Latest innovations and products in the external works section of the construction industry.

BriggsAmasco supplied the waterproofing and finishes for a stunning, state-of-the-art sports and science centre that will provide a world-class training environment for generations of students.

 

The project, which was delivered by McLaren Construction, formed part of a £38m transformation of Brighton College. Designed by award-winning Dutch architect, OMA, the stunning centre boasts a cinema-style auditorium linked up to science departments across the globe, 18 university-standard laboratories, six break out spaces for personal research and tutorials, a 25-metre pool, a strength and conditioning suite, a rooftop running track with panoramic views and a double-height sports hall.

Selected to fulfil the centre’s waterproofing requirements, BriggsAmasco was confronted with a challenging installation. It involved creating a watertight seal for the centre’s 2,650m2 main roof, a winter garden, entrance stairs, a step tread area and a car park. The college development was planned with the environment in mind. It contains high-quality elevations enclosing a development with high levels of sustainability – the offices boasting BREEAM ‘Excellent’ and EPC ‘A’ ratings.

The project’s waterproofing aspect included a number of complexities. The centre’s main roof area was located on the building’s uppermost fourth floor, which meant a standard installation process was not possible. Challenges such as these were exacerbated by waterproofing work taking place during periods of extreme weather, with heat, heavy wind and rainfall making surfacing works difficult. Multiple changes to the working environment and the requirement to work alongside numerous other trades were also hurdles to overcome for Briggs’ installers. Additionally, the team needed to ensure material deliveries were scheduled in advance to allow works access to the onsite crane.

In terms of design, the biggest challenge was to create a waterproofing system that was capable of incorporating a range of features and activities in order to optimise the centre’s main roof space. A rest area with benches and a barbeque, a running track and rooflights were included as part of the imaginative roof design. It also featured a green roof with architect OMA, in conjunction with BriggsAmasco and material supplier IKO, being responsible for the buildability aspect of the main roof’s overall design. Prior to the roof’s installation, BriggsAmasco took part in site inspections, design meetings and problem-solving brainstorm exercises to ensure the roof’s waterproofing programme progressed smoothly.

For the installation, BriggsAmasco installed the following waterproofing systems: IKO Permatec Antiroot (IKO Permaflash-R reinforcement and IKO Permaguard-F protection membrane), IKO FCS liquid cold-applied system and an IKO built-up felt system. BriggsAmasco’s excellent workmanship was underpinned throughout by a superb collaborative working relationship with IKO and OMA. Quality inspections were carried out throughout the project’s lifetime and as part of the company’s all-round service provision, BriggsAmasco drafted a detailed works programme to ensure deliveries were timed and workflows were not disrupted. The schedule included one-month ‘look aheads’ to incorporate programme changes, crane and weather conditions. This intensive project management was required throughout the works programme to ensure the new facilities were delivered within a rigid timeframe.

The redeveloped Brighton College was opened in January 2020. Described as ‘an expression of global ambition’ by architect OMA, the site’s new facilities have introduced a world of academic and sporting opportunity for students. For BriggsAmasco, as well as taking pride at having delivered an intricate waterproofing programme with such precision and panache in the time available, its performance on the project earned the company a ‘Contractor Recognition’ honour at the annual IKO Awards.

 

www.briggsamasco.co.uk

Brett Landscaping played a key role in the completion of Crystal Palace’s new £20m academy and training ground when they were able to offer the best product with the shortest lead time.

 

The leading independent concrete paving manufacturer was selected to provide more than 1,300 square metres of the new high performance Invicta block paving at the Premier League club’s new complex in Beckenham.

Architects KSS worked very closely with the Crystal Palace chairman and senior management in selecting premium products for the exterior at the prestigious site -and Brett’s Invicta Pearl and Invicta Onyx met the high standards of everyone at the club.

The club and architect required a high-end product, with the flexibility of large plank sizes for larger areas, but that would match up and blend with a more striking pattern in a diamond configuration for the entrance into the academy building itself. Brett was able to provide all of these elements with readily available, high-end aesthetics with multiple sizes and colours which allowed flexible and varied design.

