REHAU’s RAUTITAN pipework has been specified for Hungate – a new high quality, town centre housing development being built in the historic city of York.
Currently under construction on a brownfield site just two minutes from the town’s shops and amenities, Hungate is York’s newest residential quarter. Once complete, the complex will provide more than 1,000 one, two and three-bedroom apartments, all designed to the highest specifications.
Hungate is being developed by Lendlease, a leading international property and infrastructure group with operations in Australia, Asia, Europe and the Americas.
Building services consultants TÜV SÜD were enlisted in the third phase of the Hungate scheme to ensure the newest apartment blocks would be operationally efficient.
Since taking over on the project, TÜV SÜD has updated the specification for the scheme’s plumbing pipework, having worked closely with its nominated contractors Genlec Ltd, on a new polymer pipework package featuring REHAU’s RAUTITAN product.
Colin Hindmarch, Associate at TÜV SÜD, said: “Our chosen contractor Genlec came to us with a contract proposal featuring RAUTITAN and we were very interested to know more about it. We had used REHAU products on other projects in the past, such as their underfloor heating pipework, and had a good experience, so were happy to see if the RAUTITAN could deliver equally good results for Hungate.”
Paul Thompson, Area Sales Manager from REHAU, visited Colin and the TÜV SÜD team at their offices and gave them a full product demonstration. Colin was impressed with what he saw, particularly the quality and ease of installation that RAUTITAN offered.
Colin added: “The ease of installation was a real selling point for us. The contractors could fit it very quickly, bending the flexible pipe around obstructions rather than having to dogleg as you would with rigid copper pipework. With so many apartments to fit the drinking water and heating pipework in, we recognised the huge potential for time savings across a large construction project.”
Compared to copper pipework, RAUTITAN offers considerable time savings during installation. There is no ‘hot work’, no cutting and soldering pipes to navigate around obstructions and the joints take less than 30 seconds to complete. As the pipework can be used for both drinking water and hot water, contractors only need to buy one type of pipe, which comes on a handy reel for easy roll out when needed.
Another selling point for TÜV SÜD was the EVERLOC compression sleeve joint system. Lengths of RAUTITAN are joined together using the compression sleeve joint system, which is very simple and quick to do using a RAUTOOL device. This system produces a guaranteed permanently sealed joint without the need for O-rings, which can degrade over time and cause leaks.
Colin said: “It was vital that we installed pipework that could stand the test of time for this project. The RAUTITAN comes in longer lengths, so there’s no need for joints above the ceiling, and with the compression sleeve jointing system, we know the failure rate for the joints is zero. You can’t make the pipework more robust than that.”
RAUTITAN is currently being installed on the third phase of the Hungate development, due for completion in 2019, and is already being put forward for the larger fourth phase of the scheme.
Drew Clough, Product Manager at REHAU, commented on the project: “When it comes to urban living and multi-occupancy buildings, quality and ease of installation are key to the successful installation of pipework. Contractors want something that can be fitted quickly to get the high volume of work completed as efficiently as possible, and building services consultants want products that are of a quality that guarantees they won’t have any leaks, which can be particularly costly as running water can quickly affect other dwellings in a building. RAUTITAN ticks both of these boxes and more.”