Education

The Student Union at Royal Holloway has been modernised and redesigned with a bold new resin floor to the bar, circulation, reception and auditorium areas.

Royal Holloway Student’s Union needed an update to its decor to create a modern and exciting space for the students. The National Flooring Company provided bold, blocks of colour in black, white and grey to complement the new wall decoration in the bar, circulation, reception and auditorium. Using the Degafloor flake system the 500m2 project had to be completed over the summer vacation to be ready to welcome the new students in September. Image courtesy of Innerspace Associates Ltd

Resin flooring provides the perfect environment for Coventry University’s Faculty of Engineering and Computing.

AltroScreed QuartzTM EP resin flooring has been laid by Nottingham Industrial Flooring in the new £55 million Engineering & Computing building at Coventry University, providing an ideal base for an environment that has been created to house some of the most ground-breaking instrumentation in the UK. Part of the university’s £160m redevelopment plan for the city centre campus, the new Engineering & Computing facility includes a wealth of the latest technology. Complete with a 250-seat ‘theatre in the round’ space and a high-precision wind tunnel designed and built by the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team, the building has been designed for the 21st century graduate. The new building, which includes the Faculty of Engineering & Computing, also features a 2,000m2 £3m high-performance engineering centre, home to a Harrier Jump Jet aircraft, three flight simulators, the UK’s largest Cryogenic magnet, engine test cells for petrol- and electric-powered trains, and a leading precision measurement facility. The floor was installed by Nottingham Industrial Flooring, who had used AltroScreed Quartz EP before with great results. The project was complex – over two floors with 20 doorways. AltroScreed Quartz EP is a three-part, solvent-free system in which blended decorative quartz is bound with clear epoxy resin and finished with clear seal coats. The product provides a high-strength, chemically resistant, decorative floor surface that can be coved and laid to drainage falls. It is available in nominal thicknesses of 4mm to 6mm and has moderate slip resistance.

Gillshill Primary School in Hull has had its playground resurfaced and enhanced with the application of RonaDeck Resin Bound Surfacing

Architect Adrian Richmond of the NPS Group chose three shades of aggregate to create an inviting entrance to Gillshill Primary School in Hull. Sesame Gold was laid to 20m2, Collux Dark Blue to a further 22 m2 and the largest area covering 82 m2 was surfaced with Honey Jerez Yellow. The RonaDeck Resin Bound Surfacing System was supplied as a two-component UV stable polyurethane resin, the two components were mixed with a slow speed drill and paddle before being added to a forced action mixer containing the aggregate blend. The RonaDeck Resin Bound Surfacing was spread to level and smoothed the surface with a steel float. The finished surface was ready for the feet of many children within four hours. RonaDeck Resin Bound Surfacing satisfies SuDS requirements, allowing rainwater to quickly and easily drain through the porous surface, avoiding puddling. Slip testing shows risk of slip to be generally low, obviously an important consideration for a school playground.

State of the art St Anne’s Academy chose RSL’s Pychedelia resin flooring solution for their demanding food & technology areas not just for durability but to stand out from the ordinary.

When the state of the art learning facility St Annes Academy was being built in Middleton, Manchester a decorative yet hard wearing and safe flooring system was needed for the workshop and food technology area. RSL Psychedelia was chosen because its stands out from standard flooring solutions. The brief was for a heavy duty, hard wearing flooring, in addition the floors had to be easy to keep clean within the food & technology departments. Furthermore the client wanted an attractive finish that stood out from the rest of the building so the user senses a change in environment when they step into these sections of the building. The main contractor specified RSL’s Psychedelia; which combines the epoxy coating Resucoat with coloured PVA flakes, providing a decorative vibrant floor with all the benefits associated with a resin system such as hard wearing and hygienic / easy to clean. Firstly the concrete had to be prepared with 2 coats of R.S. Dampshield; a moisture tolerant epoxy resin primer. This ensured the resin would take to the floor eliminating residual moisture in the substrate so that the concrete can hold the resin. PVA flakes were then broadcast on to RSL’s Resucoat HB, a high build solvent free epoxy resin coating system which is used for applications at a thickness of 200 to 500 microns. The surface was then sealed using 2 coats ofRSL’s Resutop clear, this high build epoxy coating encapsulates the PVA flakes underneath and provides a durable top coat, capable of taking high levels of foot traffic, which is essential in a busy education environment. Using a resin system such as this also provides an easy cleaning surface particularly important for Food & Technology rooms. The system was then finished using RSL’s Resupen WB Matt Clear, a clear polyurethane coating which gives a contemporary matt finish, it also has high levels of scratch and abrasion resistance along with a level of slip resistance.