The Invicta range has a specially formulated surface layer creating a hard-wearing paving block with a durable but vibrant finish which shimmers in different lights. Brett’s AggTech manufacturing process allows unique natural aggregates to be used on the surface of each paving block to create a stunning durable finish.

As well as the premium products, Brett was able to provide a full Auto-CAD design service in less than 24 hours, meaning they were able to get the right information, product and quotation back to the architect quickly.

Antony Spencer, Civils Sales Manager for Brett Landscaping, said: “This is one of the most prestigious projects we have been involved with. It demanded effective and timely communication, design and problem-solving as well as delivering a product which matches with the client’s extremely high expectations.

“We had almost daily communication with the club, architect and contractors and everything was delivered as scheduled allowing for the build to remain on schedule.”

The Crystal Palace academy has six full-size pitches as well as classrooms, lecture room, analysis and meeting rooms. It has allowed Crystal Palace to bring their facilities up to ‘Category One Status’ in the Elite Player Performance Plan rankings.

Brett Landscaping worked with KSS architects, Clive Richardson Ltd (main contractors), TriAgg (groundworks contractor) and Wolseley MPS Fareham.

They supplied 1,352 square metres of Invicta 80mm, in Pearl and Onyx 200×100, 200×200, 300×200, 600×200. There were seven size/colour combinations installed.

 

www.brettlandscaping.co.uk

 

  • Property values in less densely populated areas have risen almost twice as fast as in urban hubs
  • The broadband infrastructure is lagging behind in rural areas
  • With the increase of population in areas with poor infrastructure, this will strain the current internet connections.
  • There has never been a more essential time to have good broadband with families being unable to meet and work being conducted from home.-Peak network traffic will have doubled by 2025

If nothing is done now some rural areas will be left in a digital dark age.

Rural property values in less populated areas have risen almost twice as fast as urban hubs over the last year. Naturally, this is due to people making the most of the freedoms we have been allowed and craving more space- inside and out.

Whilst rural housing prices have been rising to meet this demand, rural broadband infrastructure has not. In urban settings, good broadband is a common sight, with FTTP availability on the up and being fueled by the Governments ‘Project Gigabit’ scheme. However, in rural locations good internet is more of a luxury with some big providers refusing to touch the rural areas with anything more than FTTC, deeming them unprofitable.

Naturally, these factors create a dilemma as increased service in this area may leave residents struggling to connect to the internet and strain the existing infrastructure. In a time where good broadband is essential for contacting family and friends but also to work from home, this could cripple whole villages from keeping up with modern life.

Compare Fibre research has predicted that peak network traffic will have doubled by 2025. In this time, left unchecked, the fallout of this could be anything from damaged mental health due to increased loneliness right up to people being made unemployed for not being able to do their job. It is here then that the digital divide has very real implications.

With rural living on the up, infrastructure in these areas needs to be futureproofed within the next four years. It is in the interest of the residents, the housing market and the telecoms industries to do so with FTTP connections adding value to property prices. Alt Nets such as B4RN are already stepping up and bringing Gigabit-capable broadband to rural areas but these are a patchwork of networks across the country. If the dots are not connected in this time then some rural locations will inevitably be heading for a digital dark age.

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Leading brick slip cladding specialist, Eurobrick, has been supplying its systems to the education sector for 30 years and, more recently, with offsite construction specialist Reds10 to supply two new school projects in Reading; Green Park Village Primary Academy and Addington School.

Green Park Village Primary Academy is a new two-storey primary school that is situated within a new housing development of 1400 homes. Designed and built using a steel framed volumetric modular design, the 2,400m2 school project also benefits from SMART building technology to create an energy efficient space.

Eurobrick’s P-Clad system was chosen as part of a number of finishes for the exterior, with around 1200m2 installed with specially cut 22mm thick Vandersanden Corum brick slips and corners and Eurobrick’s specially formulated Europoint mortar in Light Sandstone.

The development was shortlisted for two categories at the Offsite Awards and one at the Building Awards 2020.

