weber.therm EWI System Protects and Brightens Naas School

Primary and secondary children attending the new Gaelscoil at Pipers Hill, outside Naas, north of Dublin, are not taking classes in traditional dull and drab school buildings. This new build facility has been finished in striking and attractive colours and textures far removed from the old style school buildings, thanks to the foresight of the architect who specified the weber.therm external wall insulation (EWI) system which offers a wide range of colour and texture finishes.

Designed by McCarthy O’Hora Architects and built by P.Elliott Construction, the weber.therm external wall insulation system was installed by experienced applicator Denis O’Grady Builders of Limerick. Over 9,000m² of weber.therm EWI was applied to the concrete substrate during the eight months on-site programme. “The school build schedule was very tight and handover had to take place at the end of July without fail to enable the new school year to start in September. The weber.therm EWI system is so precise we can control progress very accurately and always meet exact timings,” reports Kevin O’Grady, Operations Director. The weber.therm EWI system has full IAB approval for all architectural applications in Ireland.

For this modern school and sports hall facility at Naas, the O’Grady team used three advanced variants of the weber.therm EWI system. On ground floor walling the weber.therm XP system with weber.therm L1 mineral render finish was specified. This system comprises ferritic stainless steel lath mesh as the reinforcement for the through-coloured, one-coat, thick mineral render. The steel mesh gives extra durability against impact damage, particularly beneficial where bikes and footballs can be present. Higher walls feature the weber.therm XP system with weber.therm M1 mineral render finish where the lightweight meshcloth reinforcement is used. Further areas of the building’s walling have been finished with the weber.therm XM system. Pump application of the weber.rend PTS finish coat enabled an attractive hand scraped finish to be achieved. Selected wall panels were coated and coloured using weber.plast TF, an acrylic based composite decorative textured finish, which is factory batched for colour consistency and wet application.

This attractive, modern school is designed to provide a pleasant and welcoming learning environment and the Weber insulation and walling systems ensure a healthy, comfortable and stylish construction.