Ten years ago Dave Cranfield set himself up in business caring for the increasing amount of stone being used in people’s homes. As Athena Stonecare celebrates its first decade, Dave and his wife, Becca, look forward to its second.
This year Athena Stonecare has reached the landmark of its 10th anniversary – a decade of keeping stone floors flawless, as the company says on its website.
And not just floors. Natural stone care specialist Athena Stonecare cleans and restores floors, bathrooms, kitchen and vanity worktops, paved terraces and patios. It provides specialist stone restoration services for marble, limestone, travertine, granite, sandstone, slate... whatever is required.
The company is spearheaded by husband and wife team Becca and Dave Cranfield, with two more team members supporting on site. And it makes full use of social media (especially LinkedIn and Instagram) to get the company’s message into the market place, with Becca now being assisted by Larissa Hardisty, who has been recruited as Marketing & Communications Assistant.
After spotting some before and after photographs on Facebook, the client realised that their travertine ground floor was in need of some TLC.
The ground floor throughout this stunning Buckinghamshire property was resurfaced using diamond abrasives to remove light surface scratches and etch marks. The grout lines and tiles themselves were deep cleaned and finer diamond abrasives were used to achieve a mid-shine finish to the floor as requested by the client. As always, the floor was sealed for protection with an impregnating sealant.
One of the additional services from Athena Stonecare included on all travertine resurfacing treatments is filling of the pits by hand.
Before installation, the naturally occurring pits in travertine are filled by the tile manufacturer. But over time the filler can become loose. This leaves the pits exposed and vulnerable to collect dirt. By filling the pits with colour-matched epoxy resin during the restoration process, the client will be left with an even finish to the floor.
Finding this niche in stone care for himself was something Dave says he fell into.
At school he had hoped to become a professional cricketer and had gone to university to study sports science. He was exceptional at cricket, playing at county level and going on tour with the MCC. But competition for top tier openings is fierce. He, like many other aspiring professionals, had to work elsewhere to support his sports career, although he is grateful to cricket for having introduced him to a lot of interesting people as well as giving him time to run his own business.
What gave Dave the idea of cleaning stone surfaces was working for a friend, Matt, who had started a business cleaning carpets and then diversified into cleaning hard surfaces as well. The tile cleaning business started to take off but Matt decided it was not for him.
Dave: “He realised there’s a lot more to cleaning stone than he had picked up on a couple of courses. He didn’t want to get stuck down a wormhole of doing things he wasn’t sure about.
“But I enjoyed doing the stone jobs. With carpets you do seven jobs a day at break-neck speed, but on a stone or tile job you would spend the whole day perfecting the finish. The work is more interesting.”
Athena Stonecare says...
Athena Stonecare loves working with interior designers who care about preserving existing features in a home and jumped at the chance to work with Bethany Riley.
Bethany is an award-winning interior designer who graduated from the prestigious Inchbald School of Design in SW1, London. Bethany offers full bespoke project management services to clients.
The Project
Athena Stonecare was approached by Bethany to advise on the options for restoring the limestone floor at the north London home of a high-profile client. Bethany had been asked to renovate the home while keeping the structural aspects the same.
She says: “One of the key decisions we made in the project was choosing to restore the limestone flooring that ran throughout the ground floor, staircase and landing. After considering the potential complications that could arise with replacing the floor completely, we decided to bring it back to its original state using a diamond resurfacing and polishing technique. This, along with simply changing the hue of the downlights from warm white to cool white, brought the beautiful natural stone back to life.”
The Process
As with all projects of this size, Athena Stonecare attended the site to demonstrate the cleaning process on a sample. For an entrance this grand, a high shine finish on the stone was the perfect option. This re-quired eight stages of diamond resurfacing to bring the finish back to the perfect level of shine. Special care was taken for the limestone staircase. Although the steps were partially hidden by the stair runner, it is a central, prominent feature of the project.
