BSF News

What’s been going on

All metal decking is now in place and works are ongoing to complete stud welding over the next week.

Photograph 2 below shows the completed extent of the decking to Section 3.

Stud welding continues to the deck sheets to Section 3 the Design Technology, Science & Humanities classrooms.

The first ground floor slab has been poured this week. This is the slab to Section 1 Music, Maths and English classrooms. Photos 4-7 show the process involved in setting up the pour.

Once the edge shutters have been placed insulation is placed to the underside of the slab perimeter to prevent heat loss through the slab. The waterproof membrane to the slab edge is then set in place. Once the slab has been cast a second sheet will be bonded to this and brought up the outside face of the slab up to damp proof course level, this protects the slab from damp ingress from the outside edge.

The photographs below show the next steps, a plastic sheet known as a damp proof membrane is laid to the underside of the slab to prevent water/damp ingress into the slab from the ground below. Steel reinforcement is then fixed on steel “chairs” to prevent cracking to the top of the slab.

The steel “chairs” are used to ensure that the reinforcement remains in the top half of the slab to restrain the tensile (pulling) forces induced in the slab by movement caused as the slab expands and contracts with temperature changes.

Once all the formwork waterproofing and reinforcement are in place and a check has been carried out to ensure that everything has been installed in accordance with the contract drawings and specification concrete is placed to the slab. Photographs 6 & 7 show the concrete being placed through a mobile concrete pump and the concrete finishers smoothing the surface to the polished finish required to accept floor finishes.

The drainage to ground floor slabs is now completed and works are ongoing to prepare the ground to level beneath the Section 3 slab.

Installation of the external walls is now progressing to the English and Maths Classrooms in Section 1.

The first activity is to fix a head and base steel channel metal studwork is then fixed between the channels fixed to the concrete slab and the beam above. This will form the carcass work to the walls. The outside will be boarded then insulation fixed with a coloured render on the outside. The inside face will be plaster boarded. The stud work also provides support for the window frames.

All the new outfalls to the Butterworth Beck have now been completed and as you can see the Beck itself has been unaffected by these works.

The two new outfalls provide the outlet for the rain water collected by the new pitch drainage system. In the man holes before each of the outfalls is a flow control device which ensures that the flow of water is controlled to the levels permitted by the Environment Agency to prevent the risk of flooding downstream.

Coming soon

• Floor slabs.

  All slabs will be cast before your return in September.

• Roof

  Works will continue into September to lay the roof sheets. When this is complete the roof lights will be fitted.

• Envelope.

  The construction of the envelope will be ongoing for the rest of this year.

• Pitch Drainage

  The recent very dry weather has made cutting the sand slits a very slow operation, but the work is now back in full swing. Our contractor has purchased a new machine from Holland which should arrive in a few weeks time to ensure that the pitch drainage is completed and grass cultivated to be available for College use on your return from the Summer break. It may interest you to know that the machine being used to cut the slits at present is on loan from Arsenal! Honest it is the same machine that installed the drainage at The Emirates Stadium.

Regards,
John England – Carillion Project Manager.