Addington School is for young people with special educational needs and disabilities. They needed to expand capacity due to an increase in applications, so Wokingham Borough Council embarked on a project to create a new space for Sixth Form pupils which would allow an additional 50 places at the school.

This 1000m2 steel framed volumetric modular design was created by HLM Architects and delivered by Reds10. Around 512m2 of P-Clad was installed with specially cut 22mm Olivier Karma White Grey stock brick slips and finished with Light Grey Europoint mortar. Whole bricks were also supplied for landscaping works.

The school won the School Procurement Awards and the Education Business Awards 2020.

P-Clad has proved very popular in the education sector with schools and universities alike. It is specially designed so that it can be fixed directly to steel frame structures as well as other batten or bracket systems, and is ideal for providing a brick finish rainscreen on prefabricated structures. As well as being extensively tested to achieve BBA certification, P-Clad is LABC registered and comes with Eurobrick’s own 25 year product guarantee.

These eye-catching buildings provide essential spaces for education that are sustainable and innovative in their design and delivery and show the quality and versatility that modular construction can offer.

 

You can find out more about Eurobrick’s systems and products at www.eurobrick.co.uk.

Professor Gabriela Medero with the K-Briq

 

A new recycled brick, made using a tenth of the energy of a standard clay brick, has been named STEM Research Project of the Year at the UK’s Times Higher Education awards.

The brainchild of academics at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, the K-Briq was recognised by competition judges as an ‘important contribution…to sustainable construction worldwide’ and ‘a potential game changer’.

Up to 90% of the the K-Briq’s constituents come from building-site waste, with the unfired production process said to take two to three minutes, as opposed to up to 40 hours for traditional fired bricks. The process has also been shown to reduce C02 emissions by 90%.

A spin-off company, Kenoteq, has now established a production process with a goal of manufacturing as many as 3 million K-Briq’s by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, a flagship project has been established for 2021, with the new Serpentine Pavilion in London set to use the new bricks in its construction.

The university project that resulted in the development of the K-Briq was led by Professor Gabriela Medero from the School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society, and Dr Sam Chapman, managing director of Kenoteq.

Professor Gabriela Medero, said, “We set out to create a building product that could embed sustainability at the heart of the construction industry. Globally, construction accounts for 39% of the world’s total CO2 emissions so tackling this challenge will have a huge impact on the sustainability of the sector as we push towards net zero targets. This award is testament to the tireless work of our interdisciplinary team of civil, structural, chemical and mechanical engineers, architects, chemists and geologists who have collaborated for more than a decade to bring K-Briq to market.”

 

Source: Construction Europe

Kingspan Kooltherm K7 and K107 Pitched Roof Board have been installed as part of a major refurbishment project, transforming a former Victorian mill into CAT B office space for Manchester Metropolitan University.

6 Great Marlborough Street forms part of Manchester’s rich industrial heritage and sits within Little Ireland, the earliest area of Irish settlement within the city. The sensitive restoration plans make a feature of the historic building fabric, exposing the original brickwork and beams internally, whilst incorporating more contemporary elements such as building services and modern windows.

The design team prepared the fit-out using the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyor’s SKA Rating environmental assessment method – targeting a Silver rating certificate. As part of this process, they identified an opportunity to upgrade the thermal performance of the poorly insulated pitched roof. To minimise heat loss through the roof, a construction combining Kingspan Kooltherm K7 and K107 Pitched Roof Board was installed.

Kingspan Kooltherm K7 and K107 Pitched Roof Board can achieve thermal conductivities as low as 0.020 W/m·K and 0.018 W/m·K, respectively. In combination with their low emissivity foil facing, this makes them amongst the most thermally efficient pitched roof insulation materials in common use.

As the original roof slates have been retained, the boards were cut to size by hand and fitted between and below the existing roof rafters from inside the building. This premium specification allowed the target U-value to be met with the slimmest possible construction – maximising floor to ceiling heights in the top storey spaces in the 5-floor building.

