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RSL’s Cristalbright takes the biscuit at Blackfriars
Specialist flooring manufacturer Resin Surfaces Limited (RSL) has put the ‘icing on the cake’ at a refurbished production facility of world famous biscuit and cake manufacturer Blackfriars. RSL has supplied Resuthane polyurethane screed from its new innovative Cristalbright colour range for use in the company’s main Leicester factory.
Blackfriars Bakery is a successful bakery famous for its cakes, flapjacks, muffins, Eccles Cakes and cookies, as well as introducing technology that increased the shelf life of its products by up to six months. The company’s main production site was in need of refurbishment, and Blackfriars turned to flooring contractor Fastrack Flooring to provide a new high specification solution for a key production area.
The 1,200m sq area required a floor that could withstand heavy plant machinery, cleanable, have a low maintenance slip resistant surface, and comply to the necessary food hygiene standards. Fastrack recommended RSL, due to its vast experience in providing floors for food production areas. RSL supplied its innovative flooring system Resuthane CB in Peridot (green) from the new Cristalbright colour range.
The Resuthane range has been designed for flexibility and versatility, offering all of the hard wearing qualities necessary for practical applications, such as the Blackfriars project, but with the introduction of the new Cristalbright range available in a number of bright colours they offer a change from the traditional colours and further enhance any production facility.
Fastrack Flooring used Resuthane CB, a water based polyurethane screed which provides a hard wearing, textured surface designed for heavy duty usage. A 6mm layer was installed and left to cure across the 1,200 m sq area during a six week timetable The floor sections became tack free in under six hours allowing the installation of new bakery machinery to be installed in a short space of time. In addition, Resuthane CBSL, a self-levelling polyurethane resin was installed at a thickness of 2mm in the staff preparation areas, toilets and corridors, to help complete the full refurbishment of the production site.
Fastrack Flooring employed the wide range of colours to help distinguish different areas of the production floor leaving a lively green ready for use surface.
Dave Boden, Director at Fastrack Flooring comments: “We have often used RSL products in the past due to the quality and reliability of the products, so we were very confident that its new colour range of products would also be of the highest quality. It was fantastic to be one of the first contractors to use the Cristalbright range in such a high profile project.”
Ivy Wroe, Managing Director at RSL, adds: “We have a strong track record in providing the right products for use in environments where hygiene and heavy duty properties are required. The Cristalbright range is another high specification addition to our products offering something that is very different from the traditional colours available, and the interest it has generated amongst our contractors and project specifiers is really exciting. We are expecting it to sell like hot cakes.”
For further information email: info@resinsurfaces.co.uk

Entrance matting systems:
an afterthought or a key design feature?
By James Gravestock, Business Development Manager, Construction Markets, 3M
The largest source of interior degradation in commercial buildings is caused by dirt brought in on the shoes of building users.
A massive 85 per cent of dirt and moisture enters a building in that way – around 0.58g per person on a dry day, multiplied up to 10 times in wet conditions – and 95 per cent of appearance problems on textile floors are caused by tracked in dirt.
Yet specifying and fitting an efficient medium for removing dirt before it enters the building is often little more than an afterthought.
The case for matting
Effective entrance matting systems perform a variety of value adding functions and rapidly pay for themselves. Not only can they effectively remove, trap and hold dirt and moisture in a single location – significantly reducing the rate at which these are trafficked into the building - but cleaning costs can also be reduced greatly.
The appearance of the building is maintained, while – vitally in these days of increased accident litigation – the risk of falls resulting from wet and slippery floors is significantly reduced.
Entrance matting normally consists of two ‘zones’ – a scraper matting system and a secondary zone of moisture-grabbing matting. The scraper system removes, hides and retains dirt, preventing soil tracking while maintaining the appearance of the entrance. The secondary zone takes off moisture and finer soil and conceals this to prevent tracking into the building.
