Komfort’s new range of Easi-Klix access panels, which come in a range of designs, allow easy access to voids and cavities that contain controls, piping or electronics. Should emergency or regular maintenance work need to be carried out, engineers can access the space quickly and with minimal disruption.
The range caters for almost every eventuality, from plastic panels that are fixed using a pump-applied adhesive through to acoustic, airtight or even 240 minute fire rated panels. Komfort access panels are available in almost any size, ranging from 100mm x 150mm growing as big as 2,400mm high by 3,000mm wide with multiple doors.
Any of the access panels within the Komfort portfolio are available with DuPont Alesta AM Powder Coatings, which inhibits the growth of harmful bacteria such as E-coli, making the panels suitable for use in hospital environments, educational spaces, and food establishments and packaging areas.
For the full range of Easi-Klix access panels, visit the Komfort website and download the brochure at www.komfort.com/literature.
SAS Direct has opened its latest depot in Runcorn, Cheshire. This is the sixth SAS Direct depot to open since the business started two years ago. The new 10,000 square foot facility at Manor Park will serve contractors in the North West of England and North Wales.
The new depot provides a wide range of fit out solutions from ceiling systems to partitioning, including the new fully glazed System 8000. With drop-in trade counter facilities at the site, customers will benefit from the extensive technical product knowledge of SAS Direct staff.
Paul Golden, Managing Director at SAS Direct, said: “The opening of our new facility is great news for local contractors working on new build and refurbishment projects. They can benefit from our quality product set and our team’s expertise.”
Andrew Carter has been appointed as SAS Direct Runcorn Depot Manager.
SAS Direct is a division of SAS International
For further information on SAS Direct visit www.sasdirect.co.uk
With pressure on margins unlikely to go away any time soon, contractors are looking more than ever to improve productivity. Steve Menary reviews some of the options in the tools and fixings sector.
There is only so much to be squeezed out of materials suppliers or the labour market, but innovations in tools and fixings offers potential savings for contractors. “There is little doubt that certain combinations of tools and fixings can improve productivity,” admits Mark Grocock, managing director of East Midlands-based Bespoke Drywall.
There have been a number of innovations to aid changing trends in other areas, such as the growth in cold formed steel framing systems that require fixings into concrete and steel.
Using traditional TEK screws, work can be slow and often requires working at height. Hilti has worked with CFSFS manufacturers such as Metsec, Kingspan and Hadley to provide a solution and Hilti’s DX460MX has been used with Horbury, reducing installation time by 65 per cent and the total installation cost by 35 per cent.
Another change has seen more deflection or movement in drywall systems increasingly allowed; layers of plasterboard and wood tend to be placed above the head track and the whole system then fixed to the concrete or steel base.
Most traditional gas-powered tools do not have long enough nails and sufficient power to work on these types of drywall configurations and contractors must seek alternatives. Richard Blain, trade manager for Northern Europe at Hilti, says: “Some contractors revert back to traditional light duty anchors which are slow to install but our Hilti power-actuated DX460MX system will fasten up to 50mm deflection head details. Productivity is significantly increased and time spent working at height is reduced.”
Probably the defining contribution from tools and fixings to productivity has been improved performance, longevity and capacity of cordless power tools. “Can anyone still remember holding a plasterboard sheet in place and fixing it with a hand held screwdriver?” says Kevin Brannigan, marketing manager at Makita UK.
Initially, mains powered drills, planers and grinders improved productivity followed by the introduction of drywall screwdrivers. Makita has been selling drywall screwdrivers since 1980. Mr Brannigan adds: “The percussion and hammer functions were developed for mains tools but there was a new philosophy about to emerge.”
The introduction of cordless tools using NiCad battery cells produced kit with greater drilling power and longer charge life. Power tools go up to 38 volts but the quest has always been to emulate a mains powered AC machine. NiCad still works as an inexpensive cell but with potential downsides over safe disposal and charging limit. Nickel Metal Hydride, Ni-MH, was an improvement but has been surpassed Lithium-ion – or Li-ion.
According to Makita, the high density Li-on cells are 40 per cent lighter than a Ni-MH cell and provide 430 per cent more working capacity during their lifetime. As a result, cabled tools are frequently being phased out.
“We actually won’t allow the purchase of cabled tools now unless it is a cold cutter. The steady improvement in battery life and weight and recharging times has made the clumsy cabled drywall screw-guns obsolete,” adds Mr Grocock, who sees other benefits from this improved productivity.
He continues: “A perhaps unforeseen advantage of many [new tools] is they also improved safety. As a company we long ago stopped purchasing mains power tools. Our lads will order the tools and we allow them to pay for them over a fixed period. We’re now on third generation Hilti cordless drywall guns which though expensive are at the top of their game. Add to this the magazine which allows the use of collated screws and you have a proper and super-fast tool.”
