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Learn shrink wrap skills from the experts. If you can’t find the answer you need, feel free to get in touch.
Covid 19 Partition Barrier – Manchester
CATEGORY Shrink Wrap Partitions TAGS Covid 19 Barrier, Covid 19 Partition, Shrink Wrap Screen ABOUT THIS PROJECT Covid 19 Partition For Canteen ‘Corridor’ Current government advice (May 2020), as the UK deals with the Covid-19 pandemic, is for everyone to work from home wherever possible and limit contact with other people. However, for jobs where working from home is not possible, employers have a ‘duty of care’ for staff and customers visiting the workplace. This means employers must do all they reasonably can to support health, safety and wellbeing. As employers around the UK carry out ‘Covid 19 risk assessments’, they are looking to implementing measures to mitigate identified risks. One of the ways to make workplaces safer is by using screens to ensure social or physical distancing. At Rhino Shrink Wrap we have completed a number of Covid 19 partitions in factories, distribution centres and construction sites around the UK using our heavy duty, flame retardant shrink wrap film. For our latest project, a team of 3 installers from Rhino, worked over 3 days for Bowmer & Kirkland to complete the installation of a 65m long x 2.9m high shrink wrap screen. The screen was requested to provide a physical barrier between a canteen / rest area in an office development and the walking routes that passed through it. The usual process for installing a shrink wrap screen is to fix a timber batten or aluminium track to the floor, ceiling and any uprights. However, on this project, the customer requested that no surfaces could be drilled so a new batten fixing method using heavy duty ties was devised. The 300 micron thickness, heavy duty shrink wrap sheeting was then fixed between the floor and ceiling track and heat shrink ‘drum tight’ using our hot air tool. The end result was a smart looking, smooth and tight shrink wrap screen. At some point in the future, (hopefully soon), when the Covid 19 screens are no longer required, it will be easy to to cut down the shrink wrap in sections using a Stanley knife and fold it for recycling before removing the batten and track. (All Rhino Shrink Wrap sheeting products are 100% recyclable.) If graphics or signage is required, it is easy to apply self adhesive vinyl signage and zipped access hatches can ensure emergency exit routes remain accessible. Compared to other Covid 19 barriers, such as solid hoarding, a shrink wrap screen offers more flexibility with regard to installation. Our standard product is available in sheets up to 7m wide x 15m long, and where joins are required, the sheets are heat welded so there is no limit to the size and shape of area that can be covered. As standard, our sheet is supplied in a white colour, but we can supply & install transparent screening also. If you prefer, we can provide ‘materials only’ and guidance to help you install the screens using your in-house teams. For more information about our internal building screens, contact our friendly team on 01477 532222 or e-mail info@rhinoshrinkwrap.com. We look forward to hearing from you. GET IN TOUCH We are happy to discuss your project requirements and answer any other questions you may have. If you send us your contact details by filling in this form, member of the team willl be in touch to find out more about your enquiry. We look forward to speaking to you! [contact-form-7 id="922" title="Get in touch"] [elementor-template id="30886"]
TEMPORARY WEATHER PROTECTION
The Brief Herculaneum Quay is a development of 101 luxury apartments, situated on the bank of the River Mersey. This 15 storey residential tower by Primesites Developments is a significant size construction project for Liverpool. Because the construction site is located right on the banks of the Mersey, it is very exposed to everything the weather can throw at it. As the concrete is poured and floors are added, it will take some time before the permanent rain screen / glazing is installed. The main contractor, COREM, was looking for a temporary solution which would quickly make the building water-tight and enable them to proceed with the internal works in a dry & controlled environment. Your browser does not support our video. Temporary High Rise Weather Protection The solution was to use a shrink wrap screen, applied directly to the steel and concrete frame which would wrap the building and provide protection through the winter months. With a ceiling height of around 3m and with the supporting pillars set back from the edge of the concrete slab, Rhino Shrink Wrap were able to make a continuous 150m / 500′ run of shrink wrap around the perimeter of the building on a floor by floor basis. Rhino Shrink Wrap building screens are made from the same materials as our ‘signature’ scaffold wrap. It is an LDPE film that is easily joined by heat welding and which shrinks very powerfully when it is heated – (this is the secret of it’s ‘drum tight’ finish.) As standard, our screens are white in colour and allow almost all daylight through to the interior of the building. Our building wrap has flame retardant additives so that is meets the EN13501 fire retardant specifications and it has Ultra Violet inhibitors so it won’t become brittle when used outside. It is able to be used at a wide range of temperatures – we have used it in projects from Australia to Russia without any problems. Building Screen Installation Process The installation of our shrink wrap building screens is quite straightforward, whether fixing to concrete or steel framed building, the process is the same. The first step is to fix a run of wooden batten to the concrete or steel frame in the position where the shrink wrap screens are