For those of us who still like to have a calendar on the wall giving us a new photograph to look at each month as we keep track of the days, a couple you might like to consider come from the Building Conservation Directory and the Dry Stone Walling Association.

The Building Conservation Directory is celebrating its 30th year this year and the calendar is helping to remind those involved in the heritage sector to get their entries in for the special 30th edition of the Directory. Each month comes with a photograph of a beast, many of them carved or sculpted, although some (like the one on the cover) are stained glass. It kicks off in January with a picture of the sanctuary knocker at Durham Cathedral, which is actually a copy of the original knocker.

The Dry Stone Walling Association's calendar has examples of modern and historical walling, starting with a photograph from Chris Bolshaw of a shelter wall for sheep at a farm in Lancashire, complete with sheep in a snowy landscape.

It is not too late to get them for your office for the New Year. They each cost £8. The Dry Stone Walling calendar is available from the Association's online shop (click here to visit the shop) and the Conservation Directory calendar is available from Cathedral Communications. Contact them on Tel: 01747 871717 or email admin@buildingconservation.com 

David Coster, Director of Advanced Stone & Masonry Supplies, which sells Stain Proof and Tenax products, talks to Salvatore Caruso, MD of new company Stone Automation, formed to sell Italian company Donatoni Macchine saws (and other machines and tools) in the UK and Ireland.

David Coster: Tell us about setting up Stone Automation.

Salv Caruso: My history is a fabricator and that’s something still very close to my heart with my company Classico Marble. I started to work with Stone Italiana about 28 years ago, so when they were looking for a partner in the UK, naturally we started to supply Stone Italiana quartz to the trade as well as natural stone.

We then started to sell Wodium tooling from Belgium. When I first saw their tooling on videos I thought the videos had been speeded up. But about nine years ago I decided to try them and they have changed our production completely. Some materials we were able to cut four times faster than we had been cutting them before.

They then said they were looking for someone to sell the tools in the UK and asked us if we could do it. I said I sort of could, but that there were other companies that were established tool sellers in the UK. They said they were not looking just for someone to sell the tools, but someone who could hold customers’ hands a bit to show them how the tools can be used to solve their problems and give customers that bit of support. So we agreed to do that and that business has evolved.

Then, earlier this year, we started to have some conversations with Donatoni. Again, I use Donatoni machines in my business – I have four Jets and I have had a wonderful experience with them – so I thought, yes; sure; I like the machines. So I formed the new company, Stone Automation, to supply these products to other fabricators. The other product we sell is Slabsmith. Again, it has helped my business.

They’re all products I know and that have helped me in my business, so now I’m going to help other people’s businesses with these products – as long as I think they are right for those businesses.

David: You work in various materials, but from a personal and business perspective, which do you prefer?

Salv: Funny enough, I had to make some choices last year when we moved home. I went with a ceramic floor, because I think ceramic is fantastic, although personally I think it’s best used when only the surface is exposed. I went for Stone Italiana around the kitchen – I have a coffee machine that sits on it and I never have any worries about it staining or marking. I know it’s going to look the same 30 years down the line. And for the island I wanted something nobody else has, so I went for Wakanda quartzite from Brazil. It is striking with the vein running down the leg. It’s kind of cool because I know no-one else in the world has got that same piece of stone.

Dave: I think that’s where the industry sits. If you need a one-off piece you still can’t beat natural stone, but then there’s the practicality of quartz and the durability of ceramics.

On to the next question: you’re selling machines and tools, do you think the workpieces still need to be hand finished?

Salv: My background, before I joined my Dad’s business in 2002, was in automation consultancy for a German company, so I’m a massive believer in automation. I believe machinery should do everything it can do. There’s no point taking a piece of stone off a machine if that machine hasn’t been fully utilised.

However, we do put everything through a final check by hand and I can’t see that changing in the near future for us.

Dave: You have obviously expanded with your new company, but do you have any more investments planned?

Salv: In the UK we want to change things a little bit because I don’t think companies have been getting exceptional service on machinery. In my experience, if you want to contact someone about your machines you have to wait until nine-o-clock. You call. Someone calls you back. They take some details. Then an engineer talks to you. Before you know it you have lost four hours’ production. Only a fabricator can understand how painful that is. That’s why we put two people on the Stone Automation help desk straight away. You can phone them between 7.30am and 4pm. It doesn’t mean we can solve every problem but a lot of problems are quite small and can be solved quickly.

We believe service is the biggest investment we should be making and we have made that investment. When spares are needed, we have a small margin on parts. We are not taking advantage of people when they need spare parts.

Dave: Some people might think there’s a conflict of interest in you being a fabricator yourself?

Salv: I’m really open with everyone. The first thing I tell them is that I can understand their needs, their requirements, and their pressures because I’m a fabricator too and we’re all facing the same challenges.

