City Gate, Manchester

ITP-supplied products are demonstrating their value in a post-Grenfell construction sector as part of a re-cladding project at the City Gate apartment buildings in Castlefield, Manchester.

With decades of experience in building facade projects, Bell Building Projects (BBP) was appointed as principal contractor overseeing the replacement of dangerous cladding. BBP chose cladding contractor, Everclad, to replace the aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding which was fitted by the original developer over 15 years ago and does not meet the latest fire safety regulations introduced in December 2018 in response to the Grenfell disaster.

As part of the façade upgrade, Everclad installed the Safe One breather membrane, the first product of its kind in the UK to combine a W1 rating for water resistance with an A2 rating under the Euroclass system for assessing the fire risk of building materials. ITP are exclusive suppliers of Safe One in the UK. As well as offering unrivalled fire safety and water repellence, Safe One provides high water vapour permeability to control condensation within the building’s interior, maintaining the long-term condition of its construction.

The remedial programme also utilised ITP’s Powerclad FR scaffold sheeting to provide containment and protection in support of Everclad’s work. Chosen by Cheshire Scaffolding, Powerclad FR’s reinforced polyolefin scaffold sheeting provides a flame retardant grade to Class B-s1,d0 EN 13501-1 with third party approval to the highest standards (TS 62/63) for both printed and non-printed sheeting. The scaffold sheeting was installed in printed and non-printed form across various City Gate buildings.

ITP Account Manager, Caroline Collins, said:

“ACM cladding installed before the Grenfell disaster is currently being replaced throughout the UK and in many cases the building membranes are also being replaced as part of the work. BBP have been chosen to carry out many of these projects in major cities like Manchester. Unlike cladding materials, building membranes are not required to achieve a Euroclass rating of A2 or higher, but that situation may change in the years ahead as there is a compelling case to make membranes subject to the same stringent laws as those which apply to cladding. At City Gate, BBP and Everclad decided that the membrane should meet the same fire safety standards as the cladding, resulting in their decision to use the Safe One system.”

Powerclad Standard FR sheeting is one of a wide range of options within ITP’s range of Powerclad products which are compliant with BS 7955 and TS 62 / TS 63 accredited. Safe One is a one of a wide range of building membranes offered by ITP. The company also supplies flame retardant vapour control layers, roofing underlays and UV resistant breather membranes.