MAGPLY PUTS IN STRONG PERFORMANCE AT BAT AND BALL COMMUNITY CENTRE

A comprehensive refurbishment project, addressing a community centre belonging to Sevenoaks District Council, is featuring the benefits of Magply boards as the substrate for a through-coloured render system that will be exposed to rugged use, as well as the worst of the Kent weather.

The work on the Bat and Ball Community Centre in Maidstone is being led by main contractor, the BJF Group with Theis + Khan Architects responsible for the design work. Epsom based Surrey Screed & Renders Ltd., meanwhile, is the specialist sub-contractor applying a K-Rend system across the Magply boards as well as an area of insulation panels.

The Site Agent for the BJF Group, David Murray, commented: “The final design for the refurbishment of the centre included creating a steel framed structure around the existing low pitched roof, in the form of a parapet. There is insulation over the old corrugated roof to improve energy performance, and a new single ply membrane running into internal gutters. Then a membrane was fitted across the outside of the steel framework, along with four by two (100 x 50 mm) timbers, to which our dry liner fixed the Magply boards ready for the rendering. I can’t speak highly enough of the work done by Surrey Screed & Renders who we’ve used before on other jobs. The completed areas look really good”.

With the roof extending to 23 m in length, the total parapet is some 160m² in area, with another 40m² of the 12mm Magply boards having been rendered to create a bin store at the rear of the building, all supplied by EWI Store in Chessington, the UK’s largest stockist of render systems and materials. The K-Rend system itself comprises a base coat into which a mesh is set, followed by a primer and then the top coat finish.

The Managing Director of Surrey Screed and Renders, Matt Wray, confirmed: “As a specialist company we work right across the South-East from Milton Keynes down to the South coast and are an approved applicator for Weber systems as well as K-Rend which the architects specified here. Magply is a product we use a lot of as it works hand in hand with K-Rend: not only meeting all the performance criteria as a substrate, but being remarkably reasonably priced as well.”

Despite offering good adhesion for the decorative render system, Magply boards are far more moisture stable than rival products thanks to their modified MgO formulation that also represents an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional plywood or OSB sheets. The production process keeps the chlorine content to just 0.01^%, enhancing long-term durability, while Magply boards carry a variety of internationally recognised accreditations.

Speaking at the time of work beginning on the project, a spokesman for Theis + Khan said: “The new Bat & Ball Centre will now be a redevelopment of the existing community building. The existing structure is to be retained, but the building’s external envelope will be overclad and insulated with all doors and windows replaced. Internally, the building will be replanned and rationalised to reflect the latest brief and to meet or exceed current Building Regulations requirements. The interior will be completely refurbished throughout and the landscaping around the existing building will be refreshed.”