Galliford Try, in a joint venture with Ellmer Construction, delivered a rolling programme for a Major redevelopment and refit at Marks & Spencer’s flagship Norwich store which remained fully live and operational throughout the duration of works.
The 18-month project was part of one of the biggest redesigns in M&S’s 99-year history in the city, and boosted its current retail floor space of 79,000 sq ft to 115,000 sq ft creating dozens of new jobs in the city which has a back drop of 32 medieval churches, two cathedrals and a Norman castle, making shopping in Norwich a rather unique experience.
The landmark Norwich store has been in the city 60 years, but Marks and Spencer first came to Norwich in 1911 with a penny bazaar and ran the business from a shop in London Street, and then in St Stephen’s Street from 1912 to 1926. Its current home on the corner of Rampant Horse Street, and St Stephen’s Street was previously occupied by Buntings, one of the grand Norwich department stores from the early part of the last century, and M&S took over the store in 1950.
F B Ellmer Construction (part of The Byrne Group) appointed R.I.W approved applicator Cemplas Waterproofing and Concrete Repairs the task of waterproofing the Basement Plant rooms.
First stage was for Cemplas to undertake the surface preparation ensuring that all areas to be Waterproofed are sound, clean, dry, and free from dust, oil and other possible contamination.
Following preparation works, Cemplas applied RIW Toughseal to all the horizontal floor surfaces and sumps in the basements.The Sprinkler plant room had Toughseal applied up the vertical wall surface to a height of 600mm, and the Small plant rooms had Toughseal applied up the vertical wall surfaces to 150mm high. Two coats of RIW Toughseal was applied to the floors and walls, and a minimum of six hours drying time was allowed before applying the finish coat which incorporated broadcasting an aggregate to provide a non-slip finish.
Cemplas were also tasked with applying RIW Flexiseal and Cementfill HB to the small plant rooms. At the wall/floor junctions an angle fillet of 45dg was formed to allow the Toughseal to be applied to the vertical wall surface in a continuous seamless coat. To all the floor joints, Cemplas applied one coat of RIW Flexiseal on top of the Toughseal coating. On completion of the Waterproofing works by Cemplas, the work was signed off, and the Galliford Try Ellmer Construction joint venture continued for a further six months until the store was totally refurbished, and formally opened for the shoppers of Norwich to enjoy their new shopping experience.
Formed in 1969, for over 40 years, Cemplas have been using their own fully trained operatives with approved status by many of the leading manufacturers of Structural waterproofing and remedial repair systems, to provide reliable and cost effective solutions across a broad range of new repair and refurbishment contracts. Operating as a specialist, Cemplas have both the capacity and resources to undertake projects in excess of £1m in-house; and have a Management Structure capable of running multi-disciplined projects incorporating a wide variety of trade activities as well as the ones we specialise and undertake ourselves, and are delighted to have played a part in this Major renovation project.
