As a new decade commences, professionals everywhere are seeking fresh inspiration for interiors, whether for commercial spaces or residential living. 

This desire for innovative performance and trend-setting designs is most notable when it comes to interior doors, whose influence upon a room can have a marked effect on the surrounding décor, lifting and invigorating adjacent space. Bringing clarity to this process is Vicaima, who have just launched their 2020 Interior Door Selector. Packed with ideas this brochure is an essential tool for every specifier.
Now an annual and eagerly anticipated event, the 2020 edition of the Vicaima Interior Door Selector has over 100 pages filled with doors and doorsets that suit a multitude of applications, tastes and budgets.  Its simple to navigate layout has been designed to make the selection process straightforward, with at a glance guides to form, function and fire, or indeed other desired performance criteria.  Every range also shows a simple Price Indicator, allowing easy comparison between potential options for that perfect specification.
New for 2020, Vicaima have introduced some pioneering products that are certain to gain wide appeal.  These include: Primed 2 Go, a revolutionary, polymer faced door for painting that requires no surface sanding or priming, saving time and money on site. Deep Textured Finish, creating the authentic touch of an open grain in a matt finish that can be applied to a selection of veneered and stained veneered doors
An extension to the Visual Sensation foil door range, introducing 4 new matt finishes and new horizontal grain options in both the Naturdor Stained and Dekordor SD Foil ranges.

Naturally, at Vicaima it’s not just about great design and trend setting aesthetics.  As specialists in performance products, Vicaima set the benchmark for fire certification, coupled with security and acoustic solutions.  With a growing market awareness of the needs of providing peace of mind when it comes to fire safety, specifiers gain confidence from a supplier like Vicaima, who achieved 54 minutes during recent MHCLG testing of their 30-minute door assemblies.  This coupled with Secure By Design approval and FSC environmental certification, makes Vicaima the obvious choice for demanding locations.

Download a copy of the 2020 Interior Door Selector today by visiting the Vicaima website.   Alternatively call 01793 532333 for further inspiration.

www.vicaima.com

It’s a double celebration for SevenCapital this week as the developer, alongside construction partners Colmore Tang and Creagh Concrete, marks the topping out of its St Martin’s Place development – and announces it is now sold out one year ahead of expected completion.

With 228 new one, two and three- bedroom apartments across four blocks of between six and 17 storeys, the development will feature exclusive private residents’ amenities, including cinema room, WiFi lounge and a gym.

 

Error, group does not exist! Check your syntax! (ID: 4)

 

The building envelope is now complete, with floors laid across the development and windows fitted to all levels. M&E has been integrated into panels off-site.  The build utlised a total of 3000 precast pieces, manufactured by Creagh at their head office facilities in County Antrim (NI), benefitting the project with six months build betterment against traditional construction methods.
Seamus McKeague Chief Executive of Creagh Concrete added: “This is a proud moment for Creagh. In recent years we have moved from being just a concrete and materials supplier to a specialist subcontractor, which has opened up new opportunities. We are seeing strong interest in our Rapidres Fastrack Build System because developers now understand the true value of slashing programme times. Investors not only benefit from revenue gained by the early occupation of units but, also, from the mobility of their capital resource. Quite simply, shorter build times mean developers can complete more projects with the same pot of finance.”

www.creaghconcrete.co.uk

Caledonian, working with Stride Treglown Architects, has been selected as one of five companies to deliver a £2bn programme of offsite built secondary schools and blocks, for the Department of Education (DfE) under Lot 1 of the Modern Methods of Construction Framework. The other smaller scale project, Lot 2, will deliver a £1bn programme of offsite built primary school schemes and secondary blocks.

Established by the DfE to build on the success of recent modular procurements, this major framework supports a wider government move towards modern methods of construction as a preference for new build projects and reinforces the desire of the DfE to continue the commitment to Modern Methods of Construction in the delivery of education projects.
This significant win expands on Caledonian’s education offering with the DFE, with over £80m of education projects currently in progress.
David Johnson, Preconstruction Director at Caledonian Modular, said: “We are delighted to be selected as one of the small team of contractors to work with the DfE in continuing to develop standards for education buildings, using high levels of offsite completion to reduce risk, save time and really optimise speed and efficiency of school design and delivery.”
“This win comes as a result of us demonstrating our capability and capacity to continue to deliver full turnkey schools to a high quality, in half the time and with significantly less disruption than traditional methods.”