We want reliable machinery that it’s easy to train people to use, because in this industry there’s a relatively high turnover of staff. We want machinery that’s going to be well supported when there’s an issue and we don’t want to pay through the nose for spare parts.

There could be a conflict in some people’s eyes, but usually people who are straight forward understand I’m a straightforward guy myself. Sometimes people think the worst of people because that’s how they behave.

Dave: With your different businesses you see the industry from various perspectives. What do you think will be the trends to look out for 2023?

Salv: I think the Italian market has been more accepting of sintered materials than the UK, so that might increase in the UK where we are still seeing a large percentage of quartz used. We are definitely seeing natural stone coming back quite strongly, especially at the luxury end of the market. I think that’s going to continue.

Dave: What are the main challenges you are facing now?

Salv: The biggest challenge for fabricators is increasing costs. People’s personal lives are taking a hammering so there’s pressure on employers to increase salaries. There’s a lot of fabricators who complain about not having enough people and a skilled workforce, but some of them only have themselves to blame because instead of bringing people into the trade and training them up, like we all have to do, they simply took people from other companies.

I think we all have to take responsibility for training a certain number of people and bringing them into the industry.

We just have to face increasing costs and pass them on to the customer up the line if we can. But we have got to be as efficient on our production as possible.

Dave: Have you employed more people?

Salv: Yes. But you need to have a bit of luck finding the right people.

Like a lot of the properties English Heritage is responsible for, the Medieval Bishops’ Palace in Lincoln is a ruin. Yet these ruins of what was once one of the most important buildings in the country are an invaluable record of a time when Lincoln was the administrative centre of the largest diocese in England, stretching from the Humber to the Thames. To preserve that significance, £2.5million is now being spent on conserving the ancient stonework.

Some of the last blocks of Lincoln limestone from the quarry operated by the city’s cathedral are being used to save the ruins of the Medieval Bishops’ Palace adjacent to Lincoln Cathedral. With reserves exhausted, the quarry closed in 2021.

Before it closed the decision had been made to spend £2.5million preserving the ruins of the palace once occupied by the Bishops of Lincoln, and 50m3 of free issue Lincoln Limestone Silver and Red bed blocks were pre-ordered for the specialist conservation contractor, Messenger, for the project.

However, yield from the stone turned out to be less than the 50% anticipated and it was used up in the first phase of the work. Another 20m3 were purchased.

Neither could the stone satisfy all the bed heights required and an alternative stone was approved. It is Lavoux limestone, which is also used at Lincoln Cathedral. It is a French limestone considered a good geological match to the Lincoln stone. It is supplied in the UK by Pierre Heritage.

Fred Markland, Messenger’s Heritage & Conservation Senior Building Surveyor, told NSS: “Due to the various stone sizes needed on-site, it was more efficient to order the stone in slab form and then to cut the exact stone size required on-site using a site saw. This assisted with the constantly changing, unforeseen stone requirements by having stock readily available and meant we could find a use for much of the ‘waste’ removed from what we had sawn.”

The Messenger BCR Group is based in Stamford, Lincolnshire, where the famous Collyweston roofing slate comes from (and Messenger is actively preserving and sharing the legacy of that stone at its Heritage Centre). Messenger is working closely with English Heritage, Historic England and Buttress Architects, who are also the architects for Lincoln Cathedral.

It was one of the bishops, Bishop Remigius, who instigated the construction of the cathedral in the 11th century (it was partially destroyed in the 12th century by a fire and then, later, by an earthquake). The first reference to a ‘Bishop’s House’ was in the early 12th century. It is not necessarily the current Medieval Bishops’ Palace, but could be, says Kate North of English Heritage.

“The first phase we know much about as the Bishops’ Palace (as it is today) was with Bishop Robert de Chesney in the mid-12th century," says Kate, "although there’s not a huge amount of that surviving and the rest is a mixture of 13th, 14th and 15th century – with a lot of the surviving fabric dating from the 13th century.” There are also Victorian interventions.

The Medieval Bishops’ Palace was one of the 400-or-so sites English Heritage became responsible for looking after when it parted from what then became Historic England in 2015. English Heritage became a charitable trust, its sites including many internationally important heritage sites, including Stonehenge and Hadrian’s Wall.

As a parting gift on its way to independence English Heritage was given £80million by the government to ensure its sites were up to standard, and the consolidation of the ruins of the Medieval Bishops Palace in Lincoln is one of the projects that money is paying for.

The Bishops’ Palace certainly needed some attention, as the netting on the walls to catch falling masonry testified. The risk of falling masonry had, in fact, necessitated closing parts of the site to visitors.