Firmly believing that there was a place in the market for a company specialising in caring for and restoring stone, on 4 January 2012 Athena Stonecare was born.
Becoming an expert in natural stone cleaning and restoration was not an overnight transformation. It required a significant amount of learning and research.
There are numerous companies that supply training alongside their equipment, with a lot of methods centred on specific kit, all of which has its own benefits and limitations.
Trialling different methods, Dave used his own experience and sagacity to determine which systems worked best for various applications, and he uses whichever is appropriate for any specific project.
Five years ago Dave met Becca, who has since become his wife. With a background in business development and new business formation, Becca was perfectly positioned to join Dave in the company to help it grow.
Athena Stonecare at this point was providing a steady income for Dave, but Becca could see there was potential for growth.
While large stone cleaning and restoration companies could put as many operatives as necessary on to corporate work, smaller one-man-and-a-van operations were not able to offer the level of specialist services that Athena Stonecare had specifically gone out to develop. “I realised there was a business here with plenty of potential,” says Becca.
Athena Stonecare says...
During the renovation of a property in a sought-after Buckinghamshire location, the marble floor was laid before other works throughout the property were completed. The floor had been scratched and marked. There was also evidence of grout haze from the installation process. This occurs when the stone has not been correctly sealed prior to installation. This is often mistakenly thought to be a surface-level issue that can be treated with a chemical or scrubbed to try to remove it, although that can actually cause more damage. It is always recommended to seek a professional to reveal a fresh layer of stone.
Initial diamond grinding of the marble enabled the grout haze, scratches and marks to be removed, as well as stripping off the existing sealant. The client specifically asked for a mid-shine rather than a hard shine finish and this was achieved using an 800 grit diamond abrasive.
The finish of the natural stone floor is always the choice of the client but anyone who is unsure of the fin-ish they require has only to ask the Athena Stonecare team to carry out a small sample area as part of the quoting process.
Before she took the plunge and joined the company full-time, leaving behind a career in the charity sector, Becca’s first role with Athena Stonecare was on the tools. The company had just taken on a monthly contract with Ralph Lauren, maintaining the limestone at its flagship store in London.
As it is a two-person job that has to be carried out when the store is shut, Becca offered to support Dave on-site. During these regular night shifts she learned a lot about stone and how to care for it from Dave.
With her passion for stone ignited, Becca soon handed in her notice at the charity and became a co-Director of Athena Stonecare.
Since then they have concentrated on working for private clients rather than corporate clients. Becca says: “We have decided to concentrate on private clients because they are truly invested in their stone and share our passion for wanting to maintain its beauty.”
She adds: “It pains me that so many people don’t and won’t use natural stone because they think it’s difficult to look after.” Athena Stonecare has made it its mission to change that perception by offering its services to make maintenance easy.
One part of that mission last year was the publication of a step-by-step guide for householders about how to clean natural stone floors, bathrooms and worktops. The Athena Aftercare guide contains advice on the products and methods to use to maintain the finish on natural stone throughout the home.
Becca: “We were telling clients on a daily basis how to look after their stone, so it made sense to produce a piece of literature to explain it. It is a full guide covering any stone surface. Clients just haven’t had this information readily available before.”
It is available in a free PDF digital format. It is intended for people with stone in their homes and copies of it can be requested by email from info@athenastonecare.co.uk. The aim is to ensure that anyone with natural stone can keep it looking stunning from the day it is installed.
Athena Stonecare says its main motivation in publishing the booklet was to promote the message that stone isn’t difficult to maintain when you know how.
Dave says: “Our clients would often ask at the end of a restoration treatment how they could keep their stone looking this good. It became clear that there was no concise source of information available and so we wanted to produce a guide that was simple to follow.”
It is likely that natural stone can only continue to rise in popularity due to its sustainability and versatility, and the booklet explains that one of the benefits of using stone for a floor, walls or a worktop is that it can be resurfaced and re-polished to refresh and restore its natural beauty.