 

Error, group does not exist! Check your syntax! (ID: 4)

 

Haygrove School and The Sir Frederick Gibberd College
Some of the £80m worth of education projects secured by Caledonian include the £38m Haygrove School and The Sir Frederick Gibberd College. These were secured under separate DfE frameworks and will require the company to act as Lead Designer and Principal Contractor, delivering both projects from feasibility, through design and planning.
The approach will maximise the extent of onsite groundworks prior to the modules arriving on site, which are delivered and installed with final decorations, floor coverings and furniture completed at the company’s Newark based manufacturing facility. This significantly reduces onsite works and disruption to the school and local community and maximises quality control and efficiency, reducing the overall project timescales.
The new £29m Sir Frederick Gibberd College will comprise a 1,200 place secondary school built over three storeys, including a school hall, dining hall, drama studio and a 500 place sixth form teaching area as well as sports facilities and all associated external works and sports pitches. The design incorporates concrete floors and, being a component-based system, allows greater flexibility in design whilst delivering a DfE compliant solution as well as all the efficiency and time saving benefits of a modular build.
Work being undertaken at Haygrove School in Bridgwater will utilise Caledonian’s component based school solutions to replace the main school building with modern and efficient off-site manufactured teaching environments. The construction work is being undertaken while the school remains open with works carefully planned to ensure minimal disruption to both the school and local community. The three-storey building will consist of classrooms, double-height hall and studio spaces, offices, kitchen and associated rooms for educational purposes, along with enabling, groundwork’s and external works.
Both schools incorporate factory installed concrete floors to deliver an acoustically compliant, comfortable, safe and durable environment for occupants.

High quality student accommodation
Other projects within the large education order book include working with Bowmer & Kirkland on a £25m contract to manufacture accommodation modules as part of a £54m development for the University Campus of Football Business, First Way Campus in Wembley. The 678 bedrooms have now been manufactured at the Newark facility. At 10 storeys, the project really shows what is possible with its modular building solutions, which, on this project means bedrooms are 96% complete prior to shipping to site.
Fire compliance capabilities of the modular system featured highly in the selection process, due to the high rise nature of the 10 storey development. Caledonian gave the client and design team confidence by providing a pre-engineered fire compliant modular solution suitable for a development of this scale.
More recently, and working with ENGIE, Caledonian secured another student accommodation project, this time a £10m order at Station Approach, Hereford. The project will provide Hereford College of Arts and the city’s new NMiTE University with 178 student bedrooms each with its own study area and en-suite bathroom, along with other areas of accommodation. Caledonian was selected as the modular building partner because of its long track record in supplying high quality student accommodation, willingness to collaborate with project partners and ability to deliver value
for money.

www.caledonianmodular.com

A variety of wall construction membranes, roofing underlays and accessories from Protect Membranes has been used by modular construction specialists Totally Modular as part of an innovative pilot scheme, built offsite on behalf of social housing provider Citizen in partnership with Coventry City Council.

Built in compliance with BOPAS, CML and LA Building Control requirements, the scheme involved the manufacture of a two-bedroom and a three-bedroom two-storey dwelling in light gauge steel frame, built in controlled factory conditions in Totally Modular’s premises in Birmingham. Using this volumetric modular approach, a series of four fully furnished modules were created, delivered to former disused land in Willenhall and craned into place before being connected together onsite.  Taking just twenty weeks from build to delivery, time on site was reduced significantly in comparison to traditional housebuilding construction.  With offsite construction seen as an ideal way to combat the national housing crisis and deliver a quality, precision product, the pilot was deemed to be successful with the potential for roll out across Citizen’s housing stock where suitable land is available.
A number of Protect products were supplied and installed in both dwellings to help ensure the management of moisture within the structures. This ensured condensation control and strict airtightness levels were met to help meet a minimum levels of 4.00m³/h.m.² or lower. This included Protect BarriAir, an internal airtightness and vapour control layer to contribute to energy efficiency and Protect Zytec, a roofing underlay offering strong wind uplift resistance and good vapour permeability.  The roof structure also included Protect RediRoll, a universal dry fixed ventilated ridge and hip system, to deliver 5,000mm2/m of ventilation as well as the Protect Eaves Skirt and dry verge system.