The government funding comes to an end at the end of this financial year (the end of March 2023) and the Medieval Bishops Palace project with it, as it was always scheduled to, even though the start date was delayed slightly by Covid, with Messenger not moving on to the site until March 2021. To keep it on schedule, Messenger had up to 12 masons working 11-hour days on the project in 2022.

It was not an easy site to access because the only entrance is through a stone arch, which restricts the size of delivery vehicles that can be used. Messenger’s operatives received specific banksman training for the project to get vehicles through the arch and products on to the site.

Fred Markland praises the scaffolders from Crown Scaffolding in Derbyshire for their work because of the difficulty of getting the scaffolding on to site. A limited amount has been used and it has been moved around as necessary.

Due to the geology of the site a continuous linked scaffolding with limited steps assists with logistics. Manual handling from one end to the other involves material hoists, buckets, a power barrow, trolleys, a forklift truck and loading bays to limit manual handling.

And because of the difficulty of getting the scaffolding on to site, work at a higher level has been more extensive than originally envisaged so it does not need revisiting any time soon.

Before any physical work started, surveys were carried out on the species living at the site, notably bats, which openings in the repairs allow to continue to have access to their roosts. There was ongoing ecological monitoring throughout the project.

Trials of materials and methods to be used were also carried out prior to the main conservation work commencing, including samples of stone repair techniques with different tooling finishes for stone replacement, including axe tooling, and appropriate mortar mixes for different locations around the site.

English Heritage worked with the University of Lincoln on some nanolime trials during the project. Nanolime is calcium hydroxide dispersed in a solvent and used as a consolident for limestone. It was used at various locations and will be the subject of a paper produced jointly by the University and Historic England in due course.

By the time the project is completed next year, the site will once again be safe for the public to visit, although a visitor centre through which the public accessed the site previously was leased from the diocese and is now considered too expensive. Currently it is anticipated that visits will be restricted to arranged events for organised parties.

As the work has progressed there have been a number of hard-hat tours for interested groups and educational purposes. The numbers that can be accommodated have necessarily been limited, but there have always been more people wanting to see the project than have been able to join the tours.

The legacy of the project at the Medieval Bishops’ Palace will not only be ruins that are safe to visit, but also a highly accurate and detailed record of the site thanks to point cloud laser scanning and photogrammetry that combine to create a precise 3D digital record in sufficient detail to be able to see individual stones. It was one of the first English Heritage projects to be catalogued in this way, with English Heritage calling on its partners at Historic England to lend their expertise to carry out the scanning.

The data were then passed to the architects to mark out the stonework that needed attention. However, the scans were completed before Covid and after two fairly severe winters the walls were re-surveyed once the scaffolding had been erected.

In a collaborative approach between Paddy Lilley, leading the Messenger site team, Contracts Manager Martin Nee, QS Lewis Pickering, Adam Lewis (the Project Architect from Buttress) and Edward Kepczyk (the Lead Architect from Buttress), with curatorial support from Kate North of English Heritage, the additional works were identified as being necessary.

The fact that the Medieval Bishops’ Palace is a ruin owes a lot to the civil wars of the 17th century. And while most of the fabric that remains dates back to the 13th century, a wall on the perimeter of the site separating it from neighbouring property is Roman, with a medieval parapet constructed on top of it. For structural integrity it was found to require a substantial degree of demolition and rebuilding, which had not been included in the original programme. “That was £100,000-worth of work that wasn’t envisaged,” says Fred Markland.

There is a tower, Alwick Tower, and a Chapel, St Hughes, which were rebuilt by the Victorians, although they still contain medieval stonework, more of which has been discovered during the current project.

In the west porch, some of the medieval stonework uncovered had red paint on it, which is now being analysed to see if it is also medieval and to add to the records. As Ronald Blakeley, the National Projects Manager of English Heritage, told NSS: “It’s a site that keeps on giving.”

Major consolidation work was carried out in the 1950s and ’60s, although, almost inevitably with work from that period, it involved hard cements and concrete, before the deterioration-accelerating effects of the use of hard cements with stone were widely understood.

Some of the cementitious consolidation from the mid-20th century is so extensive that it has not been removed as part of the current project. To do so would have been a major undertaking and it was felt it was also likely to lead to the loss of more of the original fabric of the walls, with some of the medieval masonry having even more extensive cracking than had been expected.

It was not only hard cement that was playing its part in the deterioration of the walls. Valerian and ivy were also contributing, their thickening roots forcing the stones apart. Valerian is a particular problem because it is a popular garden plant and there is a lot of it in the precinct gardens of the cathedral. It self-seeds on the exposed stone walls and more than 1,000 plants had to be removed by Messenger. Keeping it off the walls will require on-going attention.

