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Crittall ‘Sustainability’ focussed Podcast Series – Edition 1 – Transcript to support learning
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Steel Windows – Sustainability meets Style – Edition 1. ‘The Strength of Steel’
Crittall ‘Sustainability’ focussed Podcast Series – Edition 1 – Transcript to support learning
‘Nobody can doubt the strength of steel as a construction material, but its qualities in the field of sustainability are rather less obvious, but no less impressive’ says Russell Ager, Managing Director of Crittall Windows.
And in this special edition series of bite-sized learning podcasts sponsored by Crittall, we discuss The Strength of Steel, The Life Cycle Assessment of Steel, How to protect Steel Building Materials from corrosion and why Windows are one particular building component that emphasises the plusses of sustainability for the material.
In this first edition we explore the ‘The Strength of Steel’
It is the strength of steel that contributes to its credentials as a sustainable, environmentally sound and cost-effective choice. Quite simply, it can be recycled or re-used continually without deterioration of its fundamental properties. This translates into a high value placed on the product throughout its long life.
Steel components have been recovered for many years and the process for recycling is therefore highly developed. Current rates of recovery from demolition sites in Great Britain are an astonishing 99% for structural steel and 94% for all types of steel construction. These percentages leave far behind all other types of building material.
Currently some 86% of steel gathered as scrap is returned to the furnace while 13% is dismantled for direct re-use. This leaves just 1% that is lost to rust or landfill.
On a worldwide basis some 40% of all steel produced is based on the use of recycled scrap, that’s 500 million tonnes per year or the equivalent of 180 Eiffel Towers per day. For the UK market, that could be translated into 25 Forth Rail Bridges!
Of course, sustainability is more than just re-use and recycling and other important considerations include the environmental cost of manufacture.
Thank you for listening to the first edition of this bite-sized learning podcast series. Make sure you listen to all 4 editions to fully understand how with Steel Windows – Sustainability meets Style!
In the next edition we explore ‘The Life Cycle Assessment of Steel’
For more information about Crittall steel windows, please go to www.crittall-windows.co.uk
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The sky is the limit for the Riverside Museum, Glasgow, with the help of Bilco UK
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Housing the Glasgow Museum of Transport, one of the UK’s foremost transport and technology collections, the Riverside Museum reflects Glasgow’s historic role as a centre of shipbuilding, train manufacturing and engineering.
Previously located in a former tram depot on the Glasgow South Side, the Transport Museum’s exhibits have moved to The Riverside Museum, designed by renowned architect, Zaha Hadid.
The museum’s iconic and beautiful design dominates its riverside location, whilst paying homage to the heritage of its surroundings. Crucial to the museum’s flowing design is its roof, which curves and undulates and continues around the east and west sides of the building to constitute the majority of the external structure.
Silver-grey zinc panels complete the effect, placing the building firmly in the context of the River Clyde. As part of the roof construction, Bilco UK was commissioned to manufacture and supply a E-50TB Roof Access Hatch, in addition to two ESW-50REM Smoke Vents, to meet strict requirements for convenient access and building safety regulations.
Both the roof access hatch and smoke vents were custom-designed to unique specifications by Bilco UK’s in house team and clad in zinc to create a seamless, aesthetic finish with the museum’s distinctive roof.
Expertly engineered to meet the requirements of Manual Handling Regulations, the E-50TB Roof Access Hatch allows for regular and convenient maintenance by facilitating easy one-handed operation. The Access Hatch will enable engineers with small tools to safely access the roof to conduct essential maintenance, whilst its overlapping cover design, fully welded corners and insulated cover ensure both weather tightness and energy efficiency to deliver the highest standards of longevity for the museum.
Specified to ensure strict adherence with relevant fire safety regulations, the two ESW-50REM Smoke Vents open to 140 degrees in the event of a fire within 60 seconds, guaranteeing the highest standards in fire safety and allowing for the venting of smoke, heat and noxious gases in the event of a fire.
Mark Baird, Sales Operations Manager at Bilco UK, said: “Knowing that Bilco UK’s products are part of such a unique and ambitious project, especially one which is so architecturally significant, is incredibly rewarding. The Riverside Museum is a great example of how taking a bespoke approach to roof access solutions can achieve unparalleled aesthetics, without compromising on convenience or safety.
“Not only do our custom-made access hatches and smoke vents integrate seamlessly into the overall design, they also offer the highest possible standards of fire safety and efficiency.”
Open to Glasgow to the North and the Clyde to the South, the museum’s interior is complex, inviting visitors to snake their way around the various exhibits. The building “flows from city to waterfront, symbolising the dynamic relationship between Glasgow and the ship-building, seafaring and industrial legacy of the river Clyde.” (Zaha Hadid).
For further information on Bilco UK’s complete range of roof access solutions, visit www.bilcouk.co.uk or call 01284 701696.
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CONDAIR LAUNCH RAPID RESPONSE SERVICE
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Condair has long offered planned preventative maintenance (PPM) contracts to ensure optimal operation of its clients’ humidifiers across the UK and Ireland, for any make and model. It also provides breakdown response for customers both with and without an existing PPM contract. However, the company is now providing an 8-hour call-out service, with engineers on call round-the-clock, to support clients with critical applications.