Kingspan Kooltherm K7 and K107 Pitched Roof Board are produced under an integrated management system which is certified to the highest standards including ISO 9001: 2015 (Quality), ISO 14001: 2015 (Environmental), BS OHSAS 18001: 2007 (Health and Safety) and ISO 50001: 2011 (Energy). Their insulation core is manufactured with a blowing agent that has zero Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP) and low Global Warming Potential (GWP).

Image credit: Manchester Metropolitan University ©

For further information, please contact:

Tel: +44 (0) 1544 387 384

Fax: +44 (0) 1544 387 484

Email: info@kingspaninsulation.co.uk

Website: www.kingspaninsulation.co.uk

www.twitter.com/KingspanIns_UK

www.linkedin.com/company/kingspan-insulation-uk

AG, one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of innovative concrete products has launched a brand new premium paving product; answering industry demand for a flagstone that is durable, versatile and strong whilst possessing an aesthetically pleasing plank-like appearance.

Plaza Lineal®, a premium water-etched, lightly textured, granite aggregate paving that is 120mm deep comes in a range of rectangular dimensions and six colours that can be ‘mixed and matched’ to create a broad range of patterns that blend seamlessly with any outdoor environment.

The factory-developed paving is durable and hard wearing with a minimum surface layer of 5mm that is made up of 90% natural granite and quartz aggregate – a resilient combination. This robust surface makes Plaza Lineal® especially well-suited to spaces with heavy footfall and the associated abrasive effects.

As part of the production process, state of the art factory-controlled vapour curing significantly reduces efflorescence on the surface of the product; a naturally occurring chemical reaction that leads to unsightly blemishes – a common concern within the market.

Plaza lineal has been designed in a way that optimises bending strength (>3.5Mpa) thereby tackling another issue that can arise with other rectangular paving solutions on the market. The paving has also been designed with slip resistance (USRV >75) making it especially safe and suitable for commercial and residential projects alike.

As with any AG product, clients can rest assured that the highest quality and standards have been employed in the production of Plaza Lineal®; the paving is manufactured in a strict factory environment to comply with BS EN 1338/1339:2003.

Plaza Lineal® clients also have the added benefit of knowing they are using a solution that is environmentally friendly; it is 100% renewable, produced using 90% recycled water and is 100% recyclable. An A BREEAM rating can be achieved when the paving is used in conjunction with a prepared recycling sub-base.

Rodney Davidson, AG’s Commercial Director commented:

“At AG we are constantly monitoring market developments to ensure we are ahead of trends. We are especially proud of Plaza Lineal® which is the result of an in-depth research and development programme that highlighted demand within the urban space, residential and commercial sectors for a rectangular paving solution that mirrored the wider interior / exterior trend favouring plank-like aesthetics.”

“By carefully designing Plaza Lineal® within a strictly controlled factory environment we have successfully developed a product that possesses a widely appealing appearance and is unique to the market in terms of its design versatility, durability and strength.”

Terrakerb®: Plaza Lineal®’s perfect partner

As a reconstituted natural granite kerb, AG’s Terrakerb® is the perfect partner for Plaza Lineal® due to its complimentary dimensions and design options. Together, the two products present an excellent cost-effective value engineering option without compromising on a premium appearance.

To find out more visit: www.ag.uk.com

One of Northern Ireland’s leading manufacturers of Hard Landscaping and Building Products, AG, has been named ‘Supplier of the Year 2018’ at national awards; beating off stiff competition from large-scale manufacturers across the UK.

Tyrone-based AG was awarded the prestigious NBG Award within the ‘Civils and Landscaping CMT’ category at the independent builders merchant buying group’s gala event in Liverpool.

The awards honour the building industry’s major brands, recognising their contribution to the business success of NBG’s merchant partners.

NBG is a community of independent merchants committed to collective buying power and supporting suppliers in the building, plumbing and civils industries.

Stuart Thomas, Head of Sales at AG commented, “We are delighted to have received this award. Builders merchants play a key role in supporting AG’s business growth, so to be recognised as the top supplier of civils and landscaping products by NBG is fantastic.