It details how the correct daily and weekly cleaning regimes will help stone stand the test of time, and includes recommendations for both dry and wet cleaning as well as lots of extra tips to keep the stone looking as good as it did when it first went in.
Part of the stone industry
Last year Athena Stonecare also joined Stone Federation Great Britain. “The more we have got involved in the stone industry the more it excites us to be part of it,” says Becca, who is one of last year’s founding members of the Women in Natural Stone (WINS) group that was initiated by Claire Wallbridge, the Training Officer of the Natural Stone Industry Training Group.
Becca says being part of Stone Federation helps distinguish Athena Stonecare as a company that is going to restore a customer’s stonework, not just clean it.
Dave says the stone industry is a close-knit community and Athena wants to work alongside stone suppliers and installers to enhance the whole stone package they are offering. That symbiotic relationship is already paying dividends with stone suppliers and specialist contractors suggesting Athena Stonecare’s service to customers.
Becca: “I say to people if you purchase natural stone you should purchase it on the basis that it’s going to need some maintenance. If you buy a Ferrari, you are going to expect to spend money having it professionally maintained. If you have purchased your stone because it’s the most beautiful material for your home, you’re going to want to invest in looking after it.”
Sometimes people have stone in their homes because an architect or interior designer chose it and as it gets dirty and loses its lustre they can end up wishing they did not have it. Or familiarity means people living with stone don’t notice the gradual process of it becoming dirty. It is only when the property is sold that new owners want to revive it. But they are not sure how to go about it. “They don’t really understand it,” says Dave. “People often don’t even know what stone they have.”
Restoring stone’s reputation
But when they call in Athena Stonecare they end up loving stone again. “It changes people’s perception of it,” says Dave. “When we can change someone’s mind about stone like that, that’s what I like most.”
Athena Stonecare’s main aim is for people to get the best out of their stone surfaces. They like to work with clients in an on-going relationship, which often takes the form of a bespoke maintenance plan.
After the first restoration treatment, the necessity and frequency of ongoing maintenance to retain the pristine look will be discussed. Heavy wear areas (entrances, kitchens, high traffic lanes) will degrade more quickly than lesser used areas such as dining rooms, so should receive different treatments in order to produce a uniform finish overall, making an entire floor look seamless without the client having to pay for unnecessary work.
The message continues as Athena Stonecare celebrated its 10th anniversary by hosting a live webinar on Zoom on 9 February, again to share its expertise. Called Athena Aftercare Live, the webinar pulled together all the tips and advice in the guide published last year as well as offering a few hints on considerations of ongoing maintenance when stone is installed – because Becca and Dave are firm believers that this should be a consideration from day one.
There will be more live webinars. To register to attend them and submit any questions you might have, go to www.athenastonecare.co.uk/events.
And keep an eye on the Athena Stonecare social media channels, too, for details of more 10th anniversary events later in the year.
Athena Stonecare says...
The client wanted to ensure the marble they had used for the ground floor throughout their property would always look as good as when it was installed, so requested an ongoing maintenance plan from Athena Stonecare.
For floors that are highly polished and see a lot of traffic, it is impossible to prevent dulling from footfall over time. This means that in addition to the correct everyday cleaning, it is recommended to invest in a periodic maintenance regime. Keeping on top of stone maintenance is the best way to avoid costly restoration in the future.
Each year the Athena Stonecare team deep clean the marble floor tiles and grout on the ground floor. The floor is then re-surfaced with a 1500 grit diamond pad to achieve the desired finish. An application of a colour enhancing sealant helps protect the marble until the next deep clean.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Respiratory Health (APPG) is conducting a one year update inquiry on its 2020 report into silicosis.
The 40-page 2020 report was called Silica – the next asbestos? If you have not read it yet you can download it below. It calls for the silica exposure limits to be halved, bringing them down to the same level as the limits in America.
The update now is to consider developments in risk reduction strategies for companies involved in silica dust exposure.