Scraper systems need also to be easy to maintain, and the usual choice is between natural fibres, cut pile fibres and dedicated scraping systems. Natural fibres such as coir or cocoa matting have semi-open single point bristles. Cut pile fibre consists of tightly packed vertical pile brush while dedicated scraping systems consist of an open structure with continuous filament loops or scraping peaks.
In the secondary zone, specifiers can choose from three types of material: nylon – with its excellent resistance to abrasive wear, crushing and stains; wool mixes - which retain their appearance better but offer limited wear resistance; or polypropylene - which is cheaper but offers limited scope for styling, has lower pile recovery and often attracts oily soil.
Factors influencing matting choice
Choosing the correct material type for the job will depend on a number of factors - including the location of the building; the level and type of traffic; and local weather. It’s also vital to consider the type and effectiveness of the chosen matting system; the amount, pattern and colour of the matting; and the level and effectiveness of the maintenance.
For city centre buildings, the dirt will tend to be finer, while in other urban locations, dirt on shoes is likely to be a combination of mud and water. In rural locations, however, footwear is likely to carry larger dirt particles.
The overall number of ‘crossings’ per day should also be estimated when selecting the best option. Matting at the entrance to a small office, for example, will not be subject to the same level of wear and tear as in a large secondary school. And the type of traffic makes a difference too – the footwear of office workers, for example, is likely to carry less dirt than that of those who are mainly working outside.
Prevailing local weather conditions, especially rainfall, should also be considered, particularly given increased dirt transport on shoes in wet conditions. Locations in eastern, central and southern England generally enjoy 70 per cent dry days, compared with only around 55 per cent in western England, the north, Wales and Scotland. Given the factor of 10 in soiling in wet conditions as against dry, the effect on the matting can be significant, especially in high traffic areas.
Research shows that a 1.5 metre run of matting will remove 30 per cent of dirt and moisture, rising to 95 per cent with a 9 metre run. It is clear, then, that maximising footfalls onto entrance matting will minimise walked-in dirt, with a 6-metre run typically offering optimal value by removing 85 per cent, after which the returns on extra matting start to diminish. In an office with 500 crossings a day, around 75kg of dirt will be generated each year, costing about £45,000 to remove if you accept an ISSA study suggesting that it costs £600 to remove 1kg of dirt.
A small 1.5 metre mat operating at 30 per cent effectiveness would remove 22.5kg of dirt, leaving a balance of 52.5kg to be removed at a cost of £31,500. However, a 6 metre length will typically remove 85 per cent of dirt, saving around £25,000 each year in cleaning costs.
Colour choice will not affect performance but will impact on how well dirt is ‘hidden’. Very dark colours, and light colours, such as beige and yellow, conceal least dirt while semi-dark greys and blues are best, followed by mid-range browns, reds and oranges. Similarly, a random pattern will hide most dirt, followed by heather and regular patterns, with solid and unpatterned colours hiding least.
The dangers of under-specifying
Clearly there are many factors affecting the right choice of matting – but spending the time to achieve that is vital. Under-specifying not only affects the appearance of the building entrance, but can also pose significant health and safety risks, necessitate replacement of other floor coverings in the building, and add to cleaning costs while also needing replacement far earlier than would have been the case had the correct product been chosen. And given continually growing concerns about sustainability, it makes sense to specify a product which is sufficiently durable to last for many years without needing to be replaced.
Indeed, specifying the correct type, amount and location of entrance matting –will keep the building looking good for longer, reduce running costs and help keep building users safe.
Part M of the 1999 Building Regulations, BS7953: 1999 (entrance flooring systems) or BS 5325: 2001 (installation of textile floor coverings) all provide further guidance on specification and fitting.
One final point is that matting will only perform as well as it is maintained. A simple cleaning regime, based on routine cleaning with periodic deep cleaning, will ensure optimal performance.

Squeeze means firms improve offices rather than move
Office refurbishments are on the increase during the current economic downturn as companies put off expensive moves to new office developments.