Collated screws also typically cost more, but the benefits to safety make this worthwhile, says Mr Grocock, who concludes: “At first I resisted the extra cost of collated screws but after seeing how many screws get kicked around on the floor I realised that it actually made good commercial sense. The introduction of nail strips for tools like the GX120, and the gas cartridge replacing the old strip cordite shots increase productivity, reduce waste and greatly improve safety.”
Yet for all these improvements, there is one tool that manufacturers cannot provide. “You still need the ultimate tool,” concludes Mr Grocock. “Quality labour; it’s alright building a partition or ceiling quickly but if it’s in the wrong place, it’s all for nothing.”
The long term outlook for specialist contractors remains tough but tender enquiries are picking up, according to the latest FPDC State of Trade Survey, and contractors are more optimistic about the future than at any stage in the last 12 months.
Government figures released last month by ONS showed that construction output in April fell by 13 per cent compared to March and was 9 per cent lower than the same month one year earlier. Furthermore, ONS also revised the contraction in construction output during Q1, for the third time, to -4.9 per cent. FPDC’s second quarter of 2012 State of Trade survey confirmed that orders are not strong, as Government cuts begin to bite deeper and investor confidence remains low. Overall contractors are more optimistic about the future, than at any stage during the last 12 months.
Steve McGuckin, managing director of the construction and programme management consultancy Turner & Townsend, said: “These latest numbers (ONS) make pretty painful reading. They suggest that the construction industry’s challenges aren’t as bad as we thought; they’re worse. With public sector construction down more
than 22 per cent on this time last year, the impact of the government’s austerity cuts is clear. There have been some signs of life in the private sector, but their impact has been to do little more than mitigate the pain.
“The pain isn’t being spread equally over the regions either with South East England proving more resilient, than almost everywhere else. Demand is still there, but competition for work is very intense. The major players are surviving, even if their margins have got steadily tighter.”
One of the positive findings was FPDC members saying tender enquiries are beginning to strengthen. Nearly a half of respondents say tender enquiries are on the increase compared to only 26 per cent at the start of 2012. Now more than half of FPDC members are reporting fewer new orders than at the end of 2011. And margins are continuing to be eroded as contractors seek to secure forward work.
Over a quarter of survey respondents wait 90 days for payment. The new Construction Act and the introduction of project bank accounts in public work doesn’t seem to be having an effect.
Paul Jessop, chief executive at FPDC, said: “Late payment, withholding retentions and the spectre of insolvencies is having a detrimental effect on business activity which appears to have weakened further since the turn of the year. Measures that create more demand are essential if the sector is to be able to respond when recovery picks up. Vastly expensive civil projects are not helping at all.¨
Phase 2 at West Chester College was officially opened last week following a fit out by Neslo Partitioning. Neslo installed two products from Knauf Drywall in the rotunda on West Cheshire College’s campus at Ellesmere Port.
Knauf Soundshield, high-performance plasterboard enables the teaching areas to meet the strict standards laid down by Building Bulletin 93: Acoustic Design of Schools while Knauf Impact Panel is installed in corridors, circulation areas and workshops. Both products are mounted on frames of 70mm Knauf ‘C’ Studs.
Knauf Performer partitions clad with Knauf Soundshield each side, and using the latest Knauf Resilient Bar technology, can achieve up to 65dB (Rw) within an overall width of just 164mm. Impact Panel not only provides a superb, durable finish but is also easily repaired should any damage occur. Impact Panel can also be combined with other Knauf products to give a superior acoustic performance of up to 57dB (Rw).
The Creative and Service Industries Campus at Ellesmere Port will open in September 2011 and is part of a £65 million construction programme. The new 19,500m2 campus will be a landmark building providing vocational training in the areas of hospitality and catering and the visitor economy, hairdressing and beauty therapy, health and social care, childcare, sport and public services and performing arts and music.
Unusually the building consists of two atria attached to a 60m diameter rotunda that is 25m high, with a ramp that spirals up between floors that is dubbed “the Learning Ramp” because the various learning spaces project from the ramp into the rotunda. Rather than classrooms, these spaces provide practical working environments, such as hair salons and, in one case, an aeroplane cabin for those being trained to be air stewards.
Knauf Drywall has developed a range of proven systems that meet the specific design challenges for walls, ceilings and floors set by schools and colleges, which mainly concern the acoustic characteristics, fire performance and durability of materials. Its Project and Specification team is well versed in the design requirements of education projects and can provide hands-on support and advice throughout on larger projects.
Deflection heads in drywall partitions are quite often the topic of discussion, and for Steve Halcrow, technical consultant to FPDC, the subject has arisen numerous times, so what are the major points.