 

Error, group does not exist! Check your syntax! (ID: 4)

 

Mick Pettitt, Director at Totally Modular commented, “Protect’s comprehensive package of solutions was the perfect fit for this project to help us meet the detailed specification, using materials that we know are tried and trusted.  In particular, the use of BarriAir helped to achieve strict airtightness and vapour control, contributing to an outstanding energy efficiency rating for both properties that exceeded Building Regulation requirements. The dwellings achieved a 97 and 98 EPC ‘A’ rating, which compares very well to the average rating of band ‘D’ for properties built in England and Wales.   Protect understood our needs and provided detailed technical support along the way, whilst ensuring our products were delivered on time to meet our busy schedule.”
Richard Whittaker, Director of Development at Citizen, said: “The products supplied by Protect were ideal for the modular homes and helped them achieve a high energy rating. There are so many benefits to modular housing which include reduced disruption at site, high thermal efficiency and quick completion. We’re looking forward to seeing the use of modular homes increase in future.”
Protect’s range of wall, ceiling and floor construction membranes together with its roofing underlays and accessories provides a comprehensive solution to the modular build sector, helping to ensure the whole building envelope and internal structure can be controlled in terms of moisture management, condensation control and thermal resistance.
For details of how Protect products can be incorporated into both residential and commercial builds constructed offsite:

please email info@protectmembranes.com

or call 0161 905 5700, quoting ‘Totally Modular’ or visit

www.protectmembranes.com

Now that the glamour of being photographed beside the latest renewable technology of wind turbines and solar farms has worn off, the principle of Fabric First is being recognised as a more immediate and reliable process of improving energy efficiency in buildings.   

Even without the subsidies and grants awarded for generating energy, the benefits and long term economy of improving the performance of building fabric has at last been recognised as more significant in the equation of balancing our environmental impact.

FABRIC FIRST has become the strapline for sustainable construction.  After all, if you build a decent stable with a well fitted door, the horse (ie. energy) wouldn’t be able to bolt and, given the improved comfort levels in the building, probably wouldn’t want to anyway!
Retaining energy in the building reduces energy demand and the detrimental effect of lost energy on the ice caps.   Reducing energy demand reduces energy costs and environmental impact.   The more passive buildings are in terms of energy needs, the more the environmental impact is reduced – permanently.

 

Error, group does not exist! Check your syntax! (ID: 4)

 

FABRIC FIRST – Insulation is the key ingredient
By improving the performance of building fabric – thermal insulation, air tightness, elimination of cold bridges – energy demand is reduced.   ICF (Insulating Concrete Formwork) building systems do just that, as a complete formwork system to contain the concrete structure they are also a complete insulation system to contain the energy.   ICF (Insulation Comes First) is a primary means of reducing energy demand in buildings, and the Wallform ICF system has been designed and detailed to maximise the efficiency of the building envelope.
The simple logic of ICF construction enhances the overall performance of the building – insulation on the face of the wall where it is most effective, complete insulation with good airtightness and no thermal bridging.   With nothing to rot, corrode or deteriorate over time, a Wallform structure will last significantly longer than other forms of construction.
Although build costs are increasingly competitive as ICF becomes more popular, long life expectancy places Wallform ICF ahead of alternative building methods in terms of both Total Life Costing and carbon footprint.
AND – should the building reach the end of its useful life, the materials can be recycled into a new generation of building materials.

FABRIC FIRST – PRODUCTIVITY NEXT

While ICF construction is a practical route to raising performance standards, UK construction still has to overcome the problem of productivity which has not improved in recent years.   Efforts to upgrade the performance of traditional building methods have complicated the building process and constrained output.
Wallform ICF, on the other hand, actually simplifies the building process, speeding up the rate of build at the same time as producing a strong structure which is fully insulated and airtight in its basic format.   Other than use of a concrete pump to place the concrete, the building process does not require any specialist tools or equipment to achieve high rates of productivity.
Quality of construction is also improved as the materials’ functions overlap – no leakage of concrete through the formwork means no leakage of energy as there are no gaps in the insulation.   Similarly as the structure is built, the concrete seals it with a high level of airtightness.   First fix services are then recessed easily into the insulation substrate, with no effect on airtightness.
The practical building technique means that upskilling the existing workforce is a relatively smooth process of transition.   The introduction of ICF methods causes minimal disruption and is an opportunity for the existing workforce to raise levels of output in the process of adopting a Modern Method of Construction.    Site performance is improved and the processes of procurement and management made easier as a consequence of a simpler building method.

