Compared with 2019, Builders Merchants sold 1.2% fewer products in August this year than they had in 2019, but such is the level of inflation that the income from those sales was 30% higher.

The figures come from the latest Builders Merchant Building Index (BMBI), which tracks builders merchants’ actual sales using GfK’s Builders Merchant Point of Sale Tracking Data.

The report shows inflation is still climbing.

Compared with last year, the value of sales in August this year were up 10%, although the number of sales was down 4.2%, showing price inflation at 14.8% on the year.

Apart from timber & joinery, which was down 5.7%, every category saw the value of sales increase. The greatest increases came from Renewables & Water Saving (+27.3%) and Kitchens & Bathrooms (+26.9%). 

Compared with August 2019, Timber & Joinery Products led the value growth (+39.9%). Landscaping was next (+35.8%) and Kitchens & Bathrooms third (+30.5%). The value of Heavy Building Materials was up 29.6%, Plumbing while Heating & Electrical sales were up 18.2%.

Download the full BMBI report here.

As part of the Love Our Colleges campaign of the Association of Colleges (AoC) and Colleges Week 2022 (17-21 October), stonemasons from Moulton College were invited to attend a parliamentary reception to highlight the work of further education colleges in bridging skills gaps.

The event was held at the House of Lords and was attended by more than 30 MPs and Peers, including Skills Minister Andrea Jenkyns and Labour’s Shadow Skills Minister, Toby Perkins, as well as key representatives from the Department for Education.

Corrie Harris, Principal & CEO of Moulton College in Northamptonshire, attended the reception accompanied by two of the college’s stonemasonry students, Louise Regan and Lucy Newlyn, who exhibited examples of their work.

Corrie said: "We were honoured to be one of two colleges selected by the AoC to bring students to the reception and demonstrate this essential heritage skill that is so important to preserving our historical buildings. Louise and Lucy (the students) both spoke passionately about their course and the college and were rightly proud of the work that they were exhibiting."

Student Louise Regan said: "We wanted to showcase as much of our work as possible but it was a bit of a logistical challenge to safely transport over 100 kilos of stonemasonry. It was definitely worth the effort, though, as we spoke to many of the attendees, who were really interested in the pieces and the work experience that we had completed at Exeter Cathedral."

Students can study Level 2 and Level 3 Stonemasonry at Moulton College with bursaries and financial support available to help with course fees and costs for eligible students.

Bored with marble-look ceramics?

One of the most appealing aspects of writing about the ceramic tile sector is that it is just so progressive.

Ceramic tile design never stands still and every few years a new technology emerges that delivers a step change.

Over the past three decades I have seen single firing, rotary decoration, and reactive glazes all make their mark.

But it is two relatively new technologies that are currently driving the market – continuous pressing and digital non-impact print decoration. These are the technologies that have produced large format marble-look porcelains for the worktop market.

The ability to create flat, porcelain panels up to 3,600mm by 1,800mm and then decorate them edge-to-edge with any photographic or digital image provides enormous potential (if missing the holy grail of full thickness decoration).

At this year’s Cersaie exhibition in Bologna, Italy, in September, it was not hard to spot where these two technologies have now taken tile design. No doubt there will also be more examples at the Hard Surfaces exhibition co-locating with the Natural Stone Show in ExCeL London 6-8 June next year.

Judging by what was being shown this year, continuous pressing with digital decoration would seem to have but one logical design destination: wallpaper. Or, more accurately, wallporcelain.

It was everywhere. And in formats from 1,000mm by 3,000mm upwards it was impossible to miss.

What really impressed me this year was how these magnificent wallpaper-effects were offered in such a diversity of themes and patterns.

In recent years, tropical foliage, especially representations of Monstera Delicosa (better known as the Swiss Cheese Plant) have dominated, alongside other bold floral designs and some classic wallpaper themes like flock and Regency stripes… you know the sort of thing.

But not in 2022. This year the watchword is ‘variety’.

There were still tropical plants aplenty but the tile designers have been busy, playing with colours and patterns.

Naturalistic greens on the plants have been replaced by blues or greys; leaves have been isolated and formed into repeat patterns in a move away from branches and stems.

There were plenty of small, feminine floral patterns, more Laura Ashley than tropical rainforest. Some were quintessentially European in character. Others referenced traditional Japanese themes – cherry blossom and delicate Japanese maples. 

