 1.6-hectare site in Glenrothes, Fife, for 35 years. Back then it had 50 employees there. Now it has 172. The Finesse tiles were complemented by Ultima+ OP Microlook tiles, also in 600mm x 600mm format.

They were selected by regular Zentia specifiers Sinclair Watt Architects as they met the Class 1, aesthetic, fire and acoustic performance required for the 37,673ft² two-storey building which features an engineered timber and steel structural frame.

Designed to complement the gently sloping site, the extension features full-height glazing and stone and timber cladding and showcases the latest VELUX technology. It joins the existing building via a new staff entrance, which features a green roof, aluminium guttering and timber rainscreen cladding.

Some 1,1,00m² of the Zentia Ultima+ OP Microlook tiles were used in the ground floor offices and storerooms, while 100m² of the Finesse tiles were used in the restaurant, kitchen and toilets. The Ultima+ range features class-leading light reflectance of 87% and Euroclass A2-s1, d0 fire classification, the OP Microlook variant with Class A sound absorption and Finesse a fully concealed, fully painted edge detail.

Sinclair Watt were provided with a detailed brief to provide accommodation for a new main entrance and reception area, product display hall, meeting room suite, additional office space and customer service telephone hall and ancillary accommodation. By necessity these were required to be large spaces to accommodate large numbers of employees and visitors.

The building had to achieve seven basic goals – to allow VELUX to be a good neighbour, to be simple and beautiful, to make arrival a good experience, to be a model of balanced daylight, natural ventilation, good indoor comfort and healthy materials, to apply a well-defined, high-quality structural concept, to obtain good sustainable standards with a minimum use of energy, to be visible and logical, and to create value and express the VELUX values.

Sinclair Watt met this by incorporating a regular and prominent engineered timber and steel structural frame that provided a design with a clear distinction between the supporting structure of the building and the facades and roof. This was both to create clarity and logic in the design and to make it possible to replace or update the not-so-permanent parts of the building. The roof form is curved to reduce the overall scale of the building.

The internal design incorporates a central street and atrium that acts as a meeting place as well as a general circulation area and allows the best use of natural sunlight and natural ventilation throughout the building. The building provides good indoor comfort and utilises healthy materials.

The three key areas – energy efficiency, healthy indoor environment and renewable energy – constitute the basis of the new building. A fabric-first approach for the building was adopted with high insulation levels and low air permeability rates to reduce overall heat loss from the building. This combined with a natural ventilation and daylighting strategy, and the use of LED lighting and air source heat pumps as the main heating source, resulted in a highly energy efficient and sustainable building.

Architect Iain Mitchell said: “We specified the Zentia systems as they have a good product range, good suspension systems, with good product information and good technical backup. They met all the aesthetic, fire and acoustic performances.

“Zentia shadow and transition trims were used so the Zentia ceilings tie in well with adjacent plasterboard walls and ceilings. The client is very happy with the ceiling installation and building as a whole.”

The ceiling installation was completed for main contractor ISG by specialist sub-contractor PFP who had a team of up to six operatives on site for seven months prior to the first Covid lockdown. It was the first time they had installed the Ultima+ Finesse tile from Zentia, who have evolved from Armstrong Ceiling Solutions.

Commercial director Colin Burns said: “We had some meetings with Zentia to talk through the detailing of the Finesse element and put it to the guys on site but apart from that, and some coordinating with services, it was very straightforward. It looks good as it always does and gives a nice bright finish. It was interesting to be the first installer of Finesse in Scotland.”

Scott Leeder, VELUX’s Market Director – Great Britain and Ireland, said: “The new building provides our existing employees with a much-improved working environment and accommodates any increase in headcount in the future.”

Councillor Altany Craik, convener of Fife Council’s economy, tourism and strategic planning committee, added: “This new building looks very impressive.”

CLICK HERE FOR THE ZENTIA WEBSITE

Premier Forest Products launches water repelling plywood

Premier Forest Products has launched a self-protecting structural plywood as part of its latest range of innovative new products, to save contractors time, money and effort.

Manufactured by leading European plywood manufacturer, Paged, DryGuard is made from thickply Polish Pine and its water repellent properties are ideal for use in roofs, floors, and walls

James Pickford, UK Purchasing Director, Premier Forest Group, said: “As a pine product, DryGuard is incredibly durable with superior mechanical qualities; it is easy to machine and fasten, and retains a high bending strength.

“DryGuard’s water-repelling treatment slows the absorption of water for up to 90 days, reducing drying time and delays with build.

“It can be fitted in any weather conditions, and because it offers protection from rain, it doesn’t get water damaged like standard plywood. This means DryGuard doesn’t need to be covered which avoids the need for false roofs, cutting down on labour and reducing material costs.”

DryGuard has been treated with an environmentally friendly, REACH compliant hydrophobic coating, to reduce rainwater absorption. However the material is permeable, still allowing the building to breathe to prevent damp and mould.

In addition, because DryGuard repels water, it retains its structural integrity and doesn’t warp, so the risk of remedial work is reduced, again saving contractors time, money and effort.

DryGuard has been rigorously tested by plywood specialists, Paged, and is compliant with the relevant EN standards, is REACH compliant, CE2+ certified and FSC® Certified.

Premier Forest Group is a vertically integrated timber operation engaged in the importation, sawmilling, processing, merchanting, and wholesale distribution of timber and timber products from its eight sites in the UK.

www.premierforest.co.uk