www.becowallform.co.uk

New office pushes the limits of modular construction

“Visitors’ reaction to the building is just ‘wow’. And they can’t believe that it’s a modular building.” That was a comment from one of Wernick’s staff, Naomi Parratt, whose office is in the new building.

Designed by Wernick’s in-house architectural team, the new building aims to push the limits of offsite construction and uses its new Swiftplan® system. It features a high-quality external and internal finish and is packed with sustainable features with the building achieving an EPC rating of ‘A’ and BREEAM rating of excellent.

Using the latest in modular offsite technologies, the building is made up of 28 modules which were constructed at Wernick’s dedicated manufacturing facility in South Wales, then transported to site via lorry and installed by the Wickford team.

Wernick Buildings Director, Andy King, whose team designed the new offices, commented; ‘Modular ‘offsite’ construction delivers shorter project times and reduces costs when compared to traditional construction methods. The fact that much of the work is done ‘offsite’ in a controlled factory environment means the whole building programme is greatly reduced, saving on costs and greatly reducing waste – the percentage of waste recycled and diverted from landfill for this project was 98%!”

The modern external design is covered in Trespa external wall cladding plus a very striking timber Brise Soleil. This is complemented by an attractive two-story glass entrance.

When you enter the building, you are immediately dazzled by the double-height lobby which has an exposed CLT ceiling and porcelain tiled floor. Here, receptionists can answer and transfer calls on-screen using the new telephone software.

 

Error, group does not exist! Check your syntax! (ID: 6)

 

Over the two floors of the building you can find glass partitioned open-plan office areas, meeting rooms, staff welfare facilities (including a shower) and the new canteen with state-of-the-art catering facilities. Set up for client and staff presentations, the large board room also impresses with its large mahogany table, leather chairs and 85” TV.

The addition of air-con in all the rooms enhances the comfort and productivity of staff – who can adjust settings using a mobile app. Interior finish is complemented perfectly with brand new furniture which gives a consistent, corporate look whilst creating an inviting work environment for the entire Head Office team.

The BREEAM excellence rating was achieved with sustainable additions such as 10kw of photovoltaics (PV) panels on roof of building, electric car charging points and aptly some nesting boxes for Swifts (bird).

Wernick’s Chairman, David Wernick commented; ‘‘We believe our Swiftplan® system will help change the perception that modular buildings are a temporary solution. The new offices show what can be achieved, and we welcome visitors to come and see this building for themselves. I would like to thank all our staff who were involved in this project. A job well done!”’

The two-storey structure was part of a £3 million redevelopment which also included a new modular building for Wernick’s local Buildings and Hire teams, who moved into their new surroundings sited opposite in March 2019.

 

About the Wernick Group of Companies:

The Wernick Group is the oldest modular and portable company in the United Kingdom and has been family owned and run for over 80 years. The Group has been headquartered at Wickford since 1980 and the business is made up of five divisions, with over 700 employees operating out of 32 locations.

 

To learn more about the company, please visit: www.wernick.co.uk.

 

Altro has added innovative new ranges to its award-winning, adhesive-free, sustainable floors to offer adhesive-free options for a host of applications in the building. Benefits include enhanced comfort underfoot and greater sound impact reduction, as well as greater creative freedom as more colour and wood design options give complete flexibility for differing application areas. Altro’s adhesive-free floors also feature the most advanced Altro Easyclean technology, while retaining the benefits of reduced installation time and 100% recyclability.

New Altro Wood™ adhesive-free floor is a safety wood-look product with easy cleanability; perfect for decorative, homely or biophilic areas. The range has been created with design freedom in mind – Altro Wood adhesive-free shares some designs with Altro Wood Comfort and Altro Wood, allowing you to coordinate floors with different performance criteria across different areas of the building.

