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.”