required. For a continuous run around the building, (where uprights are set back from the edge of the slab), this batten will be required along the ceiling and floor. Where the building uprights are directly adjacent to the edge of the slab, the shrink wrap will be installed on a ‘bay by bay’ basis and so batten will be required on the uprights also. Once this ‘picture frame’ of wooden batten has been installed, the shrink wrap sheeting is cut to size and hung in position. A second run of wooden batten is used to firmly secure the shrink wrap into position and is screwed firmly into the first batten. If there are no uprights / pillars at corners then the Rhino Shrink Wrap installation team install and tension an industrial grade strapping at the corners around which the shrink film is wrapped. Where a join is required between two sheets, this is achieved by overlapping two sections and using a hot air tool to created a bonded joint between the two sections. The final stage of the process is to use propane gas powered hot air tool to shrink the screens drum tight. This is achieved by passing hot air briefly over the surface of the shrink wrap sheeting. Shrink Wrap & Resistance to Wind Loading One thing that contractors often ask when they start to look at building screens is what wind speeds will they withstand. Now, exact wind speeds will vary from project to project because it depends on the size of the bays and the types of fixings we are using but let me give you an idea. A Force 10 wind, which is a wind speed of 55-63mph or over 100kph will extern a force of 0.77kn/m2. Now a typical bay of a concrete or steel frame building is often in the region of 3.5m high x 6m long which means that in a force 10, there is 17.5kn of Force on that sheet. Well, that is well within the capabilities of our shrink wrap sheeting which has a tensile strength at yield of around 26Kn. This means that sheeting can experience Force 10 winds and bounce back to it’s original taught state. Summary The Rhino Shrink Wrap team installed temporary weather protection around one floor of this high rise concrete and steel frame building each week. For the construction contractor, the ability to start the internal works before the external cladding and glazing is finished has brought a number of benefits – the projects are easier to manage, schedule, and the risk of delays and penalties is reduced. Thank you for taking the time to read this case study. Please do contact us with your questions or comments. We look forward to hearing from you.
Temporary ceiling dust barrier
CATEGORY Shrink Wrap Partitions ABOUT THIS PROJECT With a team of 5 employees working over the course of 1 weekend, Rhino have completed the installation of a 600 square metre temporary ceiling dust barrier in Louth, UK. Lincolnshire based Gelder Group, who employ over 300 people in the UK, contacted Rhino to construct a temporary suspended ceiling dust barrier in order to completely contain the dust generated during the construction of a new spa complex at the Kenwick Park Hotel. Because the building which houses the spa and pool area had been mostly completed, there was a potential issue whereby continuing construction work would create dust that would eventually require extensive high level cleaning of wooden pannelling and other finished surfaces. In most cases where large dust and debris containment sheeting is used to create temporary partitions in factories and retail environments, we fix the sheets to a scaffolding structure. For this project, scaffolding was not required for access purposes, and to set up a temporary scaffolding just for the purposes of supporting the dust control sheeting would have been time consuming and costly. Instead, Rhino proposed a support structure based around tensioned strapping. With anchor points pre-fixed into the walls by the main contractor, the shrink wrap installation team from Rhino, used access towers to install 20 tensioned straps which radiated from around the building to a central ring. Finally a ratchet strap was attached to the central ring from above and tensioned to create a cone effect. With the tensioned strapping support structure in place, the Rhino team used a 12 metre wide, 200 micro thick, flame retardant shrink wrap sheet to create the temporary construction ceiling. Overlaps between sheets were heat welded to create a continuously sealed skin. Around the edge of the building, temporary corrugated plastic panels were fixed to the walls and a skirt was installed between the roof sheeting and the wall. In this way, any dust from the construction work below could be completely contained. At some point in the future, (hopefully soon), when the Covid 19 screens are no longer required, it will be easy to to cut down the shrink wrap in sections using a Stanley knife and fold it for recycling before removing the batten and track. (All Rhino Shrink Wrap sheeting products are 100% recyclable.) If graphics or signage is required, it is easy to apply self adhesive vinyl signage and zipped access hatches can ensure emergency exit routes remain accessible. Compared to other Covid 19 barriers, such as solid hoarding, a shrink wrap screen offers more flexibility with regard to installation. Our standard product is available in sheets up to 7m wide x 15m long, and where joins are required, the sheets are heat welded so there is no limit to the size and shape of area that can be covered. As standard, our sheet is supplied in a white colour, but we can supply & install transparent screening also. If you prefer, we can provide ‘materials only’ and guidance to help you install the screens using your in-house teams. For more information about our internal building screens, contact our friendly team on 01477 532222 or e-mail info@rhinoshrinkwrap.com. We look forward to hearing from you.