Tony Tullett, Service Director at Condair, commented, “It is great that we are able to add this rapid response service to our product offering. It enables us to provide additional reassurance to our clients who operate sites like data centres or pharmaceutical production facilities, and who cannot be without humidity control for extended periods. All of our PPM customers have access to our expert telephone support line, but with this additional feature activated, customers also get 24/7 telephone support and rapid response call-out options. Depending on the urgency of the issue, customers can choose to receive an engineer on site within 8, 24 or 48 hours.”
Condair has 18 service engineers strategically located across the UK and Ireland. Alongside system design and sales, the company offers installation, commissioning, service and spares supply.
The Condair Group is the world’s leading specialist in humidity control and evaporative cooling, with energy efficient, hygienic and innovative technologies for commercial, industrial and heritage applications. You can find out more by visiting the company’s website at www.condair.co.uk.
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Learn how Saint-Gobain PAM’s Rodding Branch massively reduces installation times for basement pipe systems
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By combining 8 separate parts into one unit, Saint-Gobain PAM’s Rodding Branch massively reduces installation times for basement pipe systems, boosting productivity and reducing labour demands. Watch our time trial of the video to see just how much time you can save on your project!
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Sanifos Makes Glamping Possible
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Saniflo UK – a leading designer and manufacturer of pumps and macerators – continues to provide drainage solutions to unusual and remote places guaranteeing business continuity for some of the country’s prominent staycation attractions locations.
Galley Hill Farm situated on the edge of the rolling Lincolnshire Wolds, an ‘Area of Natural Beauty’, is a farm with a successful ‘Pick Your Own’ business and a caravan site with 10 pitches in a stunning woodland grove adjacent to the family farmhouse.
The busy caravan site encompasses a block with shower and WCs and has recently expanded from 5 to 10 pitches plus two sizeable glamping pods complete with bathroom, bedroom, kitchen and living room..
Waste from the house and the toilet block is discharged to a septic tank that was recently upgraded due to new regulations that came into effect in 2020. A separate chemical disposal point was also installed for the caravan site.
The proposed space on site for the glamping pods did not have sufficient gravity fall to reach the septic tank, which was 70m away, and thus required a pump to discharge the waste. A Sanifos 610 underground lifting station provided the perfect solution; with sufficient capacity to accommodate more units in future.
A clearing behind the farmhouse was prepared which included concrete bases for the pods, a large pit for siting the Sanifos and trench for the main connection pipe. A small shed was erected to house the electrics and alarm for the Sanifos. The pods were dropped into place and the waste connections installed from the borehole water supply, which has its own water filtration system.
The Sanifos 610 has a 612-litre tank and is offered with a choice of one or two pumps. Galley Hill Farm specified the twin pump model to ensure continuity of service. The pumps work alternately to ensure even wear of the motors, but in the event of one pump failing, the other will activate to ensure it keeps working. It is supplied with a smart control box which is an interactive, intelligent station monitoring system and integrates an alarm for early warning of any problems.
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Service Growth At Condair
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Humidity control specialist, Condair, has appointed Ryan Mooney, as a humidifier service engineer based out of London. Strengthening its engineering presence in the capital allows Condair to provide an even more efficient response time to its many customers in the region.
Ryan has many years’ experience in the building services and environmental control sectors having worked at companies including Aqua Compliance Services and Certifact.
Tony Tullett, Service Director at Condair, comments, “We are very happy to welcome Ryan to the Condair service team and are proud to be expanding our nationwide network of engineers to 18. Condair boasts the largest specialist humidifier service department in the UK by far and we are perfectly placed to deliver the manufacturer’s engineering expertise on-site, no matter where in the UK that humidifier is located.”
The Condair Group is the world’s leading specialist in humidity control and evaporative cooling, with energy efficient, hygienic and innovative technologies for commercial, industrial and heritage applications. Condair is represented in the UK by Condair Limited, which offers system design, manufacture, supply, installation, commissioning, maintenance and spares. You can find out more by visiting the company’s website at www.condair.co.uk
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Crittall On The Right Lines With Crossrail
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Crittall is making a major contribution to new and refurbished West London railway stations on the multi-billion pound Crossrail infrastructure project.
Working for Network Rail contractors Hochtief Construction UK and John Graham Construction, Crittall has been creating the fenestration for a series of AfA (access for all) link bridges over the railway lines between platforms and ticket offices. W20 glazed pivot windows coupled on a fixed light with a PPC steel cement board made up the majority of the frames required.
The existing stations undergoing refurbishment and modification are at Southall, West Drayton, and Hayes and Harlington. The work, carried out by Hochtief, also included new buildings, platform widening and extensions, lift shafts and staircases.
John Graham Construction was responsible for completely new stations at West Ealing and Acton Mainline. In all cases Crittall, working with the main contractors, organised the contracts so as to minimise disruption to the operation of the railway which has now been renamed the Elizabeth Line.