The principle of the deflection head is simple: during normal use, all buildings move around, and part of this movement is the deflection of floor elements as they literally bend under the load. Any partition built underneath that floor will have load imposed upon it by the structure above, causing the wall itself to bend, potentially cracking finishes and causing other problems. We therefore build a telescopic head arrangement which allows the deflection to take place without putting any load on the wall below.
The problem is the deflection head is a relatively complicated, and hence expensive detail to construct. The question often arises as to whether it is really required at all; I know of numerous cases of clients asking the drywall contractor whether they need to be used, and if so how big a deflection needs to be accommodated.
The answer to whether or not they are needed lies with the structural engineer. In their design they will have calculated a THEORETICAL maximum to which they expect any given floor construction to deflect, and it is this figure, plus factors of safety and perhaps other add-ons that eventually arrives in our drywall drawings.
Typically we are asked to accommodate 15, 20 or 25mm deflection (sometimes more), and realistically when might we expect a concrete slab of perhaps 250mm thick to move that far?
The answer is never, unless there has been a catastrophic structural failure! But if that’s what the engineer calculates as a maximum POTENTIAL deflection then that’s what we have to cater for, and unless you are prepared to employ an engineer to disprove the original calculations (highly unlikely, to say the least) then you must adhere to the requirement.
Of course there are times when the structure to which you are attaching partitions may deflect quite a lot. Portal frame roofs, for instance, are capable of a great deal of movement under wind and snow loadings, etc., and in those ‘non-standard’ cases the detail becomes even more complex.
As a drywall contractor you cannot say whether a deflection head is required. You can only advise how to construct the detail to cater for the amount of deflection stated by the engineer in any given case. In all cases it is imperative that you build the detail correctly, as the performance of the wall depends on it. Typical faults include:
– Studs and boards not cut sufficiently short to permit deflection
– Screws penetrating the head track, rendering the detail useless
– Flat plates being omitted or installed too low; they MUST be as detailed
– Insulation and mastic not included correctly as per the design detail
– Wrong boards used as fillets beneath the head track
The plasterboard manufacturers have a range of different details available depending upon the system in use and the performance required. It is vital that you adhere to their details and do not assume a principle applied by one manufacturer will necessarily apply when building partitions from another; there are some differences.
In my experience engineers and architects are unwilling to dispense with, or significantly reduce, the need for a deflection head, even if the indications are that they are not necessary. They remain therefore a fact of drywall life, and whilst this is the case they need to be built carefully and correctly. The risk has been effectively delegated from the engineer to the subcontractor so do not treat it lightly!
Steve Halcrow is technical consultant to FPDC
Extensive insulation, new windows and doors have been used to bring a 1950s former council house up to Passivhaus standards.
The project, by Orbit Heart of England, has used a range of energy efficiency measures including installing 200mm XPS polystyrene external insulation to foundations;200mm Kingspan Kooltherm K5 insulation and Wetherby Building Systems render to external walls; new triple glazed UPVC System 10 SmartSash windows; new insulated external doors, fitted within new 200mm external wall insulation and a new floor slab with 200mm Celotex insulation.
The semi-detached house is part of an estate of semidetached, end terrace and midterrace housing built in the 1950s and is the first Wimpey no-fines construction to be refurbished to the Passivhaus retrofit standard (EnerPHit) in the world.
The house has a floor area of 70m2 and previously produced heating bills of £1,100 a year.
Once the house is retro-fitted to the Passivhaus standard, then energy consumption will drop by around 85%.
Foulstone and Wombwell Academy is the latest new school to evolve out of Barnsley’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) 10 school programme. Rotherham-based Horbury was in the final days of completing a £1.4 million drywall, ceiling and cladding package when Specfinish visited the site team.
It’s hard to believe it but Laing O’Rourke didn’t put a spade in the ground until January 2011”, says Chris Goodison from Horbury Building Systems about Foulstone and Wombwell Academy. And the ultra clean and safe site is testimony to the meticulous planning and preparation of the main contractor, an exemplar site if ever there was.
Horbury’s package statistics are impressive. Start on site in June 2011 and install 12,000 sq m of drywall, 8,000 sq m of ceilings and clad the exterior in heat treated spruce and composite panels. All to be completed by March 2012.
Chris Goodison, Horbury’s senior contracts manager, said that the package came out to tender as two subcontracts (drywall and cladding) but these were combined when they were appointed: “We were able to share elements of the prelims and provide Laing O’Rourke with a single point of contact, yet still have dedicated project teams for each package.”
This approach helped to improve communications, something that was tested in the first month as Chris explained: “Within a week of placing the order for the timber cladding the nominated manufacturer announced that they were pulling out of supplying the UK market.
“We had to source a new supplier and because a new material could effect the exterior look it had planning implications. So we worked with Laing O’Rourke on test modules to get the new material approved and keep the contract on programme.”