Updating and refurbishing existing environments are proving to be the way forward, according to Bristol flooring company Rudge Brothers and James.
Lex Construction of Cardiff recently refurbished an empty office on the prestigious Aztec West campus for building management consultancy Balfour Beatty WorkPlace (previously Haden Building Management).
The 1990s building was in poor shape and required a complete make-over. Balfour Beatty WorkPlace commissioned Morgan Lovell in partnership with interior designers Wylde IA to create an office facility with an interior that would provide staff with a stimulating and appealing environment in which to work.
Carpet tiles for creative flooring
Tracey Wylde of Wylde IA brought in InterfaceFlor to discuss creative flooring for over 1,000mÇ of floor space and to push design concepts for floor finishes. Chenille Warp, a modular carpet tile was chosen as a feature carpet. It is a tufted patterned level tip sheared pile carpet with a Graphlex® backing, manufactured from solution-dyed nylon with at least 80% post-industrial recycled polymer. Amtico wood effect vinyl was also selected for the in-house canteen.
Bespoke design using standard carpet tile range
InterfaceFLOR and Wylde IA decided to work with the standard palette of Chenille Warp and to use InterfaceFlor’s random lay Transformations carpet tile in the main office areas. Again the Transformation tile is a BREEAM A rated product and made from recycled fibres. To enhance the design features within the office environment Quantum loop pile carpet tiles were also chosen due to its large palette range of vibrant colours that matched the coloured stripes within the Chenille Warp range. The bright orange and vivid green adds a real wow factor to the office look. The tiles were laid as part of specific colour themes, matching the wall colouring and furniture on various areas of the open plan building.
Commenting on the bespoke carpet tile style, Mike Rowen, commercial director at Wylde IA, says: “We have worked with InterfaceFlor and Rudge Brothers and James flooring on a variety of projects and they were selected for the Balfour Beatty WorkPlace project because we knew we could rely on their thorough understanding of the InterfaceFlor products and the quality installation service that Rudge Brothers and James provide.”
Tracey added: “It was a very exciting brief from Balfour Beatty WorkPlace for its Aztec facility. It had to be cost effective, functional and professional as well as an uplifting environment to work in. We saw the potential to do something interesting with the flooring to make this an exciting vibrant workplace.”
A stimulating environment
InterfaceFlor examined colour psychology with Wylde IA to select colour schemes that would stimulate the brain as well as reduce stress. On a practical front, the colour schemes make it easy for staff to navigate around the building as the floor finishes differentiate key areas from reception and client facing meeting rooms, breakout and copy areas and open plan office space.

Fresh home for Freshwater thanks to Bbi
Brecon-based Beacons Business Interiors (Bbi) has handled the 8,000 sq ft office fit out of a leading national PR and marketing company, headquartered in Cardiff.
PR Week top five regional communications agency, Freshwater PR and Marketing, has moved into its new Welsh headquarters and appointed Bbi to manage its £250,000 fit out.
The contract involved the restructure and complete fit out of the PR and marketing company’s new office space, including video DVD editing and production facilities, a graphic design studio, training and meeting rooms and a library.
The office fit out also included establishing facilities for Freshwater Wales’s 45 staff including the Yum Yum Café kitchen, a dedicated sitting room and informal meeting rooms.
The piece de resistance of the new office is the curved wall that greets visitors on arrival in reception. Produced in conjunction with the Freshwater in-house design team, the wall features modern, colourful graphics and quotes about communication from famous writers from Shakespeare to Oscar Wilde.
Carl Williams, who led the project for BBi, says: “The Freshwater offices are a great example of what can be done with a bit of imagination and an injection of fun.
“In terms of office design, we’ve moved a long way from simply being satisfied with magnolia walls and a beech desk. Forward-thinking companies are currently creating exciting working environments that offer something a little bit different.