One reason for the deterioration seen in the walls is that the stone used for interior walls was not the best, as it was not intended to be exposed to the weather. A roof would have provided protection and part of the current work has been to replace that kind of protection by capping the walls. Various methods have been used. At higher levels there is hard capping, some using Ancaster limestone. There is lead protecting the kitchen high level. Lower down, there is soft capping, where the walls are topped with turf.

Soft cappings were developed as what is known as ‘sustainable conservation’ to protect stone ruins in a self-sustaining way. Soft cappings are permeable, but so are stone walls with lime mortars. Soft cappings shed water and can help prevent algal growth and streaking on the faces of walls as well as providing insulation to avoid freezing, which can be a cause of stone cracking and delaminating.

The 2022 summer was particularly dry and it did look for a while as if the grass had died, although it was showing signs of recovery when it started to rain in the autumn.

Ed Kepczyk says the team was fortunate to have the input of Alan Catherside, of the Gardens & Landscape team at English Heritage, on the soft cappings before his retirement. The architect says it was interesting to observe the difference between the Messenger soft cappings used on the project and trials beforehand, which quickly died. Ed Kepczyk says: “The reflection so far is that proper installation and tending is key.”

See the Bishops’ Palace entry on the English Heritage website here and you can download a Lincolnshire Museums Information Sheet on it from tinyurl/bisopspalace.

Nearly 40,000 construction companies have defaulted on repaying their Covid-19 bounce back loans of up to £50,000 each.

That’s 15% of the 260,912 government-guaranteed loans issued to construction companies.

In total, the bounce back loans given to construction companies amounted to £7.68billion.

The figures come from data obtained under a Freedom of Information enquiry by Construction News.

Another 679 building companies have defaulted on the higher-value (up to £5million a time) Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILs) – that’s 4% of all such loans to construction companies. And construction received 17% of all CBILs.

Construction News reports DRS Bond Management director Chris Davies as saying: “Banks were notoriously negative toward construction companies before the Covid-loan schemes and the only reason they were lent to during the Covid-loan period was the government guarantees.”

I have been writing about the ceramic tile sector for more than 40 years now and I can say with some certainty that 2022 was a year unlike any other.

In common with other mature industrial sectors, the past four decades have seen the global ceramic tile sector impacted by geopolitical forces and traumatic world events, such as the 2008 global financial crisis; 9-11; and the Gulf War. But this year several powerful negative forces have been at play simultaneously – and they have impacted on everyone in the global ceramic tile community.

As well as the Coronavirus pandemic, the UK has been additionally challenged by Brexit and the soaring energy prices resulting from the war in Ukraine.

These three challenges have had a particularly acute impact on the ceramic tile market. Take Brexit, for instance. The UK only has one remaining volume tile manufacturer, Johnson Tiles, so the vast bulk of this £950million+ market relies on imported tiles. Spain and Italy have been traditionally two of the major supplier nations and they now face expensive delays and painful paperwork to keep contracts supplied and warehouses stocked.

Looking forward, emerging producer nations, such as Brazil, China and India could offer alternative sources, but only when the UK signs a raft of yet-to-emerge international trade deals. And importing tiles from far away has many downsides, particularly given the escalating cost of marine fuel. With a container ship consuming 60,000+ gallons of marine fuel per day, this is no small consideration, and has led to a huge rise in freight transport costs.

In July 2020 the average price of shipping a 40ft container from China to the UK was around £1,500.  Today that figure is nearer £11,000, a staggering 630% increase. And the problem does not end there, because higher diesel prices mean the cost of getting tiles from port to warehouse to customer have all risen significantly.

The war in Ukraine had a particular impact on the tile sector. Just as bakers suddenly woke up to the fact that Ukraine was a major source of wheat, the tile industry discovered that Ukraine was a key exporter of clay, which is the core ingredient of any tile.

The development of porcelain tiles means that the clay extracted near the main European ceramic hubs – Castellon in Spain and Sassuolo in Italy – is no longer fit for purpose. Prior to the outbreak of hostilities, Ukrainian clays accounted for 25% of all the raw materials used by the Italian ceramic industry. While alternative supplies are available – from the UK, Turkey, and across Eastern Europe – it is not easy to suddenly source and ship thousands of tons of clay to your factory.

And when these alternative sources of clay did arrive, manufacturers found that subtle differences in chemical composition meant tiles made from them displayed subtle colour differences when fired. To maintain design consistency, manufacturers had to reformulate thousands of products, with particular emphasis on new engobe compositions to decorate and texture the tiles.

After these technical difficulties were overcome, the spiralling gas prices – still the primary fuel in tile production – and other inflationary pressures compounded the need for price hikes.

At the start of the year the situation was so acute that Confindustria Ceramica, the Italian tile manufacturers’ association, took the unprecedented step of sending out press bulletins to explain the situation in the hope of calming the market’s fears.

