This was a residential conversion project, converting a traditional flour mill into 9 luxury apartments.
GECC Ltd create high quality commercial and residential spaces in the Midlands. BWP Plastering Services Ltd were contracted to provide design input and undertake the dry lining, insulation and plastering packages throughout. The client wanted to produce high quality, luxurious spaces for modern living whilst maintaining the charm and character of the original building.
The traditional structure of the building provided some challenges. The initial difficulty to overcome was access. The stairs were too narrow to load out materials so we needed to confer with client to design a plan for the distribution of the materials through the four floors. We overcame the problem by creating gaps in the floors to carry the boards through. This saved considerable time and kept the job on schedule.
As this was an old, traditional building, it required significant upgrades in thermal, acoustic and fire resistant properties. To achieve this, we upgraded from standard plaster boards to thermal which provided a U vale up to 0.22. All external walls were also upgraded as the old building did not have a cavity. We again, achieved this by using thermal boards on adhesive pads fitted to all external walls.
The duplex apartments comprised of separating walls and acoustic ceilings. Sound boards were installed to both sides of the partitioning with a 50mm APR insulation in between the studs with a plastered finish.
The ceilings below were acoustic and required sound boards and a plastered finish. This meant we were able to achieve a sound quality of 63 db. value. We installed plasterboard to both sides of the partition walls with 50mm APR insulation in between the studs with a plastered finish.
On the first floor the spec changed on the ceilings as it was a flat roof above. We used 100mm PIR board friction fitted in between the ceiling joists with a membrane underneath, installed a 15mm plasterboard to the underside of the ceiling with a plastered finish. This allowed us to achieve the specified U value and acoustic value required by the architect. All walls were of the same design throughout the project.
The ground floor was to be converted into commercial units. Due to the residential dwellings above, we needed to increase the acoustic properties and the fire resistance. We achieved this by using an MF ceiling on acoustic hangers to prevent reverberation from the above dwellings. We then fitted 100mm APR in between the joist with two layers of sound boards and a plastered finish. This allowed us to achieve the necessary fire rating as well as the requested acoustic rating.
The client requested a turnaround of 10 weeks and the project was completed on time and in budget.
