Shackerley wins industry award for Sureclad

Edited by the Buildingtalk editorial team May 11, 2007

Shackerleynhas received an industry award for supplying Sureclad ceramic granite ventilated rainscreen cladding systems for Paragon.

Lancashire manufacturer and distributor, Shackerley (Holdings) Group Limited has received an industry award for supplying Sureclad ceramic granite ventilated rainscreen cladding systems for Paragon, a landmark mixed use development of student and key worker accommodation, affordable homes for mortgage and academic facilities in Brentford, London.

The complex is notable not only for being the largest student development in London, but also for its seventeen storey tower building, the tallest modular construction in the UK.

The Tile Association, which represents all sectors of the UK wall and floor tile industry, from manufacturers to suppliers and contractors, gave its award for the 'Best Technical Use of Tile in a Construction Contract' to Shackerley at the Association's annual Awards Dinner on 21 April 2007.

This was in recognition of the sheer complexity and scale of the rainscreen cladding supplied for the Paragon development and the exceptional level of prefabrication work that Shackerley was able to carry out in order that the project could be fast-tracked.

The Paragon project is believed to be the largest and most complex ceramic granite ventilated rainscreen project to have ever been completed in the UK.

In total Shackerley supplied over 9000m2 of ceramic granite facade panelling to create the rainscreen facades, equating to over 20,000 slabs, or 400 pallet loads.

The vast majority of the ceramic granite slabs needed to be specially cut to meet original design specifications.

Every slab was then drilled four times totalling 80,000 holes.

40,000 aluminium 'straps' were also attached to the slabs to enable the contractors, Deepdale Solutions Limited, to create a secure, stress-free mechanical fix with the Sureclad rainscreen substructure.surec Brian Newell, founder and chief executive of Shackerley said that it was very gratifying to receive this particular industry award, for 'successfully rising to the many technical and logistical challenges of this unusually demanding large scale project'.

He added: "I am extremely proud of what we achieved at Brentford".

"The project exemplifies the way in which Shackerley is enabling specifiers and their clients to use ceramic materials extensively in the exterior building envelope".

"What's more, it clearly demonstrates how the high performance, the technical consistency and the aesthetic benefits of ceramic granite can now be fully exploited in high profile projects to create highly effective ventilated rainscreens.".