“Well done to AG’s production, sales support, sales teams and the wider business for the hard work and determination which helped beat off some stern competition for this award.”

Pictured L-R: Stuart Thomas (AG), Tim Rowbottom (AG), the Chairman of the Category for Civils and Landscaping for NBG, Neil Cauldwell (AG) and Ben Westwood (AG).

For further information please visit www.ag.uk.com

Kingspan Insulation has introduced Kingspan Thermataper TT44-K and Thermataper TT47-K, its first tapered roofing systems to incorporate Kingspan Kooltherm insulation, delivering excellent drainage and thermal performance with slim, lightweight constructions.

Kingspan Thermataper TT44-K and Thermataper TT47-K are designed for use on new and existing roofs with concrete or timber decks. With a thermal conductivity of just 0.018 W/m.K, the Kingspan Kooltherm packer board helps to minimise the overall system thickness required to achieve a desired U-value. Typical thickness savings of 20 – 40 mm could be achieved, dependent on the individual scheme and build-up, when compared with a full Polyisocyanurate (PIR) system.

Kingspan Thermataper TT44-K and Thermataper TT47-K can provide an effective flat roof drainage solution without the need for a structural fall. Each application is supported by Kingspan’s specialist tapered roofing design service, providing a clear layout for installers which will allow the desired level of rainwater run-off and insulation performance to be achieved. The service also includes a full condensation risk analysis.

Unlike traditional alternatives, such as screed to fall, the systems can be fitted with a dry installation process – reducing project timescales. In retrofit application, they can often be installed above the existing roof surface in conjunction with a waterproof membrane. This can avoid the time-consuming process of stripping down the existing surface. Pre-mitred hip and valley boards are also supplied as part of Kingspan Thermataper systems, helping to reduce both on-site adjustments and waste from offcuts.

For further information, please contact: 01544 387 384, email info@kingspaninsulation.co.uk or visit www.kingspaninsulation.co.uk.

Saint-Gobain Weber has launched high performance weberend one coat dash, a one coat render that can receive a dry dash finish without the need to apply a base coat or a second pass. Designed to achieve a durable and weather resistant finish weberend one coat dash is especially suitable for the challenging Scottish climate where dash finish is commonplace.

Suitable for brick, blockwork, concrete, natural stone and clay substrates weberend one coat dash can be applied and finished on the same day, avoiding the drying time associated with a traditional two coat system typically of three to seven days. The use of weberend one coat dash allows faster application, reduced programme periods and improved onsite efficiency.

Onsite preparation is quick and easy requiring only the addition of water to the factory-blended, through-coloured render mix. It is suitable for application by hand and by spray render machine which will speed the process further. When applied at 16mm thickness coverage is approximately 1m² per 25kg bag. In many circumstances it is possible to apply the total thickness of weberend one coat dash in a single pass dependent upon criteria such as construction alignment, suction and mechanical key offered by the substrate. weberend one coat dash is factory produced for consistency of proportioning and available in three key colours: white, cream and buff.

“Whatever name you know it by, pebbledash, harling or dry dashing, this is a time-honoured building technique in Scotland which results in a long-lasting weatherproof shield, originally designed to protect stone buildings. This new one coat system offers a quick solution to architects, housebuilders and contractors, allowing their choice of decorative aggregates, to achieve an attractive and durable façade. ” says Tracey Dempster, head of marketing, Saint-Gobain Weber. “This practice is the most common type of finish that has been used throughout Scotland for centuries. Long lasting and practical weberend one coat dash, finished with a blend of decorative aggregate stones, is perfectly suited to the exposed locations of the country offering low maintenance and upkeep as its increased surface area serves to maximise evaporation and protect against driving rain.”

For more information about this product, or for technical support including award winning training courses, please contact Saint-Gobain Weber on 08703 330 070, or visit www.netweber.co.uk.
A free download of the Weber App for iPhone and iPad users is also available from iTunes and from Google Play for Android smartphones and tablet users. Follow Saint-Gobain Weber on Twitter @SGWeberUK for the latest company news and updates.