Active Learning Labs – Sika Liquid Plastics

ProjectActive Learning Labs, Liverpool

Size (M²)1500

ProductDecothane Delta 25

ClientThe University of Liverpool

ContractorHolloway Cook Associates Ltd.

Background
The University of Liverpool, founded in 1881, is known as one of the six original ‘red brick’ civic universities. The University has produced eight Nobel Prize winners and today has more than 230 first degree courses across 103 subjects. The Department of Engineering is enjoying a major investment in its buildings and infrastructure, and from 2005 to 2008 all laboratories were refurbished.

The Challenge
The seven storey Mechanical Engineering Labs were to be refurbished, dropping four storeys to become a three storey building. The brick walls were removed from the structural steel frame and replaced with composite PUR/fibre cement faced board.

The challenge was to install a weatherproofing membrane that could be applied directly to the insulation boards, and that required minimal maintenance. It also needed to be able to seal around the hundreds of angle brackets, penetrating through the insulation boards off the steel work to support the glass rain screen cladding.
The solution –

Sika Liquid Plastics’ Decothane Delta 25 system was the ideal product for this particular project. Decothane is a cold, liquid applied system that cures to form a completely seamless waterproof membrane. The full system consists of a Decothane Base Coat, reinforced with Reemat Premium glass fibre matting, and completed with two applications of Decothane Top Coat.