Stoneflex panels help architects in Ireland

Architects Ostick and Williams have used two types of rainscreen cladding panels from Stoneflex to change the face of retailing in Ireland.

They specified lightweight Stoneflex panels with a natural stone surface along with Smoothflex high-pressure laminate partly to provide an aesthetic that would reflect both traditional and contemporary materials for two retail parks - Letterkeny on Canal Road, Donegal and at Boucher Road, Belfast.

Architect Jonathan McDonald of Ostick and Williams explained: "Primarily, the local planners did not want to see a metal clad building so we looked at the potential of a render finish and at fibre cement panels but chose the Stoneflex products for their cost effectiveness." At Letterkeny, some of the buildings had been finished with a composite panel but were overclad with the Stoneflex architectural products to improve their appearance and blend in with the others, by sub-contractor Hynds Architectural Systems.

Stoneflex panels are specified to clad new-build traditional build or steel- or timber-frame buildings or for over-cladding existing buildings as part of refurbishment both in the private and public sectors.

They are lightweight and low-maintenance and are dry-fixed quickly and easily - another reason why they were specified by Ostick and Williams for the two retail parks.

"The combination of composite wall cladding panels with the visual aesthetic of the Stoneflex panels fixed to the exterior provided a fast construction method to achieve wind and water tightness to allow works to commence on the internal areas of the buildings, facilitating tight programme constraints," said Jonathan McDonald.

Stoneflex panels are manufactured by a continuous process in which a substrate of glass fibre and granulated stone chippings is built up, resign impregnated and consolidated.

Stone chippings are then resin bonded to the outer surface and the panels oven cured.

They are also inorganic, chemical and rot proof, immune to attack by insects and vermin and will not nourish mould growth.

Under normal use and exposure, they are warrantied not to chalk, discolour, crack or incur unacceptable aggregate loss for 20 years.

Smoothflex panels are an external-grade, high-pressure laminate (HPL) of high strength and durability that provides an optically flat cladding in a choice of 17 colours, wood grain being specified by Ostick and Williams (the Stoneflex panels in Indian ivory) for the two Irish retail parks.

Available with colour-matched or concealed fixings, they are unaffected by extremes of climate or UV light and have a minimum life expectancy of 40 years.

Both the Stoneflex and Smoothflex panels are fire rated to Class O.

Ostick and Williams had not specified Stoneflex panels previously but said they "would be confident specifying them in the future".

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