In mid-March, when gas prices reached a record level of €3.50 per cubic metre, 30 factories in Italy  (out of around 220) stopped production and furlough agreements were put in place for 4,000 workers. There were also significant shut downs in Spain. And the decision to shut down is never taken lightly because of the potential damage caused to kilns when they cool down.

Looking forward, Spanish and Italian companies are seeking to diversify their gas and material supply chains, both by extending the number of European suppliers they buy from and by seeking new sources from outside Europe.

There are hopes that hydrogen-fuelled kilns will offer a more sustainable manufacturing path eventually, although that will only become viable when the price of hydrogen falls, as it inevitably will with economies of scale and innovations as production increases.

You might think these pressures on the market would have caused a slow down in mergers, acquisitions, and capital investment, but all three have continued apace. And there is no doubt that we will see more companies pursuing a policy of growth through acquisition.

The largest player in the world ceramic tile market is the US-based Mohawk Group. It has built a powerful portfolio of tile brands over the past decade, including American Olean, Daltile, Decortiles, Eliane, Kerama, Marazzi, Emilceramica, and Ragno. In June 2022 it significantly expanded its tile presence with the acquisition of Vitromex, the leading tile manufacturer in Mexico. Next in line looks like being Elizabeth, one of the largest tile manufacturers in Brazil. The purchase is expected to be completed in 2023.

In the UK, Victoria PLC has been steadily amassing a powerful portfolio of tile brands, with Ascot, Casabella Ceramiche, Casainfinita, Ceramiche Capri, Ceramica Colli de Sassuolo, Dom Ceramiche, Keradom, and Vallelunga & Co in Italy, and Ibero Porcelanico, Keraben, Metropol, and Saloni in Spain. In 2022, Victoria made a significant move into the North American market with the acquisition of Cali, the San Diego-based flooring distributor with various B2C and B2B platforms.

In Italy, Graziano Verdi continues to drive the growth of the Italcer Group. Its high-end tile brands include La Fabbrica Ceramiche, Elios Ceramica, Ceramica Rondine, Cedir, and Equipe Cerámicas. The latest brand to be added to the portfolio is Ceramica Fondovalle, a €50million Sassuolo-based manufacturer with particular expertise in large slabs. With this acquisition, Italcer is anticipated to reach a consolidated turnover of €370million in 2022, with an EBITA of €80million.

Consolidation has also been taking place among distributors. In the UK, Topps Tiles has acquired 60% of the issued share capital of Pro Tiler Ltd, an online supplier of tiling products to the trade. Topps has an option to purchase the remaining 40% that is exercisable from March 2024.

The commercial arm of Topps Tiles – Parkside and Strata Tiles – aligned to become sister brands. These two tile specification companies are looking to become market leaders in the UK’s commercial tile market by 2025.

In tools, Husqvarna Group's Construction Division, a world leader in diamond tools for the stone industry, has acquired Heger, another specialist in professional diamond tools.

The attractiveness of the tile sector was underlined when CTD Tiles, the UK’s largest tile distributor, announced its acquisition by private equity group Aurelius Investments. Previously under the ownership of Saint-Gobain, the sale comes at a time of growth for the company and included all brands in The CTD Group.

Aurelius will work with CTD’s experienced management team to leverage its leading B2B market position by expanding its e-commerce offering and to continue the company’s operational development. Aurelius also sees opportunities for opening new trade counters and additional branches in key locations across the UK.

2022 also saw the launch of a new brand in the UK tile sector: the Gölz group, based in Germany. With 75 years’ experience in high quality machinery and diamond accessories, Gölz has had a presence in the UK since 1987, providing expert technical and sales support for a range of professional machinery and diamond tools for the construction industry. Now, with the addition of the new 110V table saws, Gölz can also supply tile and stone customers with saws that can be used onsite as well as in the factory.

There were two significant accolades for the UK’s ceramic tile sector during the year. In January, Brian Newell, Chair and Founder of the TTA Technical Committee, was made an MBE in the New Year’s Honours. Brian, the CEO and Founder of Shackerley Holdings, was a founding member of The Tile Association and in his long career has helped to deliver the TTA’s key aspirations of improving standards and driving quality through the UK tiling sector.

He joined the BSI Committee B539 in the 1980s and went on to develop and draft the first British Wall & Floor Tile Installation Standards (BS 5385 Parts 1-5) and the first tiling Workmanship on Site Standards (BS 8000).

In another impressive accolade, Instarmac Group received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade 2022.   

