Jul 13 2007
A festival of shopping, style and fashion was enjoyed at the recent opening of Golden Square shopping centre’s new £120m extension, in Warrington. The retail-led regeneration project included the refurbishment of the existing 310,000 sq ft shopping area, together with the creation of a new 365,000 sq ft extension, providing Warrington with a fashionable edge and a great reason to shop locally.
In addition to high street favourites such as Marks & Spencer and Debenhams, Golden Square now offers sixty new retailers ensuring that everyone can enjoy a shopping extravaganza.
With an unsurpassed portfolio of impressive shopping complex installations, leading manufacturer of natural stone fixing products ARDEX UK was commissioned to provide the tile fixing solution for the walkways.
Working in conjunction with Stone Cladding International of Newton Abbot, who were in turn sub-contracted by Bovis Lend Lease, a schedule of work was prepared which ensured that disruption to shoppers and retailers, in the existing centre, was kept to a minimum as work progressed.
To commence the 8,500m² project, new 12mm granite stone tiles were fixed on the existing mall walkways with ARDEX S 16 grey rapid drying wall and floor tile adhesive with ARDEX E 90 admix. ARDEX S 16 incorporates unique ARDEX ‘Rapidry Formula’ technology that binds the mix water within the adhesive ensuring tiles can be grouted or trafficked only 3 hours after fixing and the risk of water staining is virtually eliminated. Granite stone tiles were also installed throughout the new mall areas, using ARDEX S 20 grey rapid drying and hardening natural stone adhesive. ARDEX S 20 ensures high performance and is ideal for fixing uncalibrated marble and other natural stones as it is suitable for bed thicknesses from 5 to 20mm. The rapid drying properties of ARDEX S 20 ensured that the tiles could be walked on and grouted after only 3 hours assuring a fast track installation.
All of the tiles were grouted with ARDEX MG dark grey grout, which is a unique rapid drying marble and natural stone grout featuring ‘Rapidry Formula’ technology. This product is ideal for grouting natural stone tiles as it virtually eliminates the risk of water staining at the tile edge and allows tiles to be walked on only 90 minutes after application.
“Prestigious shopping centres with natural stone tiles demand fast track solutions that guarantee a perfect finish. By specifying ARDEX natural stone systems we were able to ensure all of this plus the addition of very easy to use products, which keeps our fixers happy”, commented Alan Clarke of Stone Cladding International.