Silica – the next asbestos? summarised the results of a joint six month enquiry by the APPG and B&CE (originally Building & Civil Engineering Holiday Scheme Management Ltd, a financial services company best known for The People’s Pension). That enquiry looked at the disease burden of silicosis, the diagnosis, treatment and management of the disease and the impact on the lives of people suffering from it.
Silicosis is the most common chronic occupational lung disease worldwide[1]. It is the biggest dust danger to construction workers after asbestos and is entirely preventable[2].
It is estimated 600,000 workers are exposed to silica in the UK and the consequences of silicosis are estimated to cost employers in the construction industry about £1million per year.
Since Silica – the next asbestos? was published, a number of stakeholders have contacted the APPG with updates and advances on new technologies designed to further protect the workforce, all of which the Group was unaware of at the time of the original report.
Hugh McKinney, Policy Adviser and Secretariat of the APPG, says: “We have decided to update the report to enable us to consider technological advances in the proper context and explore their advantages.
“We would like to invite all businesses and other stakeholders within the construction industry to submit evidence to our update report.”
Any organisations or individuals interested in submitting evidence should contact Hugh McKinney on hmckinney@denovostrategy.co.uk.
Tudor Stonework in Middlesex has been fined £466 and ordered to pay £5,570 costs after an employee was struck by a forklift truck while he was helping guide the movement of a slab.
The forklift ran over the employee’s foot, resulting in an open fracture to his left leg as well as crush injuries to his foot.
Peterborough Magistrates’ Court heard this month (9 February) how on 22 January 2019 the employee of Tudor Stonework Ltd was injured when stone slabs were being lifted by a forklift.
The system of work required two operatives to walk in front of the forklift truck to steady the suspended load. However, during this operation the forklift truck ran over the foot of one of the operatives.
An investigation by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) into the incident found that the system of work for transporting stone slabs was not safe, as it required the operatives to be in close proximity to the moving forklift truck.
Tudor Stonework Ltd of Silver Street, Enfield, Middlesex, a specialist in interior and exterior stonework, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974. It was fined £466 and ordered to pay costs of £5,570.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Tom Pouncey said: “Industry practices should be reassessed where other stonemasons may be transporting stone slabs in a similar way.
“Companies should be aware that HSE will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action against those that fall below the required standards.”
Cullifords is a supplier of natural stones from markets all over the world. Specialising in marble, granite, quartzite, travertine, onyx and slate, it has earned its reputation as a specialist in the stone business over more than 50 years.
Boasting a stock of more than 3,000 materials at its Kingston-Upon-Thames yard, Directors Oliver Webb and James Semmens work to the same philosophy that Oliver’s uncle, Simon Sands, and Gerald Culliford did before them, bringing some of the world’s finest quality and most interesting stones to the UK and providing in-depth expertise and a first-class service to its customers.
Despite the effects of the pandemic and multiple lockdowns, Cullifords had its best ever November, helping to make 2021 one of the top five years in the company’s history.
Every product category performed strongly compared with previous years, resulting in an overall uplift across the entire business.
New introductions
2021 also saw Cullifords’ highest ever sales in porcelain slabs – up 330% on 2020.
Cullifords’ ceramic offering is responding to the growing demand and, having initially stocked 12mm thick surfaces, the collection has now expanded to include 6mm and 20mm slabs as the partnership with Fiandre Group develops.
Impressed by Fiandre’s commitment to producing top quality imagery and replication of natural stones, as well as offering excellent sampling and display support, Cullifords is excited to be collaborating with the Group.
Champions of full colour, full-bodied materials that show detail running through the slabs in the areas where veins should fold over the edges, the innovative technology used to manufacture the slabs is getting better with each new range.
New for this year is Seminato, a follow-on from the full-bodied terrazzo tile range, with the colours and dots following right through the slab.
The technology used harks back to how porcelain was made more than 50 years ago, with the same technology now starting to be used to produce marble effects, where the vein will be even more obvious when running through the material.