The popular Altro Cantata™ tonal and modernist adhesive-free floor also now has a refreshed palette of colours and designs and improved cleanability.

The new Altro Wood adhesive-free and Altro Cantata ranges are the first floors to use Altro’s innovative underside emboss structure, which provides 14dB impact sound reduction and comfort underfoot. Coupled with exciting, aesthetic options, these ranges are ideal for more public-facing areas, where they will continue to make a great first impression and support the wellbeing of users for the lifetime of the product. Where safety and toughness are the key drivers for hard-working service areas, Altro XpressLay™ adhesive-free safety floor continues to deliver robust, good looks.

New Altro Wood adhesive-free has 12 wood-look designs, enabling you to create biophilic, stylish, or warm and homely aesthetics together with the safety and durability needed for medium to high traffic areas. With 14dB impact sound reduction, a 10-year guarantee and Altro’s one in a million slip-resistance reassurance, Altro Wood adhesive-free offers high levels of comfort underfoot providing a safe, durable and decorative solution for busy spaces.

Altro Cantata’s 17 colours, designs and textured looks range from subtle, natural shades to terrazzo — organic with a metallic twist — and a selection of concretes allowing you to create an urban chic look. Altro’s most advanced cleaning technology ensures ease of maintenance and enhances infection control with the reduction of bacterial and mould growth by improved cleanability.

Using Altro’s award-winning adhesive-free installation method, you can halve installation time compared with a traditional adhered installation. Depending on substrate condition, a 200m2 corridor would be laid in two days compared with four days with an adhered floor covering, with an approximate 20% cost saving too.

With no DPM and no adhesive required, floors can be welded and walked on the same day. Adhesive-free floors are ideal for busy public spaces where disruption needs to be minimal, plus there are no associated adhesive odours. And at the end of their life, they can be re-used elsewhere or recycled.

Revolutionary, international award-winning Altro XpressLay was the world’s first ever adhesive-free safety floor and was introduced to the market place after 5 years of development and testing. In 2019 Altro XpressLay celebrated its 10th anniversary of providing safe flooring in diverse environments. Altro’s adhesive-free flooring is durable and can tolerate medium to heavy-duty traffic. They hold as effectively as Altro floors installed using adhesive: no rucks, no movement. Now that’s revolutionary.

About Altro – www.altro.co.uk

The Phoenix Interleaf hinge uniquely combines the strength of continuous fixing points along the entire length of the door, with the benefit of anti-finger trapping on the knuckle side. Coupled with an aesthetically stylish and streamlined sightline, Phoenix Continuous hinges are designed to enhance and compliment the visual appearance of any door set. Sitting directly on the door and frame creating the necessary 3mm gap, allowing for the fixing of an intumescent strip for fire doors. Compatible with 44mm and 54mm thicknesses, timber and steel door sets.

A reduced ligature option is available where self-harm is possible. Its unique design provides strong and robust hinging solutions whilst maintaining an aesthetically pleasing design. By utilising the purpose made end caps the risk of creating a ligature point is reduced. Tested to BSEN 1935 Grade 14 (160kg) and CE marked.

T: +44 (0) 1922 740001     E: sales@cookebrothers.co.uk     W: www.cookebrothers.co.uk

Rinnai is offering FREE audits for all hospitals and medical centres in order to maximise energy and financial efficiency in the delivery of hot water at the point of use. Maximising efficiencies can lead to fuel savings, alone, of up to 30% on current energy prices as the hot water is heated only when it is used – turn the tap off and the energy costs can stop immediately.

 

The audit, in close co-operation with the site, measures all data concerning use and presents a full and detailed report prepared by CIBSE recognised engineers. This is all free of any charge.

 

Rinnai is the world’s leading manufacturer of continuous flow hot water systems a range of units that can be manifolded to supply, virtually, limitless temperature accurate water to a site of any size. It also means less space spent on plant rooms and no or little maintenance as all units are proven to be robust with extended working life and warranties to support this.

 

Rinnai’s Sensei N Series water heating range offers a new and compact design with enhanced combustion that allows for easier and quicker installation – and gives high levels of operational performance.

 

All components in the range are designed and manufactured by Rinnai, and this ensures maximum quality and reliability from the world leader in commercial continuous flow water heating products and systems.

