Aggregate Industries’ revolutionary LytaScreed has once again
proved its outstanding credentials during the renovation of one of the UK’s most prestigious educational
institutions, University College London.
As part of UCL’s £1.2 billion refurbishment programme,
main contractor Balfour Beatty was tasked with building a terrace next to the
19th Century Grade 1 listed Wilkins Building, providing a
vital passage through the university’s Bloomsbury Campus while also serving as
an outdoor events space.
Located close to Regent Park in London, the £10m revamp
incorporates a complete modernisation programme, including the construction of
a new single storey building below the terrace to house a full range of
catering kitchen facilities to provide food for the new refectory.
In keeping with the architectural heritage of the Wilkins
Building, the terrace included a Portland stone floor, with a new external
staircase leading to the refectory at lower ground floor level.
As such, the project required a lightweight podium screed suitable
to carry natural stone paviours that could also provide a superior drainage
system.
Cue Aggregate Industries and its pioneering LytaScreed – one of
the fastest drying and most versatile floor screed ranges available to the UK
market.
Specifically designed and manufactured to meet the complex
requirements of modern construction practice, when building the Wilkins Terrace
120 tonnes of LytaScreed Topped solution was utilised by placing the LytaScreed
Base with a permeable 15mm sand cement topping.
This created a semi dry floor screed suitable for all sensitive
floor coverings, such as the Portland natural stone, in as little as five days.
What’s
more, with an ever increasing emphasis on sustainable construction, LytaScreed
was instrumental in helping the UCL revamp achieving ‘very good’ status BREEAM
ratings. This is because not only does the innovative product reduce the weight
of a screed by up to 50%, but being a secondary aggregate, it also cuts the
demand for natural quarried material.
Steve Curley, Lytag general manager at Aggregate Industries, said:
“The Aggregate Industries’ ground-breaking LytaScreed product proved the
perfect solution for providing the lightweight podium screed suitable to carry
natural stone paviours that the UCL refurbishment required whilst also creating
an unrivalled drainage system.”
