weber.therm Performs At Prestwick Academy

As part of the Scottish Executive’s Public Private Partnership policy two new secondary schools and three new primary schools have been constructed by main contractor Carillion and designed by Ryder Architectural in Scotland for South Ayrshire Council.

At Prestwick Academy, a modern, open-spaced building occupying three floors with capacity for 1400 students, the high performance weber.therm external wall insulation (EWI) system by Weber has been used to create a high performance building – aesthetically, thermally, and acoustically.

Opened in 1902 as a primary school, the building was extended in 1910 and 1913 to increase the number of classrooms as the town of Prestwick grew. Further major expansion in the 1960s was required to cope with the raised school leaving age.

To ensure any disruption of school activities would be kept to a minimum, the construction of the new school was planned to be completed in three phases. Work commenced in Spring 2007 and the final phase which includes new playing fields and staff parking is due for completion in Spring 2010.

Architecturally specified by Ryder Architects, the weber.therm XM system has been used on four of the six schools in South Ayrshire. This external wall insulation (EWI) system incorporates 140mm mineral fibre insulation fixed to a sheathing board and a fibreglass meshcloth reinforcement. A lightweight render undercoat of weber.rend LAC is applied before priming and finishing externally with weber.plast TF150 to create a 1.5mm textured finish.

This thin-coat application is suitable for decoration of lightweight backgrounds and provides excellent performance in harsh and exposed conditions. At Prestwick Academy, weber.plast TF150 has been used in white and ochre, from a wide pallet of colours, to match the wall cladding and in all some 2,500m² of the weber.therm XM system has been used.

“The weber.therm external wall insulation system is widely used in Scotland,” says Campbell Whyte, Director, of application contractor George Rome (Glasgow) Ltd. “It is probably the most practical and cost effective method of improving the thermal performance of a building. The speed of application is impressive too contributing to shorter build periods, the associated reduction of scaffolding and site costs which in turn allows the completion of ground works at a far earlier stage.”

John Armstrong, Carillion Project Manager at Prestwick Academy comments: “The weber.therm external wall insulation system proved a valuable element in the construction of the external envelope at Prestwick Academy. The speed of erection of individual system components and the quality of the hand applied finish contributed to the successful completion and handover of the new school building.”

Smaller areas of blockwork have been rendered directly with weber.rend OCR, a Portland cement, lime and sand formulation which provides an excellent background for all Weber finishes, masonry paints and surface coatings while allowing the structure to breathe. This has been finished with weber.plast TF150.

“This high performance building ticks the boxes on all counts – thermal performance is an astounding 0.22W/m²K thereby keeping heating costs to an absolute minimum, aesthetically it provides an attractive and distinctive visual that young people can identify with and acoustically the mineral fibre insulation contributes to the sound insulation of the wall construction,” says Jim Reid, Weber’s Area Manager for Scotland. “This is of significant added value as the Academy is located close to the busy Glasgow Prestwick Airport.”

Further information about Weber External Wall Insulation Systems is available in the Weber Render Solutions Handbook which is available in hard copy; telephone 01525 722169. Or visit www.netweber.co.uk for case studies and a copy of the handbook on CD.