Fast Track System Solution For Sports Centre

Edited by the Buildingtalk editorial team Apr 5, 2004

Premium quality refurbishment, completed on schedule and within budget at the Queen Mother Sports Centre in Victoria, London.

When the Queen Mother Sports Centre in Victoria, London required a swift and cost effective refurbishment, ARDEX UK and Cerface Limited Floor and Wall Tiling Contractors of Gillingham in Kent worked in partnership to provide the ideal screeding, rendering, tiling and grouting system solution.

The specific areas to be refurbished were the 25m swimming pool, learner pool, changing facilities, diving pool surrounds and walls, encompassing a total area of 1400m2 of tiling.

To commence the project, the wall surfaces of all three pools were rendered with Ardurit AM100 fast track one coat tiling render.

The rapid hardening properties of Ardurit AM100 enables tiles to be fixed just 2 hours after application, guaranteeing a time saving of at least two weeks compared to a traditional wall render.

A 20mm application of Ardurit S21 bedding mortar was used to improve the falls on the pool surrounds, with the inherent rapid hardening properties of Ardurit S21 enabling tiling to progress after just 3 hours.

Heavily trafficked areas of the pool surround received an application of Arducem B2 bonding slurry, prior to the application of a 40mm thick Arducem EB2 rapid hardening screed providing a strong and flat surface which allowed tiles to be fixed just 3 hours later.

With a standard sand/cement screed a wait of at least 3 weeks would have been required before tiling could have commenced.

To fix the slip resistant ceramic floor tiles to the pool surround and changing facilities, a combination of Ardu-Flex 5001 grey flexible tile adhesive and Ardu-Flex 6001 ultra rapid setting flexible tile adhesive were specified.

Developed to be suitable for both internal and external installations and compatible for use with all types of tiles, including fully vitrified and porcelain, Ardu-Flex cement-based tile adhesives guarantee unbeatable performance.

The pool wall and surround tiles were fixed using Ardu-Flex 5000 white flexible tile adhesive.

Ardu-Flex FL rapid setting flexible grout was used to grout the interior pool tile joints.

'Due to the varying requirements within this project, we specified a variety of ARDEX products, which enabled us to install a totally integrated system solution with guaranteed product compatibility, for each area of the sports centre.

The end result was a premium quality refurbishment, completed on schedule and within budget', said Chris Clark of Cerface Limited.