Environmental enthusiasm

2022 will also hopefully be remembered as the year when the ceramic tile sector really put its green foot forward. For some time now companies like Kerakoll have driven the environmental agenda, while others seemed happy to talk the talk, but not walk the walk. This year, particularly at Cersaie, a major European tile exhibition, it felt as though green wash had been replaced by clear sustainability initiatives backed up by research and investment. Giovanni Savorani, Chairman of Confindustria Ceramica, stated: “The Italian ceramic industry’s commitment to sustainability was the common thread running through the entire show.”

Green initiatives seen across the ceramic sector included Grespania installing photovoltaic panels on the roof of its plant in Moncófar, Castellón. This 907kWp array is capable of generating 1.3GWh of clean energy a year – or 30% of the total energy requirement for its factory.

Instarmac Group has invested more than £400,000 on state-of-the-art solar panels at its factory in Tamworth, Staffordshire. Perfect Sense Energy installed 1,656 solar panels across a 3,771m2. The 768kW solar panels will generate 680,000kW of clean green energy for Instarmac.

Mosa has achieved Cradle to Cradle Certified Gold for its ceramic floor and wall tiles. With 99% of its products already certified at the Silver level, it wanted to go all the way by moving up to Gold according to version 3.1 of the Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Standard.

Taking another slant on sustainability, on the natural stone side of the industry Stone Federation announced its Responsible Sourcing Pledge. This is an opportunity for Stone Federation members, architects, designers, engineers, and major contractors to demonstrate commitment to the sustainable sourcing of natural stone. It follows the 2012 publication of the Stone Federation Sustainability Statement and, four years later, The Ethical Stone Register. More than 20 of the UK stone industry’s leading names immediately signed the Responsible Sourcing Pledge.

On a smaller scale, Parkside and Strata’s Clerkenwell Sustainability & Design Studio was home to a programme of activities during Clerkenwell Design Week, including The Next Generation, showcasing student sustainability concepts. Parkside’s James Journet observed: “Clerkenwell Design Week is a great chance to really get stuck into conversations and explore how we can collaborate as an industry to become more sustainable in our actions.”

Exhibition upheaval

There was no Cevisama this year. Spain’s international ceramics and bathroom equipment trade fair in Valencia was initially moved from February to June, due to the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. As the crisis rolled on, and faced with growing manufacturer scepticism, the organisers had little chance but to pull the plug. The show is scheduled to be back in its usual February slot in 2023, but with exhibitor numbers still below the event’s peak, many in the industry are expressing doubts about its long term future.

Cersaie in Italy, meanwhile, marked a welcome return to something like business as usual, as more than 90,000 visitors flocked to Bologna in September, roughly twice the number that braved last year’s Covid-constrained event.

It was great to see visitors from Australia and New Zealand back assessing trends and making deals, alongside good numbers from the USA, Canada, and Europe. Unsurprisingly, there were few Chinese visitors among the 44,215 international attendees, but that was only to be expected given the pandemic restrictions that were still in place there.

Revestir, Latin America’s foremost surfaces show, celebrated it’s 20th anniversary in March, covering all seven pavilions of the Transamerica Expo Center in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It was the last time the event will be held at this venue, as it moves to São Paulo Expo at Rodovia dos Imigrantes in 2023.

The 2022 event was unique because, in response to the global Coronavirus pandemic, it had a hybrid format, part digital and part face-to-face. The digital version allowed visitors to save admired products and brands and check out launches from the in-person event. The platform also hosted FIAC (International Forum of Architecture, Design & Construction), with presentations from the likes of Dutch designer Maarten Baas and American architect Charles Renfro.

Coverings, the US-based exhibition, goes from strength to strength. In 2021 it was held in Las Vegas, but returns to its spiritual home, Orlando, in 2023.

As the American market has grown, and Kentucky expands as a tile manufacturing hub, this show looks set to join Cersaie as a key date in the tile calendar. The April date is ideally spaced five months from the Bologna showcase, allowing the Spring and Autumn collection concept to return. Orlando is blessed with a plentiful supply of hotels, but the strong Dollar and the rising cost of air fares may yet deter a greater number of overseas visitors from attending the next event.

It is not my intention to discuss tile design trends here, but it is worth mentioning three sub-sectors of the market that all moved ahead in 2022: façades; worktops; exterior paving.

The first two sectors exploit porcelain’s technical qualities, as well as its aesthetic properties. Sales of mechanically-fixed ventilated façades have been growing in the UK for many years now, driven by pioneers like Shackerley Holdings and Domus Façades. Now, with big brands like Apavisa, Marazzi, Caesar, Porcelanosa, and Grespania banging the drum, it is surely time for tiled façades to take off. In the wake of Grenfell, fire-safe cladding solutions are at an all-time premium, and porcelain has a strong specification story to tell.