Lunawood was selected as the timber cladding. It’s a heat treated spruce that’s had Omnia preservatives applied to make it water resistance and ensure that the colour won’t degrade. The profile of the individual planks was also developed to generate maximum rainwater shed
“Setting out was critical to retain perfect horizontal timber lines. Working on seven facades meant considerable pre-planning took place before each gang began installing a batten grid with 600mm centres. A special jig was built to ensure joints were uniform and level and also that the top of each window was met with an uncut plank.”
Working off mobile platforms, in gangs of two to three men, it took a week to batten out each elevation and then seven to 10 days to plank it. The timber planks were fixed using nail guns that had to be carefully calibrated to ensure that the fixing did not damage the timbers and that the screw heads sat flush with the surface.
Around the sports hall Kingspan composite panels were installed with sections of Danpalon polycarbonate elements to provide natural light into the hall and gym. Every second joint of the composite and glazed panels had to line up and the site team used the south east corner of the sports hall as the start point.
Horbury’s on site labour peaked at more than 40 so maintaining productivity was a key issue as Chris said: “The school’s design meant that there was a lot of repetitive work for the ceiling and drywall so we divided the project into two zones with independent gangs.”
The drywall design is Lafarge’s GTEC. The high performance Universal board made it possible to adopt a single layer system and a skim finish. The ceilings are Rockfon Alaska suspended tile and grid with a tile size upto 2.4mx0.6m
Inside the sports hall and gym the interior of the composite panels is lined with a metal frame with Fermacell impact board. Fermacell board has high impact properties which met Sport England critieria for use in gymnasiums. Fermacell’s fine surface treatment gave an excellent finish fit for decoration.
Drywall gangs installed stud, track and board then a separate gang installed the patresses. Before handing over to the M&E contractors Horbury’s first fix work was rigorously checked in line with the strict QA procedures and then rechecked as each area was taken back for the second fix to begin.
The ceilings first fix included the grid and service tiles, such as lights, sensors and sprinklers. Once the services were completed the ceilings were closed up and fully tiles out
The new school will ?feature state of the art ?teaching facilities and has ?been designed to deliver flexible learning spaces with greatly enhanced ICT and vastly improved sports and leisure facilities.
So what was the key challenge Chris Goodison said: ”From the outset we had to develop the indicative design in detail for the cladding package. This was complicated and utilised multiple suppliers to cover the work elements.
“But what stands out is the visual legacy of the timber cladding with its clean and crisp lines wrapping around the school. Horbury are delighted with the end result
The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has published the draft revision to Part L of the Building Regulations. The proposals, which cover energy efficiency, include tighter carbon dioxide emission standards for new homes and non-domestic buildings. The government says it is the next step towards ‘zero carbon’ standards and will include tighter performance standards for works to existing buildings.
The draft also contains proposals to introduce, on a phased basis, requirements for additional energy efficiency improvements to be carried out when other specified works (eg extensions) are planned, and Green Deal finance is available as an option to meet the up-front costs.
According to the consultation document, the requirement for these ‘consequential improvements’, such as cavity wall or loft insulation and draught proofing, would be triggered even when making small upgrades in a property.
Some construction commentators expressed concern that these ‘consequential improvements’ could cause a slump in construction work because home owners will face additional costs to implement energy efficiency measures.
And on new build government plans for carbonreduction targets have been scaled back from 25 per cent to just eight per cent of 2010 levels for new homes and 20 per cent for nondomestic buildings.
The Construction Products Association said it was encouraged by the initial proposals, as they reflect many of the points which industry has been pressing for. However, the association stressed that additional steps will be needed to the changes to Part L in 2013, if the zero carbon homes target for 2016, is to be achieved.
Comments about the proposals should be made to DCLG by the end of March.
Visit http://www.communities.gov.uk/ for more information
Bournville College, Birmingham, is where Horbury has installed drylining and ceiling systems.
Gyptone Quattro 41 was selected and extensively used in many of the atria and walkways, as well as the hair and beauty salon areas. The use of the highly aesthetic Gyptone acoustic ceiling systems actively contributes to the requirement of using textured products within the building whilst providing the high level of acoustic performance necessary in open learning environments (in line with the requirements of BB93).
Horbury’s Bournville College contract was among the sector winners of British Gypsum’s Gypsum Trophy competition. Each of the sector winners will represent the UK at the 9th International Saint-Gobain Gyproc Trophy to be held in London during June. Winners for each category included: Residential – St Pancras Chambers by Vladar; Plaster – RBC Dexia by Celtic Contractors; Plasterboard – Newport University by Topfix Interiors; Sector Specific – Bournville College by Horbury; Mixed Use – The Aquatics Centre by MPG; Innovation – Glasgow Museum of Transport by SCS, Clarke & Fenn and Gillespie.
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