 

The Rinnai Sensei N Series is also the first ever continuous flow hot water heating unit manufactured with stainless steel heat exchangers to be available in the UK – this gives a greatly extended working life. Added to this is the Sensei N Series market leading extended warranties.

 

The advanced burner controls with the Sensei N Series models ensure that all the appliances are well ahead of the NOx requirements set within ErP. The current level of permissible NOx set by ErP is 56 mg/Kwh.

 

The Sensei N Series range have been third-party tested at 28 mg/Kwh making them one of the greenest water heating appliances available.

 

As the units do not incorporate storage their ‘green credentials’ are further recognised by BREEAM and score additional credits under the building regulations.

In answering the threat of Legionella proliferation – continuous flow technology is recognised as heavily reducing the risk of Legionella proliferation when compared to other types of hot water delivery. The main reasons for this are that there is no storage, system turn over is regular and the area for debris is much lower than storage type systems.

 

The industry uptake of Rinnai’s continuous flow heater systems is proven to be more energy efficient than conventional storage systems and are increasingly the experts’ preferred method of hot water provision. Rinnai units easily cater for any size projects that need high volumes of water at intermittent or any times of day.

 

Rinnai manufactures over 2million water heaters every year and as such is at the forefront of creating unit cost advantages for installers. Competitively priced, the units offer all technological advances and innovations, all at a similar cost to lower specification competitor models.

 

Contact the company direct by telephone or email info@rinnaiuk.com for your FREE audit on hot water usage on your site.

 

For more information on the RINNAI product range visit www.rinnaiuk.com

Manufacturer goes online for the latest in its series of product catalogues.

 

Armstrong Ceiling Solutions has released its new mineral ceilings and suspension systems catalogue as an online flip book for ease of use and on-the-go accessibility.

 

The 106-page catalogue provides complete technical and product information on the manufacturer’s market-leading mineral ceilings and full system solutions, as well as its range of floating ceilings and options for specific applications – arming specifiers with all the information they need to make educated design decisions when specifying ceilings for new-build and refurbishment projects.

 

Kicking off with a product selector performance table that makes selection of acoustic mineral tiles super-simple, this ethos is carried through with a suspension systems product selector for quick and easy selection of compatible grid systems and concludes with an acoustical technical glossary detailing all the necessary acoustic performance considerations.

 

The catalogue reinforces Armstrong’s 150-year pedigree with information on the manufacturer’s smooth and white Ultima+, Perla, Sierra, Optima, Neeva and Plain ranges as well as Dune eVo, the first tile and grid system to gain Cradle to Cradle® Certified accreditation. All are available in multiple acoustic densities for total acoustic control and design flexibility. Classic tiles showcased include Fine Fissured and decorative tile options comprise the Colortone range.

 

Cradle to Cradle certification is explained along with Armstrong’s environmental commitment and pioneering ceiling recycling programme which saves contractors money by diverting waste from landfill.

 

Mineral solutions for specific requirements include anti-microbial Bioguard, Clean Room certified Parafon Hygien and Clean Room FL, and humidity-resistant Hydroguard and Ceramaguard while suspension systems include one resistant to corrosion.

 

Floating ceilings which open up an almost endless range of dramatic design possibilities and provide greater sound absorption than that of a traditional wall-to-wall ceiling include the Axiom range of square, rectangular, circular and curved canopies.

 

Suspension systems detailed within the catalogue include exposed and semi-concealed solutions for high design requirements, as well as those suitable for the integration of services, high load levels and special requirements such as corrosion, seismic resistance and Clean Room compatibility. Perimeter trims and accessories include edge profiles and transitions, blind boxes, and angles and channels for ultimate design flexibility.

 

As part of the objective to make the catalogue as informative as possible, it features an at-a-glance cleaning matrix, reaction to fire advise and references to the manufacture’s recommendations for installation and maintenance. More detailed information on these can be found on Armstrong’s new website www.armstrongceilingsolutions.co.uk.

 

The new mineral ceilings and suspension systems catalogue also updates readers on Armstrong’s social media presence via Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube.

 

The catalogue is available on https://www.armstrongceilingsolutions.co.uk/en-gb/ceiling-tiles/product-catalogue