The rise of porcelain worktops has been driven by the widespread adoption of continuous pressing technology and digital decoration. These make it possible to create incredibly detailed 1800mm by 3600mm porcelain panels or varying thickness. With the beginning of through-body decoration and elegant book-matched designs, the market has exploded. But while there are now many factories in Italy, Spain, and beyond capable of producing these slabs, the market is being held back by a lack of trained and skilled fabricators and installers.

To achieve the best results requires significant investment in people, equipment, substrates, and construction chemicals. It also relies on specialist distribution and advanced material handling. Little wonder then that both porcelain façades and worktops will be key areas of interest at Hard Surfaces in June next year when it returns to ExCeL in London to co-locate with the Natural Stone Show.

Both façades and worktops can greatly benefit from enhanced communication and technical training, and this will be clearly demonstrated both on the exhibition floor and in the seminar programme at this important ExCel-based event.

The stand-out tile sector in 2022, however, was 20mm thick external porcelain.

It took some time for manufacturers and distributors to wake up to the full potential of the external tile market in the UK but now they have it is developing fast.

As well as the traditional manufacturer-to-distributor-to-retailer route to market, 20mm outdoor pavers can now be found via online specialists and in garden centres, builders merchants, and many other retail locations. They are being installed by landscape contractors, local authorities, and property maintenance companies as well as by traditional tilers and competent DIYers.

The ability to dry lay, adhesive fix, or pedestal mount these 20mm tiles makes them unusually versatile.  They are particularly popular with in the hospitality sector because of the vogue for al fresco dining and drinking, but they are equally suitable for use outside commercial or retail premises, on patios and balconies, for footpaths and driveways, or creating seamless inside-out architecture almost anywhere.

Outdoor paving options cover everything from small format bricks and mix and match sandstone paving through to large format slabs and porcelain tiles are a good solution for larger spaces, with sizes varying from supersized 1000mm by 1000mm modules, through XXL 600mm by 1200mm rectangles, to 200mm by 1200mm and 300mm by 1200mm planks. Uniform in thickness, they can be combined to create a personalised look or used to visually separate different outdoor zones.

Most stockists include a range of muted tones such as beige, light grey and charcoal, alongside bolder options such as light woodgrains and encaustic-inspired cement patterns. But the market in 2022 has also seen Victorian-inspired patterns with strong repeating lines and fleur-de-lys motifs and geometric designs with symmetrical, abstract patterns. There is a wide choice of natural effects available including stone-, marble-, concrete-, wood- and slate-effects.

And the commercial benefits are significant. One long-established tile distributor told me that 2022 was the year when sales of 20mm exterior tiles overtook traditional wall and floor tiles in both volume and value. And one of the leading tile agents confirmed that exterior grade tiles now account for more than half of his sales.

The UK tile market is in surprisingly rude health as we head for 2023. Apart from the three sectors outlined above, we have the potential of 3mm mesh-backed sheets, such as Laminam, to factor in.  These can be used for everything from civil engineering applications (such as tunnel lining) to furniture facings or bespoke murals.

And we should be aware of a significant trend at Cersaie – application diversity. This is less about product design than marketing direction, with tiles are being promoted for bedrooms, not only walls and floors but also bedheads and even ceramic bed frames, tiled hallways and corridors, fireplaces, and outdoor kitchens. External tiling had also moved from 2D to 3D forms – planters, water features, and raised seating.

These new application areas should inspire tile retailers and distributors and the architect and design community.

Despite the challenging global backdrop, 2023 holds real promise for the UK’s tiling sector.

The post-Brexit move from CE marking to UKCA marking that was to to have taken place from the start of next year has been put back to June 2025 because nobody is ready for the change.

UKCA stands for UK conformity assessed. CE stands for the French Conformitè Europëenne.

Even CE marking has never been particularly popular in the stone industry, in spite of it being a legal requirement for products such as paving, flooring and cladding. Many companies have simply ignored it, although it should be included on all products that should conform to European standards and can be specified to those standards. 

Many of the standards were adopted as British Standards available from the British Standards Institution (BSI) in the UK.

Selling British products in Europe will still require them to be CE marked, adding to the already increased red tape faced by businesses as a result of Brexit.

To use the UKCA mark, businesses must ensure they are using a UK approved body for testing and certification for all products supplied to the British market that are covered by a designated standard or conform to a UK technical assessment issued for that product.

If you want to try to make sense of the proposed changes you can start on the gov.uk webite here.

In Northern Ireland, and for goods supplied to Britain from Northern Ireland, there are separate requirements to avoid creating a border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. For more about that, click here.

Adrian Attwood, Executive Director of DBR, a specialist conservation company dealing with the cleaning and repair of historic fabric and the regeneration of historic buildings, explains why it is worth talking to a specialist about preparing historic buildings for climate change.

The conversation around climate change is continually heating-up (pun intended!). Across construction there’s now a concerted effort to drive down emissions and prove the sector is taking Net Zero targets seriously.