“Colour is a key feature in the Freshwater office. White desks are offset by lime green desk lamps and bright red dividers. The kitchen has high gloss black and lime green cabinets which are positioned next to a feature wall with a picture of an iced doughnut and a pink cupcake as well as a quote from Homer Simpson!
“But this approach is not just about frivolity – it can actually help the bottom line. An office with wow-factor, like Freshwater UKs new headquarters, can help increase staff motivation and reduce absenteeism, as well as create a powerful first impression for clients. The investment will definitely reap rewards.”
Freshwater UK’s new offices are a result of its recent acquisition of Cardiff based Marketing and PR agency, Merlin. The office will house the two teams as well as the group’s finance, HR and internal communications teams.
Bruce Morris, managing director of Freshwater, said: “This is a really positive move for us. Our new offices have been expertly designed and have helped bring a sense of cohesion for the two teams.
“Large, open communal spaces have been combined with small, informal meeting rooms. Together with the superb graphic designs and feature walls throughout the offices, Bbi has helped us to create offices that we feel everyone who works at Freshwater can be proud of and feel good about.
“I think the final version reflects our culture here, an open-minded place where people enjoy working, and this translates into the creative work that we produce for our clients.”
Bbi has offices in Brecon, Dewsbury and Gloucester and provides facilities support to more than 500 clients across the UK including several blue chip companies like Lloyds TSB and Zurich Financial Services, government organisations such as the Office for National Statistics and international companies such as Capita, Atkins and Computershare.

Look beyond the legal minimum
Going a step further than current building regulations and ensuring maximum energy and cost efficiency is essential for office lighting design explains Mike Attard, managing director at RIDI Lighting UK.
Where developers or facilities managers used to look to the ever changing minefield of building regulations when thinking of lighting standards and control –
‘as long as it passes muster, it’s fine’
– the current need to streamline costs has led to a significant rise in interest in intelligent, energy saving lighting control. Yes, regulations continue to be updated and a lighting solution still needs to be selected on its ability to meet certain standards but specifiers are now looking at the multiple benefits brought about by comprehensive control, with an optimum working environment achievable alongside a reduction in carbon footprints.
It’s actually quite interesting when you think that Part L came about largely to encourage the use of energy efficient lighting but it’s the onset of the recession, combined with the volatile energy markets, that has now hastened both the development and take-up of the highly efficient products which developers across the board are now demanding.
Moving on from the reasons why we’ve started to take it seriously, from both a financial aspect and a green perspective, the fact remains that the need to reduce unnecessary energy use in the workplace is essential. Lighting alone can account for 25% of a commercial building’s energy consumption and simple measures can make a big difference. However, an intelligent, managed control system, fully integrated to offer even a certain amount of personal control delivers both energy savings – much greater than regulations sought to achieve – and a more pleasant working environment. So, a reduction in energy consumption and a happier, healthier workforce!
The basic principles are to make maximum use of daylight and avoid unnecessary lighting during times when spaces are unoccupied.
While switches, time clocks, presence detection and absence recognition, as well as photocells can turn luminaires on and off, if a more advanced solution is required, it could include high frequency dimmable control gear linked to photocells to provide constant illumination and daylight linking – mirroring the external conditions.
Daylight detection is a hugely important factor in efficient lighting control. With a lighting system that intelligently adjusts output depending on levels of daylight and switches off the lights when there is no one in the building, the energy usage is significantly reduced – again, helping to save money and reduce your carbon footprint.
Plus, on a personal (or, more to the point, personnel) level, studies have shown that creating a natural environment helps increase productivity, reduce worker fatigue and increase staff comfort. This is why these lighting systems have become so popular for office lighting, as it moves lighting control from the macro to the micro. By having instant control over the lighting, it means that it is possible to adjust individual lighting levels. This creates a much more relaxed working environment.