Christ Church First School in Frome Somerset have an inspiring outdoor space to fire their imaginations thanks to Ronacrete.

Christ Church First School in Frome Somerset wanted to create a sophisticated space for outdoor learning and education as part of a wider classroom extension project. The theme for the project was ‘be inspired,: “The school wanted the children to experience a space not traditionally found within infant education. They wanted to create a space which would be able to house the whole school or intimated groups of children for performance, teaching and learning.” said Michelle Martin, Landscape Architect, Southwest One. Southwest One, working in partnership with Somerset Council, designed, tendered and project managed the creation of the outdoor learning space which includes an amphitheatre, shade sails, cipher entrance archway, planters with seasonal planting and sculptured acrylic spheres for seating. The area was surfaced with RonaDeck Resin Bound Surfacing. Southwest One specified Ronacrete’s RonaDeck Resin Bound Surfacing Lunar Blend for the main performance area and RonaDeck Resin Bound Surfacing Bristol Blue glass for highlighting the performance ring.

A recently created sensory garden at a Hertfordshire Primary School has been given a slip-resistant environmentally friendly paving system from Ronadeck

Hoblett Manor Infant School required paths to be laid to their newly designed and created sensory garden, an enclosed area for children to enjoy nature and learn at the same time. The paths would be purely for foot traffic but needed to be visually attractive and slip-resistant. The school is committed to caring for the environment by recycling when possible, so Ronacrete’s newly introduced RonaDeck Eco Path MT was the obvious product for specification. RonaDeck EcoPath MT is a resin bound surfacing system that combines specially formulated resin with a blend of aggregate and recycled rubber granules (taken from truck tyres). The vulcanised rubber granules and kiln dried aggregate was placed into a clean, forced action mixer. The two parts of the RonaDeck Eco Path MT resin were mixed with a drill and helical paddle mixer attachment for 30-45 seconds. The mixed resin was immediately added to the mixer with the already mixed aggregate and rubber granules and mixed with the aggregate/rubber blend until the aggregate is evenly coated. RonaDeck Eco Path MT was then applied at a thickness of 35mm to the prepared sub-base of compacted Type 3 aggregate and levelled and smoothed with a float, taking care not to compact the resin to ensure permeability. The surface was allowed to cure and was ready for foot traffic within 24 hours. The day was sunny but if there had been heavy rain then the surface would have needed sheltering for the first 12 hours. RonaDeck EcoPath MT forms a series of pathways through the Sensory Garden at Hoblett Manor Infant School that are comfortable under foot and visually pleasing, enabling the pupils to gain access to the sights, smells and sounds of the garden.

As part of a building project at the University of Birmingham, 1075 sqm of Ronadeck paths were laid for the new student accommodation.

A major building project at the University of Birmingham involved building new student accommodation and external works to some of the existing buildings. As part of the development and refurbishment new paths were laid leading up to and around the accommodation. 1075 square metres of resin bound surfacing have been laid on the paths to create a durable, slip resistant and aesthetically pleasing surface for the students to walk on. RonaDeck Resin Bound Surfacing with a Harvest Crunch aggregate blend was laid on a prepared asphalt base. The system was supplied as a two-component UV stable polyurethane resin to be mixed with a blend of kiln-dried decorative aggregates. The two components of the resin were mixed with a slow speed drill and paddle before being added to a large forced action mixer containing the aggregate blend. After ensuring that the aggregate was fully coated with resin, the RonaDeck Resin Bound Surfacing was spread to level and smoothed with a steel float. The finished surface was ready for students’ feet within four hours. Ronadeck Resin Bound Surfacing satisfies SuDS requirements, allowing rainwater to quickly and easily drain through the porous surface. All blends have been tested for slip resistance in wet and dry conditions; test results show the risk of slip to be low. RonaDeck Resin Bound Surfacing is a UV stable resin bound aggregate surfacing; its functional properties and decorative appearance make it an attractive choice for a wide range of paving applications.