However, it’s not just about reversing climate change in the long term. It’s about adapting our existing stock in the here and now. Nowhere is this more important than in our heritage buildings and landmarks, none of which were built with much (or any) idea that we would eventually be faced with an environmental crisis.

Particularly, architects in bygone eras would not have had the knowledge or methods for reinforcing buildings against the erratic weather patterns or fluctuating temperatures we’re currently experiencing.

One significant issue which needs to be addressed is the increased risk of flooding.

A recent report from The Met Office indicated that the UK has become noticeably wetter over the past 50 years, particularly in the period from 2011 to 2020, when there was a 9% rise in rainfall. The report also suggested that these levels could increase in line with the heightened likelihood of extreme meteorological events.

As we experienced this year, climate change has brought on other meteorological events in the form of extreme heat waves. Hot weather can be detrimental to historic properties – both for the physical fabric of the spaces and for the visitors.

To combat this, we have recommended to our conservation team and other heritage professionals to consider the implementation of heat reflecting systems – blinds or shutters, awnings over window and doorframes (so long as it does not detract from the original façade) – and upgraded building insulation.

These simple solutions can reduce heat gain as well as heat loss within a historic property. Insulation in roofs is a particularly quick and inexpensive solution for energy efficiency.

Many historic buildings are vulnerable to flooding and, of course, were not originally built to withstand massive deluges. Depending on the scale of the issue, damage can range from the minimal to the extensive, but in each case the remediation and restoration is costly.

In the worst-case scenario, irreparable damage or structural collapse can occur, requiring complete rebuild and potential loss of interior finishes and works of art.

So it’s far more prudent and cost-effective in the long-term to work with specialist contractors to reinforce the structural integrity of our heritage stock and provide optimal defence against the elements.

We in the conservation construction profession now have the methods and the tools to com-bat these changing circumstances and mitigate the potential effects. Many of these implementations are far less complex, and therefore easier to address, than one might think.

While there are many different ways flooding can occur, whether it’s river, coastal or ground-water, the approaches for mitigating flood damage are much the same in each instance. These approaches can be encompassed in two schools of thought: flood-resistance and flood-resilience.

Flood-resistance looks at ways to reduce the amount of water actually entering a property during a flood, and flood-resilience seeks to reduce the amount of damage caused when water does enter a property.

At DBR, much of the work we undertake is a combination of the two, with the aim of futureproofing the structure of the building.

A common task for us is improving main water drainage, enhancing existing systems to handle higher occurrences of rainfall. This includes the repair of, and incorporation of, strategically positioned lead sumps, as well as work to increase their capacity, complemented by repaired, replaced and extra internal rainwater pipes along with overflows and blockage warning systems.

One avenue of flood mitigation DBR was involved in was in raising the railing base on the riverside of the Thames.

This strengthened the embankment to accommodate rising river levels and the increased likelihood of erosion, which could lead to subsistence and structural damage. It also protected the embankment from the impact of the Thames Clippers, which regularly pass the site, creating surges that can wash over the riverside masonry, causing significant damage.

Importantly, the works undertaken need to be conducted with the utmost sensitivity to any building’s fabric, to prevent any unnecessary damage that could arise from heavy-handed or careless installation.

Our recent adaptive work at the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, where the famous Painted Hall is sited, offers a perfect example of this careful, considered approach. The work involved designing and building-in optimal flood defence with an eye on maintaining the integrity and appearance of historic fabric.

But flooding is just the tip of an iceberg of climatic issues that historic assets need to be pre-pared for.

Many in the conservation construction sector will remember when a massive chunk of stone fell from the Palace of Westminster’s Victoria Tower in 2018, subsequently attributable to in-creased temperature fluctuations that loosened the iron cramps holding the stone in place. It prompted a regular survey of the landmark’s stonework to spot the early signs of climate-caused damage and address them immediately.

This is all before you look at the requirements to bring these structures up to modern building standards, which comes with its own challenges.

For example, the fabric of these structures needs to breathe, so hermetic sealing is a challenge. Also, preventing energy loss is now an essential consideration, needing to be ad-dressed on a case-by-case basis, although there are a number of neat solutions. For example, on the Liberty’s conservation undertaking, we used solar reflecting glass to reduce solar gains, keeping the building cool and protecting interior timber panelling from the effects of overheating.

All encompassing, these challenges are wide-ranging with no simple answers. However, there can be no question that, if we want to maintain our heritage buildings and historic land-marks, we need futureproofing against climate change to be a central component of future renovation and restoration projects.

Ultimately, generations to come will thank us for making the investment now to conserve our rich and diverse architectural tapestry – something which I believe we all want our descendants to enjoy in full.