Natural Stone
Being fiercely passionate about the highest quality material in natural stone means sourcing from companies in the market, which are able to offer the highest quality blocks from a quarry.
“We are not a company that pushes down the price, and therefore the quality, to increase our own sales or margins. We would prefer to strive for better quality products whenever we can,” says Oliver Webb.
It is an approach and a philosophy that has led Cullifords to partner with Norwegian company Lundhs, which shares the same values when it comes to the production and marketing of stone products.
Cullifords is also working with Stonethica, another sustainable but high-quality product made from waste pieces of cut-to-size materials from the Carrara area of Italy.
Commenting on the increase of ceramic and quartz imitating natural stone and marketing the ‘natural’ look, Oliver Webb states: “We believe this is only benefiting natural stone sales – the more imagery out there of beautiful marbled bathrooms and kitchens, the more people ask for that type of product.
“So if we are able to offer these products across all durability and price points, we are able to capitalise on each prospect and enquiry that comes to us.
“Perhaps that’s why we saw all our product categories doing so well in the latter half of last year.”
Having also started this year with a bang, Cullifords has just completed resurfacing half of its Kingston-Upon-Thames yard, as well as installing new A-frames to make handling easier for the staff and viewing easier for customers, who can now see whole slabs and safely walk between them.
Sustainability
As part of Cullifords’ commitment to a more sustainable future, it has engaged with a company called The Sustainability Hub, which will be looking at the business in terms of supply chain and product origin through to disposal.
The results will inform the company and its customers about changes that can be made and products that can be switched to, making the industry more accountable towards a sustainable future.
Looking forward
With strong sales continuing in January, Cullifords is anticipating another bumper year ahead as lockdown projects start to reach the finishing stage.
China’s zero Covid policy could put pressure on quartz supplies in the market, although a good proportion of Cullifords’ quartz is the Radianz brand from Lotte, which is made in Korea, and Korea has been less affected by Covid than China.
Another area the company is focusing on is its restoration and dimensional stone supply, looked after by James and Oliver themselves.
They identify and supply limestone and granite façades, flooring and unusual dimensional pieces for many projects in central London and around the UK.
This is a part of the business seeing a major uplift in enquiries and new work is coming through in abundance. It is an area Cullifords will be looking to focus on more this year.
Oliver and James especially enjoy these types of projects, often involving prestigious buildings with requirements for stone that can stretch their minds and abilities in order to identify and source some of the trickier materials from around the world.
A wall of black stone panels erected at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin in 2016 on the centenary of the Easter Rising, which paved the way to Irish independence, has been attacked for the third time.
The wall is controversial because it was being inscribed with the names of all those who died in the conflicts from 1916 to the end of the Irish civil war in 1923. That has meant soldiers from the Republican Army and the British Army, as well as both Roman Catholic and Protestant civilians, can appear next to each other.
The idea was for the wall, which is called the Necrology Wall, to be an icon of reconciliation, but it became a wall dividing political and religious beliefs, with some dubbing it ‘The Wall of Shame’.
On the previous two occasions it was damaged the stone and the inscriptions were repaired. Now the Dublin Cemeteries Trust says the damaged wall will be replaced with plain black, uninscribed stone panels.
In a statement, the Trust says it believes if the wall were to be repaired and the names reinstated for a third time it would be vandalised again, and that the Trust is not in a position to be able to keep repairing it nor to provide sufficient security to ensure it is not damaged again. "For these reasons, to repair and continue with the Necrology Wall project is no longer feasible."
Violet-Anne Wynne, a Sinn Féin member of the Irish Parliament, has welcomed the decision. In a statement on Twitter she wrote: "There was outrage when this wall was mentioned in the first place. Why? Simple really, on the wall it commemorates a war that wasn't ours, it commemorates a group of people that caused so much pain in this country, killing people and raiding homes of innocent people."
