Prefabricated soil stacks and a range of other systems from Marley Plumbing & Drainage have been employed by Nigel Smith Plumbing and Heating, as part of its design and build package for a unique sports training facility at one of the UK’s most famous modern universities.
A total of 11 buildings provide 617 student bedrooms alongside the Elite Athlete Centre, developed by Bowmer & Kirkland at Loughborough University. What’s more, the £50 million project also featured the construction of a unique hotel where 20 of the 44 bedrooms can have their pressure altered to allow athletes to undergo altitude acclimatisation as they sleep.
It was during the design phase that Marley’s Technical Manager proposed the use of prefabricated elements for 110mm diameter soil stacks, providing CAD drawings and other details. As work progressed, hundreds of 2500mm long, storey height sections were supplied to Nigel Smith Plumbing and Heating via specialist merchant, BSS in Lincoln. As well as solvent weld connections on the ends, the pre-assembled sections included bespoke design features specific to the project.
The Contracts Manager for Nigel Smith Plumbing and Heating, Steve Zealand, commented: “This project was won under competitive tender to the main contractor, with Marley Plumbing & Drainage being one of three manufacturers under consideration to supply the stacks and other products.
“Having used them many times in the past, I was very pleased when Marley was chosen as meeting all the requirements and being the most cost-effective. We have since worked closely with the company during both the design / pre-contract and installation phases, with BSS handling all the orders.”
Using Marley’s fabrication service helps contractors to save time and money, with the time taken to measure, cut and join the individual components of a soil stack system - and the need for on-site testing - significantly reduced.
Working with the Marley Technical Services team, drawings will be created for each stack element, ensuring every detail is to specification and fully compliant with current regulations. A dedicated team of skilled fabricators will then pre-build the soil stacks in a controlled factory environment, to project specifications and to the highest quality, with pressure testing on each stack as standard. Stacks are then delivered to a pre-arranged schedule, ready for when customers need them on site.
Steve continued: “We have created wetrooms within the hotel bedrooms, while in the four and five storey student accommodation blocks, which feature both cluster flats and en-suite bedrooms, our work involved connecting up shower pods to the prefabricated Marley stacks. We also made full use of Marley’s PVC system for all of the above ground drainage installation.”
Certified to BS EN 1329 Kitemark, Marley’s PVCu Soil System is suitable for applications where the specifiers are seeking flexibility and ease of installation as well as leak free reliability.
The overall concept of the Loughborough project is of an ‘Active Campus’ where both individuals and teams have access to integrated facilities, which include a traversing wall, running track, activity courtyard and cool-down areas for relaxation, as well as a specialist nutrition suite.
Nigel Smith Plumbing and Heating, which carries out work for a variety of clients across the East Midlands region, has also been responsible for the creation of an ‘Energy Centre’ on the Elite Campus, featuring a 230 kW CHP plant providing the majority of the heating and hot water for the 12 buildings, as well as meeting its electricity needs.