This is where RIDI has focused with its most recent control developments. Control3 delivers this complete control and is designed to offer maximum energy and cost efficiency. Naturally, the system easily ensures total compliance with Part L building regulations but, more importantly, goes beyond the legal minimum with absolute end-user convenience.
Control3 is a software based control system which uses standard TCP/IP and DALI and offers complete access to your building systems from a single interface. This enables individual building users to control their own environment via a PC pop-up or wireless control, as well as the system making use of the existing data network and manual control switches.
Connected to RIDI’s Dynamic Daylight luminaires the system is able to reflect or enhance external conditions. Going further than simply replicating the conditions of the day, this set-up mimics natural daylight and is able to create the appearance of a bright summer’s day when, in reality, the natural light is dull and grey.
With a single sensor, the daylight detection function works with the geometry of your building and adjusts the output of every luminaire to maintain the desired working light level. Fully versatile, it is fully compatible with both the latest wireless controls, as well as standard wall switches.
This is an important aspect of the product, making it much more accessible because, whether you’ve got an existing control system in place or are simply using standard switches and luminaires, the diversity of systems like Control3 means that there is a control mechanism for a variety of situations. This allows you to benefit from the energy and cost efficiency savings without necessarily having to invest in a full package of additional controls and make expensive luminaire upgrades. This is particularly relevant at the moment, with an increase in refurbishment projects, due to the halt in commercial construction.
Where advanced controls are an option they range from a variety of wall switches to touch panel LCD displays showing entire room overviews. Easily customisable these LCD control panels are often able to be updated without someone visiting your site. This means that you have comprehensive control but that your lighting system actually comprehensively does exactly what you want it to do! By adding a digital input module, switches, movement detectors and timers can all be connected and, using an analogue input, light sensors, rotary dimmers and sliders can all further enhance your work environment.
In summary, where efficiency savings are concerned, an integrated lighting control system offers several ways to prevent energy and cost wastage. Each is carefully designed and commissioned to fit exactly with the characteristics of your building and to be completely user friendly.
Daylight detection
Many buildings simply don’t need artificial light during the hours of daylight but how often do we see buildings with all lights blazing throughout the day? Using a control system that incorporates daylight detection technology, adjusting the output of every luminaire to maintain the desired working light level makes perfect sense. Plus, the beauty is that, in many cases, this can be achieved with a single sensor for an entire building.
Absence recognition
I mentioned absence recognition – technology that actually knows when a room has been vacated. This means that lights are only on when there is activity in the room. It activates the system and then discreetly extinguishes light when it is no longer need – much more efficient than simple PIR activated lighting that runs on a timer, where lights may remain on for a period when a room is no longer in use. Absence recognition ensures that no energy is wasted.
Scheduled switching
Through the intelligent use of a scheduled switching system, your building can be made to feel more welcoming. Reception and corridor areas can be illuminated, ready to greet you in the mornings and then, to save energy, lights can be programmed to go out in the evening. A simple solution that can even allow different settings for weekends and holidays.
Once your system is up and running, you want to be able to stay in control of it. This is achieved with a series of powerful tools to ensure that you remain in control.
Power monitoring
By knowing exactly where your building is using energy, it’s much easier to use it more efficiently. Control3 produces reports of energy usage at different points in your building, from individual luminaries to the entire complex.
Emergency lighting
In times of power failure, it is essential that you have confidence in your emergency lighting provisions. Integrated systems make testing and recording both quick and trouble free. Each emergency luminaire, as well as its mains counterpart, has its own unique system address and can be programmed to perform self test procedures at times of low risk. Should any unit fail, it is listed immediately as a problem and the system can even be set to send notification by email or SMS.
Instant failure reporting
Similarly, systems such as Control3 can automatically test entire lighting systems for defects throughout the day. If a fault is detected, whether it is a lamp failure, ballast malfunction or wiring fault, a notification is immediately sent to the system administrator.
Put simply, integrated control systems offer a substantial solution to increasing commercial efficiency.