Shrink Wrap Building Screen
CATEGORY Building Screens ABOUT THIS PROJECT Shrink Wrap Building Screen – St Barts Hospital, London The Royal London Hospital, established in 1740 and employing 4,800 staff is the principal trauma centre for London and the largest renal unit in Europe. St Bartholomews, the oldest hospital in Europe (established in 1123) and employing 2200 staff, is a cardiac & cancer centre of excellence. In 2006, Barts and The London NHS Trust commissioned Skanska to manage a £1 billion ‘PPI’ project and redevelop St Bartholomew’s Hospital and The Royal London Hospital as part of the largest ever public private partnership in Europe. The project is due to last 10 years and involves the design, demolition, construction and refurbishment of two hospital sites to make way for a new ‘state-of-the-art’ hospital complex covering an area of 270,000m2 in Central London. Part of the scheme comprised the construction of a new reinforced concrete framed building with a large podium area and three towers ranging from 10 to 18 floors. Skanska, approached Rhino Shrink Wrap to find a way of providing weather protection to the building before the concrete frame and external cladding was finished, to enable internal building work to start ahead of schedule. Weather Protection The normal practice for temporary sheeting is to erect a scaffolding and attach the Rhino Shrink Wrap sheeting to that. However, for this project Rhino fixed a temporary wooden batten ‘window frame’ around each opening in the RC frame. Next we battened our 300µm thick, Verisafe® flame retardant shrink wrap sheeting around each opening. The final stage in the process was to heat shrink the plastic ‘drum tight’. It is the drum tight fit that gives shrink wrap sheeting it’s increased durability and resistance to damage from high winds when compared with traditional sheeting solutions. This was the first time that shrink wrap sheeting had been used to encapsulate a building ‘floor by floor’ in this way and the result was to create a weather tight envelope. Reports from Skanska indicated that the shrink wrap sheeting solution allowed the internal works to move 6 months ahead of schedule which created cost savings but also reduced the risks of down time and project overrun fees. Once the buildings’ permanent external cladding is fixed, the Rhino Shrink Wrap sheeting will be removed in sections and recycled. Project benefits from shrink wrap Heat shrunk ‘drum tight’ – very resistant to damage from high winds. Versatile – can be cut and resealed for access or protrusions and remain weather tight. Smart & professional appearance for high profile projects. Easy to remove after use & 100% recyclable. Project challenges The client’s schedule sometimes meant that our teams were working on floors simultaneously. On a site of this size, frequent moves could take a lot of time. It was important to be well organised. Our teams found drilling the holes in the RC frame required to fix the temporary batten ‘window frame’ very challenging. Some research led us to specifically designed ‘Hilti’ tools and fixings which we have used with great success on later projects. Whilst the shrink wrap sheeting provided robust weather protection, it was found that at some points on the concrete slab floor, water could ‘pool’ and seep underneath the batten and shrink wrap. The solution was to use a flexible sealant under the batten. For recent projects we have used a self adhesive backed foam underneath the batten which fills any small gaps in the concrete slab and prevents water ingress. Lessons Learnt By creating a durable temporary shrink wrap skin around the reinforced concrete frame, interior fit out works could proceed ahead of schedule before the permanent building cladding was applied. This was the first time we had used our product in this way and despite some challenges, the results were better than expected. On the basis of the success of this project, Rhino have supplied shrink wrap ‘building screens’ to a variety of other high rise projects and have been asked by Skanska to supply and install our Verisafe® sheeting again on the next phase of the project starting Spring 2015 For further information; http://www.skanska.co.uk/Global/Sevices/Building-Central-Regions/Barts-and-The-London-Project-Sheet.pdf http://www.bartshealth.nhs.uk/our-hospitals/st-bartholomew%E2%80%99s-hospital/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Bartholomew's_Hospital
Concrete Frame Weather Protection
CATEGORY Building Screens ABOUT THIS PROJECT Weather Protection For Concrete Frame Building, Staffordshire. After a generally quiet and settled period of weather in September and October of 2015, November saw the first of several autumn storms bringing wind and rain across the North of England including storm Abigail, storm Barney and storm Clodagh. It was during this time that Robert Miceli of A&A Scaffolding approached Rhino Shrink Wrap to provide temporary weather protection around a ‘Grand Design’ type concrete frame home under construction in the heart of the Staffordshire countryside. The home is being constructed by a London based main contractor called 8Build who specialise in bespoke solutions for refurbishment and new build projects. Whilst the main concrete frame structure of the building was complete, large glass panels which make up a large part of the building exterior were not due to be on site for a number of months which left the site open to the winter elements. Normally, if a construction project requires temporary weather protection, the process involves erecting a scaffolding structure around project and then applying sheeting around the scaffolding structure. The sheeting used to encapsulate the scaffolding may be the traditional type, often referred to in the UK as ‘Monarflex’ or a shrink wrap scaffold sheeting (which is what we specialise in at Rhino.) Steve Irlam of Rhino Shrink Wrap met with contracts managers from 8 Build and A & A Scaffolding on