Birmingham’s historic Central Fire Station has been brought to life following a multi-million pound redevelopment. All paving was grouted using Flowpoint, the renowned rapid setting grout from UltraScape.
The £35 million redevelopment has given the disused Grade II listed 1930’s fire station a new lease of life as apartments for students of Aston and City of Birmingham Universities.
The station has been transformed into stylish apartments, as well as shops, bars and leisure facilities, yet still retaining many of its iconic features such as the 40ft fireman’s pole and the drill tower.
As part of the redevelopment, Construction Group, Watkins Jones, reclaimed 300m² of original cobblestones from around the site which they cleaned, re-laid and grouted with UltraScape’s BS 7533 compliant Flowpoint rapid set grout. Simple to use, requiring only the addition of water on site, it is poured over the area and washed clean, filling all joints evenly, without staining. This slurry method provides an easy method of grouting large areas, quickly. The material is particularly suitable for use on irregular joints and can accommodate widths between 5mm and 50mm and depths of up to 200mm in a single pass. It is fast and efficient to apply, leaving a perfect stain free finish. Flowpoint can be opened to pedestrians in just 1 hour and vehicular traffic after only 4 hours, minimising disruption.
Site Manager, Terry Hyslop commented “Flowpoint is a great product, it was easy to use and its fast setting time enabled us to keep downtime to a minimum.”
The site has been transformed into a vibrant location, combining classic styling with modern design. It was recognised for its innovation and sustainability credentials at the RICS awards 2016, where it was crowned the UK’s national design through innovation winner!
Flowpoint is also our bestselling product at The Paving Experts and is available in three varieties – Original, ECO and Smooth and 2 colours – Charcoal and Natural Grey. Flowpoint original gives a course textured finish, ECO offers a solution with excellent sustainability credentials, replacing a large 20% of the virgin aggregate in the product with recycled glass, and smooth is the product of choice for a contemporary finish, allowing clients to achieve both a smooth joint finish and narrower joints than the standard product.
With its ability to grout large areas quickly and efficiently, leaving a stain free, durable finish, Flowpoint is a fantastic choice for any landscaping specialist. Flowpoint can also be used in wet weather, meaning that paving projects can be finished despite the best of British weather.
For larger projects, The Paving Experts also offer the incredibly efficient Paving Grout Sponge Machine SWM680 for either weekly hire or to purchase. A sponge machine is ideal where large areas of paving are open to grout, where areas of up to 500 square metres can be grouted by a single machine in a day. A sponge machine uses a coarse industrial continuous belt sponge on a petrol driven machine to efficiently remove surplus grout from newly grouted paving, leaving a clean finish.
For further information on flowpoint and the other paving, grouting and general construction materials and tools that are available from The Paving Experts, please do visit us at www.thepavingexperts.co.uk or call +44(0)845 8621099.
If you need the right tools to do the job The Paving Experts stocks a full range of hand and power tools for the application of flowpoint grout. Please get in touch today or have a look on our website.
For more information on our fleet of paving grout machines for hire, visit our website www.thepavingexperts.co.uk or call the office for a quote or to make an enquiry.
Finally, if you have large or unusual order requirements, feel free to get in touch.
The Paving Experts also have a sister site, The Tiling Experts; take a look at our website today for all your expert tiling needs.