Just over half of the frames were fixed and glazed off site in Wiltshire and Rotherham then transported by the contractor to the site and craned into place during specific set times controlled by Network Rail.
The remaining windows for the contract had to be fixed and glazed on site at the stations during controlled ‘possession’ time slots at nights and weekends when the railway lines were closed of a period of time.
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Warren Cycles For Charity
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No sooner than he joins the business than Saniflo’s new Kinedo Business Development Manager, Warren Knowles, is persuaded to participate in the PHG Revolution 150 Charity Bike Ride. No easy feat, the two-day, 150-mile course runs from Harrogate to Darlington through the Yorkshire Dales and back again through the North Yorkshire Moors.
Supporting two environmental charities, Surfers Against Sewage and Woodland Trust, the ride raises money and also awareness of how every single person can help the war on plastic pollution and the carbon crisis both at home and at work. Like many charities, both suffered losses during the pandemic and this event was designed to help them recover.
So, on Friday 1st October, Warren donned his best bike shoes and Saniflo-sponsored shirt to tackle the course;
“To say it was a bit of a killer ride over the two days is an understatement. We had atrocious weather conditions for the duration of challenge. We covered 80 miles with 4,600m of climbs on day one and a further 75 miles on day 2 with a mere 3,000m of climbs.”
Happily, Warren finished the challenge with a big smile on his face.
“Not only was Saniflo the shirt sponsor, but also donated to the worthy cause, so there was no way I was going to get away without finishing! I actually really enjoyed the challenge and was delighted to help put these crucial charities back on the map.”
There is still time to donate. With gift aid, the total stands at just £500 shy of an incredible £50k.
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Armourcoat PPX® features in award-winning sanctuary show garden at Chelsea flower show
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The garden design, entitled “The Boodles Secret Garden”, is inspired by the well-loved children’s story by Frances Hodgson-Burnett, and is an interpretation of the journey to an enchanted, life-changing sanctuary.
Two walls were hand finished with Armourcoat PPX, a low maintenance, durable exterior limestone render that creates stunning honed and textured stone-like finishes.
Thomas Hoblyn commented “The garden has a very naturalistic feel about it and I used a lot of natural products like timber in its raw form and hand dressed stone and I really wanted to create a wall that had the same mood. Armourcoat PPX creates this lovely pitted effect so it
looks like it’s been there for a long time which is bang on for the ambience I was trying to create for the sanctuary garden. Armourcoat really does have that natural beautiful textured finish. It’s a perfect exterior product as it looks flawless and is designed to last. I would happily use Armourcoat again and again and again, I would use them for all my show gardens because it’s a great way to get a really good effect but it’s a real product that you can use outside. This is not a stage set, this is a real garden and this is what Armourcoat are really good at doing”.
The finished garden highlights the importance of finding an inner sanctuary to restore and enhance life after uncertainty and crisis; a space in which to heal and move forward, metaphorically and in the real space of our own gardens.
Tom Hoblyn is a British landscape designer, horticulturist, and gardener designer. An established figure at both Chelsea and RHS Hampton Court designs “The Boodles Secret Garden” is Tom’s seventh show garden for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
01732 460668
www.armourcoat.com
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Bradite helps WW1 silhouettes campaign
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‘Standing with Giants’ is a non-profit organisation that creates life size WWI soldier silhouettes that can be sited temporarily in open spaces.
The silhouettes, each six feet tall depicting a British Tommy with his rifle slung over his shoulder, are made from a plastic/aluminium composite material derived from recycled signage from building sites.
Bradite are proud to have donated their One Can primer/finish paint to the project, helping protect the many hundreds of figures now being made at Standing with Giants’ Oxfordshire workshop. The project also makes two-foot diameter poppy wreaths which have been painted in One Can.
“I was contacted last Autumn by the project which was already using One Can supplied through the Abingdon branch of builders merchants, Brewers,”
explained Bradite’s National Sales Manager James Burton. “We were asked if we could help and are happy to provide our product for the next phase of the project over the coming year, and of course, it was our privilege to help the community remember our fallen heroes.”
The silhouettes, 101 in total, first appeared at a nature reserve on a hillside overlooking the M40 motorway, before being invited by the Duke of Marlborough to site a couple of hundred together with poppy wreaths on a hillside on the grounds of Blenheim Palace.
These twin events created so much public interest that an incredible £66,000 was raised from visitors for the Poppy Appeal during a time when the Royal British Legion’s fundraising had been badly hit by the COVID pandemic.
“People’s reaction has been astonishing. We have had people crying, they found it so moving,” says the project founder, Dan Barton.
It was clear that the idea had caught the public’s imagination and future installations are now being planned. 2000 soldier silhouettes and 1500 poppy wreaths are being created and thoroughly weatherproofed thanks to Bradite One Can, an all-purpose, quick-drying, stain resistant paint.
It is hoped that these mobile tributes will also find their way to the Falkland Islands for the 30th anniversary of the military action.
For more information about Standing with Giants visit: www.standingwithgiants.co.uk