This (7-12 February) is National Apprenticeship Week, and to help companies make the most of it, CITB has produced a series of online ‘toolkits’ to support construction employers who want to hire an apprentice.
These website toolkits simplify access to information and reduce the obstacles that often deter employers from looking into the process. They include advice on writing apprenticeship adverts and interviewing as well as links to additional resources on integrating Fairness, Inclusion & Respect principles into the process.
With 70% of SMEs in construction having fewer than 10 employees, making these toolkits quick and easy to use was fundamental. Each section has clear, easy-to-follow headings so employers can find what they are looking for straight away.
They detail the various routes to hiring an apprentice across England, Scotland, and Wales. From there, there’s a choice of four other sections to explore, including support available from CITB. This could be practical support, assisting employers with completing paperwork, or financial support, with a breakdown of how to claim funding for an apprentice.
National Apprenticeship Week is an annual week-long celebration and promotion of apprenticeships. Now in its 15th year, the event aims to bring businesses wanting apprentices together with people looking to learn a trade through opportunities such as the stone industry’s Trailblazer* apprenticeship.
The title of this year’s Apprenticeship Week is ‘Build the Future’.
The construction sector is facing some major challenges ahead, including the need to recruit an additional 217,000 workers by 2025 to replace the ageing workforce and those who leave the industry, and meet the demand for construction work.
Apprenticeship Week places greater emphasis on apprenticeships as an important way the construction industry can secure a pipeline of future talent.
The CITB’s report Rethinking Recruitment encourages employers to consider recruiting apprentices from a wider talent pool than has perhaps traditionally been the case, increasing the diversity of the industry.
If you are thinking of employing an apprentice, you might to look at the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) guidance for employers of young people and apprentices. Click here to see the relevant part of the HSE website.
* There are currently three colleges in England offering the stone industry Trailblazer apprenticeship. They all have comprehensive information on their websites and welcome questions regarding all aspects of their training, including funding. They have dedicated apprenticeship officers who will answer any questions you have, so it is useful to contact the colleges as the first part of your search.
Another source of useful information regarding apprenticeships is Go Construct. Its website offers information on finding an apprentice, finding an employer and provides useful links on funding.
A company that is CITB-registered is entitled to a grant in addition to any grant aid from Government. Currently grants available include a £2,500 a year attendance grant and an additional achievement grant of £3,500 on completion of an apprenticeship.
If any stone company wants more information or help on training issues they can contact Claire Wallbridge, the training officer of the Natural Stone Industry Training Group, at claire@nsitg.org.uk.
Another intiative expected to roll out across the country is the Try a Trade Programme that started trialling in 16 Schools in the West Midlands in the autumn last year. The aim is to give youngsters preparing to leave school the chance to find out about and experience working in industries where apprenticeships are available to help prepare them for their working life ahead.
A 56.5m ‘halo’ of marble commemorating the victims of a suicide bomber at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester Arena was revealed in January. Here, Hardscape and IP Surfaces talk about their making of the memorial.
Precision and attention to detail. They were the vital ingredients Hardscape and its sister company IP Surfaces brought to the project to create the Carrara marble Glade of Light memorial to the 22 people who died in a terrorist attack at Manchester Arena on 22 May 2017. The victims included six children under 16, the youngest just eight.
The memorial will be officially opened later this year, on the anniversary of the atrocity, when the hawthorn tree in the centre of the ‘halo’ of marble should be full of white blossom and some of the flowers in this extension of the Cathedral Gardens will be in bloom.
However, the memorial was revealed in January when the construction and planting were completed and the fence around the site was removed.
The memorial is all the more powerful for its apparent simplicity, but as every stonemason knows, the simpler the line the more accurate it has to be. There is nowhere for errors to hide.
The Glade of Light.Galliford Try installing the memorial.