There were intricate designs like an Esher drawing, sophisticated Islamic geometric patterns, colour and line combinations that brought to mind Piet Mondrian, as well as stripes and other fabric echoes.

The variety was staggering. Graffiti art, bold geometrics, woven fabrics, origami… the design influences were rich, varied and wide-ranging, with roses and peonies sitting alongside spring meadows and autumn prairies. My particular favourite was the giant jellyfish at the top of this page.

The makers displaying these wallpaper effects came from across the globe – ABK, Cerdomus, Recer, Atlas Concorde, the Iris Group in Italy; Aparici and Pamesa in Spain; Tubadzin and Cerrad in Poland… the trend is universal.

Suggested applications ranged from hotel receptions and foyers to corporate HQs, bars and restaurants.

On the domestic front, they were shown in living rooms, as feature walls in bathrooms and kitchens, as a dramatic element in inside-out schemes, and in bedrooms, where tiled headboards and feature walls are an emerging trend.

The quality of the printing has to be seen to be believed.

And the most exciting thing is that this really is a blank sheet of paper. There are no limits. The pattern can be anything you can photograph, draw or create on graphic software.

The surfaces can be matt, satin or gloss (versions of which are given trade names by the manufacturers) or any combination of the three.

Patterns can be on single tiles or across two, four... any number. Neolith, for instance, has produced the tiles for a project where the picture came from a watercolour sketch by the architect. Each tile is unique and they are assembled on-site like a giant mosaic. Not cheap. But, with today’s technology, not unaffordable either.

It's tile, Jim, but not as we know it!

The collapse of a second multi-storey marble coffin niche structure at a cemetery in Italy has raised questions about the construction and maintenance of the structures.

Coffins containing human remains were left hanging in the air after the collapse in the Poggioreale cemetery in Naples. The collapse happened on Monday (17 October) in the afternoon.

Fortunately, the cemetery had been closed for the day and no-one was hurt. The cemetery remained closed on Tuesday, 18 October, to allow for the collapse to be dealt with.

The story appeared on the website of The Guardian newspaper, where it was reported that this was the second such incident at the cemetery this year.

Authorities sealed off the Poggioreale cemetery – the largest in Naples – as an investigation into the collapse of the marble building, called 'The Resurrection', got under way.

The Guardian quoted Vincenzo Santagada, a Naples councillor with responsibility for cemeteries, as saying: “The collapse was preceded by a bang and a dense cloud of dust. As an administration we are taking care of all the necessary formalities.”

In January some 300 burial niches were destroyed when another marble structure in another part of the same cemetery in southern Italy collapsed.

Families of the dead held a protest on Tuesday.

Politicians in Campania, the region of southern Italy of which Naples is the capital, say the city’s cemeteries have not been looked after for years. Francesco Emilio Borelli, a regional councillor for the Green Europe party, wrote on Facebook: “This is a critical and unacceptable situation. For too many years cemeteries in Naples have been badly managed and left to fend for themselves, falling prey to swindlers and profiteers.”

In February last year 200 coffins fell into the sea in Camogli in northern Italy after parts of a cemetery collapsed in a landslide that also caused two chapels to collapse.

Globus Group has launched a new range of British-made reusable masks for protection against dust containing crystalline silica (RCS) that are more comfortable to wear.

The new Alpha Sentinel range of full face and half-face masks protect against some of the most dangerous respiratory hazards found in the workplace, like RCS, and have been designed for the comfort of workers, especially those wearing the masks for long stints.

Lead Product Designer Josh Moffat says: “When it came to designing the Alpha Sentinel range we really tried to prioritise the end-user. We know that workers are often wearing these masks for long periods of time, and so focusing on comfort and fit means they're more likely to be worn correctly and workers can be confident they're getting the right protection.

“Looking beyond fit and comfort, we know another big reason for PPE non-compliance is masks getting too hot, so we’ve designed our unique large exhalation valve to minimise heat and moisture build-up.

“We really believe that the design innovations we have been able to make with the Alpha Sentinel masks are going to make a huge difference to the workers using these products every day.”

The Alpha Sentinel range comes with a range of changeable filters suitable for use in a wide variety of industry settings and is the first Globus product range to be designed and manufactured entirely in the UK.

globusgroup.com