How LED lighting can cut business costs - and help the environment
By Shaun Oxenham, CEO, Enfis Group
The cost of lighting commercial premises is often the largest part of its annual energy bill. With Governments setting increasingly demanding targets for businesses to reduce their Carbon Footprint more and more companies are considering a switch to energy efficient lighting.
Lighting is one of the most important aspects of our indoor and outdoor space. The differences in quality can create a huge impact in health, efficiency, comfort, mood and overall happiness.. The light source has to be good, but it also has to be clean, efficient and economic. The switch from traditional lighting sources to more energy efficient solid-state lighting (SSL) technologies such as Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) therefore makes a compelling case.
When travelling through any city, the majority of office lights can be seen to be on after working hours. This makes for an attractive night-time picture, but the implications of this energy waste are staggering. There are 160 million buildings across Europe, and their energy consumption amounts to over 40% of the total supply — generating over 40% of its carbon-dioxide emissions. Of this energy use, lighting accounts for 25% of emissions from commercial buildings.
There are two key changes that can be made to cut down on the use of electricity used for lighting. Firstly, to replace traditional inefficient light sources such as halogen, CFL and incandescent light bulbs with more efficient LED light sources. However, the lowest energy consuming light source is one which is switched OFF. So, secondly, we need to provide better controls for our light sources that mean they only give out the necessary amount of light and so only consume electricity when they are needed. LED light sources can also be dimmed easily and have instant switch on characteristics making them ideally suitable for a more controlled lighting environment.
LEDs, such as the one’s produced by Enfis plc, do not emit heat like incandescent, they last many years longer and are more energy efficient than both traditional bulbs and Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs). As an example, a 100W light bulb will be replaced by an LED light source of < 15W giving the same amount of light. This would give an energy reduction of 85% providing significantly lower energy costs. As solid state lighting technology evolves, the efficiency of these devices will continue to improve, enabling even greater energy savings through conversion to LED. They are not only getting better – they are coming down in price.
There are obviously a range of lighting products available. The Enfis range for example incorporates the most powerful efficient Lighting Emitting Diodes (LED’s) available which efficiently utilise the supplied power, and typically reduce energy consumption by up to 85%. With a life-span of over 50,000 hours, such LED technology can offer substantial cost savings on maintenance, almost making traditional light bulb replacement a thing of the past.
The key benefits of LED lighting are:-
Long life. The long life of LED lighting means that lamp changing and lamp failures are a thing of the past. LED lighting life is beyond 50,000 hours. In a typical UK night time burning situation, this equates to approximately 14 years.
Reliability. LEDs are solid-state devices, which offer superb reliability over conventional lamps.
Maintenance free operation. No routine maintenance is required to ensure continued performance, so reducing costs and avoiding the possibility of missed maintenance.
Environmental benefits. Lamp disposal problems are eliminated due to the long life of LED lights, and no resources are used in routine maintenance.
Energy efficient. With advanced Leds, luminaire design, energy efficient operation is ensured.
New lighting possibilities. New designs are made possible by the small size of LEDs eliminating the need to allow for maintenance required for conventional lamps.
Environmentally safe. LEDs are made from non-toxic materials unlike fluorescents which contain Mercury. They can also be recycled.
More power to light instead of power to heat
Reduced power consumption by up to 85%
Reduced light pollution – direct light source with a high contrast at low levels and zero light overspill
Pure Light. excellent visual acuity. Ideal for CCTV covered areas
Long life span. > 10 years (50,000 hours) = low maintenance cost on bulb replacements
Impact resistant. Casing reduces the effects of vandalism
Proven technology in a cost effective package
Can provide lighting where no main lighting exists like walkways and park areas
Cheaper installation with no mains installation costs when using solar powered solutions
Self contained units that require minimal maintenance
Colour changing. 4 billion colour palette (RGBA 8-bit)
Instant light. Switches on/off at < 1 / 1,000 second
Mechanically robust. Rugged – not easy to damage