site in the Staffordshire countryside to formulate a plan. After the site visit it was clear to Steve that it would be possible to apply the shrink wrap sheeting directly to the concrete frame without requiring a scaffolding structure to be erected around the building – which would save considerable time and cost. At Rhino, when we fix our heat shrunk temporary weather protection sheeting directly to the external elevations of a building, we refer to it a shrink wrap ‘building screen’. Although we have installed shrink wrap building screens to create temporary weather protection around RC frame buildings for a number of main contractors in Central London, this was the first time we had erected a building screen around a private home but the installation methods were very similar. First, our installation team installed a wooden batten ‘picture frame’ close to the edge of the concrete slab, along the floor, ceiling (& sides where the concrete frame was split into bays). We used a Hilti concrete screw to ensure that the picture frame could withstand the wind loadings that would be applied to the shrink wrap sheeting in even the most extreme weather conditions. A challenging aspect of this project was the number of returns / corners in the building facade. Due to the design of the building, which incorporates large areas of glass walling and concrete slab floors which appear to ‘float’ over one another, at many corners there was nothing to wrap the shrink wrap around or provide an anchoring point. The solution was to use screw jacks which were inserted and screwed up between the concrete to form corners for the sheeting to wrap around. Once the wooden batten and screw jack corner posts were installed we used a Rhino 300 micron thick shrink wrap film to begin to start the process of wrapping the reinforced concrete frame facade. The shrink wrap is secured to the picture frame by using an additional wooden batten. Although shrink wrap rolls are available in a variety of widths, at 300 microns thickness, which is typically the thickest grade of sheeting used for scaffold wrapping, we use 7 metre wide x 15 metre long shrink wrap rolls. This size of roll is convenient to handle and still enables up to 100 square metres to be covered per roll. Unlike traditional scaffold sheeting products, the size of the roll is not always critical. This is because shrink wrap sheeting can easily be joined by overlapping two sections (typically by around 30cm) and using the hot air gun to heat weld them together. Once completed, this weld or join will be the same strength as the original material. Once the shrink wrap building screen has been anchored, and any overlapping sections have been welded / joined, the Rhino Shrink Wrap installation team used a hand held propane gas hot air gun to blow hot air over the surface of the sheeting which causes a bi-axial shrink process to take place. This process is a little bit like spray painting with hot air, the installer heats an area of the sheeting and watches as the shrink wrap sheeting contracts before gradually moving on. This heat shrink process is powerful and rapid with a single operator able to shrink many hundreds of square metres in a single day depending on the weather conditions. Why not watch a video of the heat shrink process? Once shrunk, the sheeting has a smooth, mostly wrinkle free appearance and should be as tight as a drum skin. It is because shrink wrap is extremely tight fitting, that it is so robust. Unlike traditional products, shrink wrap sheeting is very resistant to high winds and will not flap and detach if a good quality sheeting us used and it is installed in accordance with best practice. (The construction grade shrink wrap sheeting supplied by Rhino is flame retardant to the European EN13501 standard but the UK specific LPS1207 or LPS1215 flame retardant certified sheeting is also available.) One of the benefits of using shrink wrap sheeting for temporary weather protection on construction sites is that it is possible to allow points of access through the sheeting whilst maintaining the weather protection (and/or dust containment). These zipped access doors are straightforward to install. For this project we mostly used a number of our 1.8m high ‘U’ shaped ‘step thru’ zipper doors, however, for locations on the site such as loading bays, where large equipment and materials needed to be moved inside the building, we used a 2.4m high, straight, self adhesive zipper. Once installed at the desired width, these create a much larger door which can be completely rolled up out of the way. Since the building screens have been installed, the contractor has been able to make rapid progress on many aspects of the interior building work which would not have been possible until the glass panels that make up much of the facade had been installed. The shrink wrap sheeting still allows plenty of natural light inside the building (it is even possible to use a clear shrink wrap film.) Once the building was watertight, heaters were used to assist with the drying out process. In addition, the shrink wrap building screens presented a smart and professional appearance to the client for this high end project and provided an excellent canvas for the contractor’s logo and branding. Project benefits from shrink wrap Heat shrunk ‘drum tight’ – very resistant to damage from high winds. Heat sealed joints between sheets created a completely encapsulated building. Smart appearance for a high end project. 100% recyclable. Allows lots of light through the sheeting for workers within. This small case study is just one small example of how shrink wrap sheeting can be used to create an extremely robust temporary weather protection or environmental containment around a reinforced concrete frame building. You can watch a short video of building screens being installed in Central London or please get in touch with us with any questions you might have. We look forward to talking with you.