That’s why Hardscape wanted to take responsibility itself for the construction of the memorial on site. The 26 pieces of marble that form the two sections of the ‘halo’ were shaped and inscribed with the names of the victims at IP Surfaces, the company established by Hardscape founder Mathew Haslam to add lettering, inlays and other artistic elements in a variety of materials to hard landscaping. (You can read more about IP Surfaces here.)
Manchester City Council, the clients on this project, ran a competition for the design of the memorial, which was won by landscape architect BCA Landscape.
It is an indication of the importance and standing of the memorial that BCA Landscape Director Andy Thomson was interviewed by the Architects Journal, in which he is quoted as saying: “It was both a great honour and a great responsibility to win the competition to design this memorial... Set within the wild beauty of the planting is the simplicity of a circle, that references the infinite and the eternal carved in Bianco di Carrara marble.”
It had already been decided to extend the park in the Medieval Quarter at the western end of Manchester Cathedral Gardens before the bombing incident. The route had become a cut-through that Manchester City Council wanted to close.
Galliford Try had been chosen as the main contractor and Hardscape had been chosen by landscape architect Planit-IE to supply the stone for the garden. Planit-IE had worked with Hardscape before and Partner Lindsay Humblet says: “We always get 110% service from them because they’re passionate about what they do.”
Planit-IE wrote the specification for the competition for the memorial, it having been felt a third party should design it. When BCA Landscape won the competition, it was an easy decision to stick with Hardscape to produce it because BCA had also previously worked with Hardscape on a number of successful projects.
The Carrara marble quarry chosen to supply the marble for the memorial.
The team involved in the project visited eight quarries in Carrara, Tuscany, before deciding on the particular marble they wanted, which needed to be technically sound to offer the least amount of movement as well as being aesthetically pleasing.
BCA wanted the marble slabs to be bookmatched. As Andy Thomson told AJ: “This creates a beautiful effect within the marbled surface that also mimics the bilateral symmetry that we see in nature and is particularly evident in the ephemeral moment of a passing butterfly.”
By the time the slabs were being cut, Covid restrictions had begun and the decisions on individual slabs were made using remote digital assets via the internet. Each slab weighed 2.3tonnes.
Once the slabs arrived with Hardscape in the UK, the team came to inspect them and BCA chose precisely where the cuts would be made for bookmatching.
In the centre of each of the joining edges is a semicircle, which is to accommodate a ‘memory capsule’, containing whatever the bereaved felt was appropriate to commemorate the deceased. These are capped by bronze lids with marble inlays and central bronze hearts.
The caps are both resin-bonded and mechanically fixed into position.
The bereaved were invited two-to-three families at a time to bring their memory items to the memorial to insert into the capsules. Once the objects had been inserted the memory capsules had to be sealed using the bronze and marble lids. One of Hardscape’s team was always on hand so the bereaved could see them being sealed, precisely, with dignity and respect.
The names are written in brass inlays.
The names of the deceased are also written in the stone, with the inscription being cut by waterjet into the marble and filled with brass inserts.
Bronze dividers stand proud of the surface.
There are bronze dividers between each of the slabs that, like the memory capsule lids, stick up proud of the surface. This is largely to discourage skateboarders from damaging the memorial.
The joints were also further complicated by there being a slight fall on the marble surface to stop water pooling on it. The joints had to accommodate the fall, hence they were cut on a waterjet to achieve the compound angle required.
The marble has been sealed with Tenax Stoneline 81 to protect it and make it easier to keep clean.
As well as the memorial itself, Hardscape also continued to provide the paving for the rest of the garden. There was York stone paving already on part of the site, which has been re-used. In order for new paving to match that, Hardscape sourced newly quarried York stone from Johnsons Wellfield Quarries.
There are 1,300m2 of 150mm x 300mm x 80mm sandstone paving, half of it with the top face shot sawn and the other half diamond sawn, interspersed with a total of 30m2 of the same stone with a pattern etched into it that evokes the medieval architecture of the Cathedral.
The main paths are edged with Portuguese granite and the gardens include glacial boulders that Hardscape sourced from Wales. It also provided granite ends for wooden benches.
