The weber.rend OCR pre-blended one-coat render system has been used in the construction of the £12.5 million new leisure, sports and swimming pool complex recently opened at Flitwick in Bedfordshire by Central Bedfordshire Council.
Significant savings in time and money have resulted from the use of weber.rend OCR specified as background render for substantial areas of tiling in the pool areas as well as the preparation of larger areas of render prior to the application of painted finishes. The faster application times achieved by the pump applied, one-coat render saves labour costs and speeds the construction program substantially. Together with lower material volumes, when compared with traditional cement and sand renders, further budget benefits are achieved.
weber.rend OCR is designed as a technical basecoat render for a wide variety of stable substrates including brickwork, blockwork and concrete, and provides an ideal background for all Weber finishes, masonry paints and other surface coatings. The render is based on Portland cement, lime and sand which is factory blended to ensure consistency and conforms to British Standard mix formulas BS5262 and BS5492. weber.rend OCR is available in two grades suitable for external rendering or as a tile backing render; weber.rend OCRT, a lime-free version for tiling background, that conforms to BS5385, was also used in this project.
With just the addition of clean water on site, these bagged products require just one coat to deliver render thicknesses of between 8mm and 20mm with a 2-3 day curing time. By comparison, traditional renders would need several passes to build a 20mm thickness, with three day curing periods between each pass. weber.rend OCR is a fast, efficient render system for modern building operations.
The Flitwick Leisure Centre opened at the end of February 2016 bringing superb new health and sports facilities to the residents of this area of Bedfordshire. The sparkling centre includes an eight lane, 25 metre swimming pool; separate learner pool zone; sports hall; fitness suite with 120 cardio machines; three dance and exercise studios; two squash courts; a 10 metre high indoor climbing wall and first class changing facilities, crèche and cafe area.
The main contractor for this project was SDC Builders Limited, Bedford, where project manager Paddy Leslie gives credit to the weber.rend OCR as well as the skills and experience of the specialist applicator Jordaya Contracting Limited, Rushden, Northants. “Pool halls are a difficult build project in terms of both design and access, and also in terms of scheduling the various trades, but the weber OCR and Jordaya got the job done for us. The pumped system has benefits in that there is more controlled mixing and application with less waste.”
Sean Denton of Jordaya Contracting, who is regularly involved with major civic build projects such as the Flitwick Leisure Centre, says: “These are big builds that need to be delivered quickly after long periods of planning and consultation. We proposed and used Weber products at Flitwick Leisure Centre as we have used these products many times and know we will achieve the consistency and ease of material handling along with the factory formulated back-up that we could not get with site mixed products.
“We applied weber.rend OCRT on 2000m² for tiling background; weber.rend OCR on 500m² for painted walls and brought in weber.rend LAC render mortar for 200m² of low level concrete walls which we treated first with weber.rend aid to ensure a strong bond. We saved a great amount of time and reduced material costs which is always appreciated by the main contractor. We have great faith in Weber materials and the supply chain.”
For more information about this project, or for technical support, please contact Saint-Gobain Weber on 08703 330 070, or visit www.netweber.co.uk. Customers in Ireland should call 028 9335 2999 or visit www.weber.ie
A free download of the new 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.