Herculaneum Quay
The Brief Herculaneum Quay is a development of 101 luxury apartments, situated on the bank of the River Mersey. This 15 storey residential tower by Primesites Developments is a significant size construction project for Liverpool. Because the construction site is located right on the banks of the Mersey, it is very exposed to everything the weather can throw at it. As the concrete is poured and floors are added, it will take some time before the permanent rain screen / glazing is installed. The main contractor, COREM, was looking for a temporary solution which would quickly make the building water-tight and enable them to proceed with the internal works in a dry & controlled environment. Temporary High Rise Weather Protection The solution was to use a shrink wrap screen, applied directly to the steel and concrete frame which would wrap the building and provide protection through the winter months. With a ceiling height of around 3m and with the supporting pillars set back from the edge of the concrete slab, Rhino Shrink Wrap were able to make a continuous 150m / 500′ run of shrink wrap around the perimeter of the building on a floor by floor basis. Rhino Shrink Wrap building screens are made from the same materials as our ‘signature’ scaffold wrap. It is an LDPE film that is easily joined by heat welding and which shrinks very powerfully when it is heated – (this is the secret of it’s ‘drum tight’ finish.) As standard, our screens are white in colour and allow almost all daylight through to the interior of the building. Our building wrap has flame retardant additives so that is meets the EN13501 fire retardant specifications and it has Ultra Violet inhibitors so it won’t become brittle when used outside. It is able to be used at a wide range of temperatures – we have used it in projects from Australia to Russia without any problems. Building Screen Installation Process The installation of our shrink wrap building screens is quite straightforward, whether fixing to concrete or steel framed building, the process is the same. The first step is to fix a run of wooden batten to the concrete or steel frame in the position where the shrink wrap screens are required. For a continuous run around the building, (where uprights are set back from the edge of the slab), this batten will be required along the ceiling and floor. Where the building uprights are directly adjacent to the edge of the slab, the shrink wrap will be installed on a ‘bay by bay’ basis and so batten will be required on the uprights also. Once this ‘picture frame’ of wooden batten has been installed, the shrink wrap sheeting is cut to size and hung in position. A second run of wooden batten is used to firmly secure the shrink wrap into position and is screwed firmly into the first batten. If there are no uprights / pillars at corners then the Rhino Shrink Wrap installation team install and tension an industrial grade strapping at the corners around which the shrink film is wrapped. Where a join is required between two sheets, this is achieved by overlapping two sections and using a hot air tool to created a bonded joint between the two sections. The final stage of the process is to use propane gas powered hot air tool to shrink the screens drum tight. This is achieved by passing hot air briefly over the surface of the shrink wrap sheeting. Shrink Wrap & Resistance to Wind Loading One thing that contractors often ask when they start to look at building screens is what wind speeds will they withstand. Now, exact wind speeds will vary from project to project because it depends on the size of the bays and the types of fixings we are using but let me give you an idea. A Force 10 wind, which is a wind speed of 55-63mph or over 100kph will extern a force of 0.77kn/m2. Now a typical bay of a concrete or steel frame building is often in the region of 3.5m high x 6m long which means that in a force 10, there is 17.5kn of Force on that sheet. Well, that is well within the capabilities of our shrink wrap sheeting which has a tensile strength at yield of around 26Kn. This means that sheeting can experience Force 10 winds and bounce back to it’s original taught state. Summary The Rhino Shrink Wrap team installed temporary weather protection around one floor of this high rise concrete and steel frame building each week. For the construction contractor, the ability to start the internal works before the external cladding and glazing is finished has brought a number of benefits – the projects are easier to manage, schedule, and the risk of delays and penalties is reduced. Thank you for taking the time to read this case study. Please do contact us with your questions or comments. We look forward to hearing from you.