Promat fire-rated glazing and door solutions chosen for Grade II listed retail conversion

Glazing contractor PGS Glass has partnered with passive fire protection specialist Promat UK to provide fire resistant screens and fire doors for a project involving the conversion of a disused listed building into a new travel centre for Trailfinders.

The building project in the heart of Windsor, Berkshire has breathed new life into a prime retail property on the town’s High Street, which had stood empty since it was vacated by the previous occupier in June 2023. Award-winning architects Lustedgreen were tasked with the transformation of the building and successfully create the high quality accommodation required by the prestigious travel industry brand.

The Grade II listed status of the mid-18th century building required a sensitive approach to the conversion work to ensure the redecoration of the shopfront, new signage and all the internal refurbishment over five floors would comply with planning and conservation area stipulations.

Another key dimension to the project, however, was to ensure the layout of the ground floor and first floor could be configured to meet today’s fire safety requirements, without compromising the aesthetic vision or other important design objectives. These included maximising the use of the space and ensuring visibility and light transmission between areas was optimised.

One of the ways this was achieved was to form a ground floor lobby using fire resistant internal glass screens and fire rated doors. A similar approach was adopted on the first floor to compartmentalise additional sales and meeting areas.

The project’s fit-out contractor, Barnwood Construction, approached PGS Glass to provide these key internal elements. Having worked on numerous similar retail and commercial projects throughout the UK for more than 13 years, the PGS team immediately identified the fully tested fire resistant glazing system, Promat SYSTEMGLAS® Ligna, to meet the design and performance objectives.

On the ground floor, PGS used this system to manufacture and install three EI60 fire rated screens, each measuring around 1.1m x 2.4m and specified to provide integrity and insulation fire protection for 60 minutes, integrated with a matching fire rated door set. The timber selected for the screen framing was European Oak and this was closely replicated in a veneer finish on the door set.

On the first floor, two further Promat SYSTEMGLAS® Ligna screens were created, this time with an EI30 rating, complete with another fire door. Due to the nature of the historic building, this part of the internal glazing package required additional joinery skills from the PGS team to level the floor by creating and installing an additional plinth.

Paul Groves, Contracts Manager at PGS Glass, a Promat approved installer, said: “This was a particularly interesting project to be part of given the characteristics of this historic building, and the contemporary design created by Lustedgreen. Having worked closely with Promat for many years, we knew we could consult with them at an early stage to develop the correct specification for the screens and fire doors to provide the project team and client with a high quality, fully compliant solution.”

The timber-framed Ligna system used within this renovation project is one of several options available within the Promat SYSTEMGLAS® range. This also includes a steel frame version, Ferro, plus two options which use framing created using Promat PROMATECT®-H, a calcium silicate based material. Promat SYSTEMGLAS® Advenerat, is designed to be overclad or painted, and the Celare version offers the ability to conceal the framing within the surrounding walls, floor and ceiling for a frameless fire resistant glazing look.

All systems in the Promat SYSTEMGLAS® range benefit from the 360-degree wheel of assurance which offers traceability throughout the supply chain in line with the golden thread. Promat can trace the system from its raw material origins, through manufacturing and processing to installation and post-completion checks to significantly reduce the margin for errors.

To find out more about Promat SYSTEMGLAS® and Promat UK’s 360-degree ‘wheel of assurance’ visit https://www.promat.com/en-gb/industry/markets/fire-rated-glass/.