Mathew Haslam, the founder of Hardscape and its Managing Director, is understandably proud of the whole project and moved by the poignancy of the memorial.
He told NSS: “It’s a great example of what stone can achieve; how you can manipulate it to achieve a design intention for a particular location, and the awesome energy it can bring to a project.
“What has been achieved here has received the sort of recognition that is usually reserved for a building. It has all the ingredients of what I stand for and what the team here assists me in achieving on an hour-by-hour basis. I’m very proud of our part in this project.”
When the slabs arrived in the UK, they were inspected by the design team and the decision made about how exactly the bookmatching would be cut. Once the slabs were cut and inscribed, Hardscape took control of installation to ensure the same level of accuracy was achieved as had been required for making them.
After the fence around the new Glade of Light memorial in Manchester was removed in January the bereaved left flowers to their loved ones who died in the suicide bombing and are commemorated by the memorial.
Nationwide hard landscaping materials supplier London Stone has added a sixth director to its board with the appointment of Diana Catrinoi-Cornea ACIM as Marketing Director.
Diana joined the business as an Admin Assistant in 2016, and now takes full responsibility for London Stone’s marketing, e-commerce and web development departments.
Alongside her full-time role at London Stone, Diana has attended further education and training to develop her skills and experience in the world of marketing and in doing so has achieved a Level 6 Diploma in Digital Marketing as well as becoming an Associate of The Chartered Institute of Marketing (ACIM).
Lee Jones, Head of Manufacturing Solutions at NBS, a website looking to make construction product information digitally available to designers and specifiers, explains why drop-in, digital product information is the route to more sales for product suppliers.
Following a deep dive into fire safety in construction, Dame Judith Hackitt’s 2018 report, Building a Safer Future, said that if construction was to become truly transparent and building accuracy improved, radical changes are needed in the testing, describing and marketing of building products.
This led to the publication last year of The Code for Construction Product Information (CCPI), which sets out defined principles for supplying information that is clear, accurate, up-to-date, accessible and unambiguous.
Developed by the Construction Products Association following industry-wide consultation and now managed by Construction Product Information Ltd, the code contains 11 clauses that cover aspects such as responsibility for product information, transparency of information regarding performance, proof of stated claims, and general information honesty and competency. Firms are assessed on their ability to comply with the 11 criteria and, if they are successful, are awarded a numbered, time-limited licenced mark indicating the product information provided by that company is compliant with the CCPI.
This is not free. Assessment fees range from £1,750 for companies with a turnover of up to £5million and go up to £5,500 for companies with a turnover of more than £100million.
Clearer, more accurate product information should benefit manufacturers and specifiers alike, but for some the Code for Construction Product Information provokes trepidation.
It shouldn’t. Implementation of it should only serve to raise safety standards and trust in products, improve regulatory compliance and boost sales. Early adopters of this approach have much to gain – and evidence taken from NBS and Glenigan, which last year started working together under the growing Byggfakta Group, a major European construction software and data provider, show how it can help ‘level up’ current marketing offerings.
Embracing change
Despite the CCPI suggesting that digital product information might be considered industry best practice, construction product marketers appear to be hesitant to invest in the digitisation of their product data.
In a survey, one in three considered managing product information a ‘barrier to effective marketing’, yet 63% of product manufacturers still supply product specifications as PDFs. Widely regarded as problematic, PDFs get filed away for future use even though they can quickly become out-of-date, presenting a risk of the wrong information being used as part of design specifications.
Six out of 10 of the survey respondents said they look favourably on the CCPI and changing building regulations.
What we’re seeing is a disconnect between seeing the changes as a force for good and actually taking direct action to make those changes.
Product libraries, databases and product information management (PIM) systems that can integrate into manufacturer websites for an auto-update listing function could help – and the number of them available is increasing.
For both manufacturers and specifiers, this can be a time-efficient way of working, while adding a layer of quality control and comfort that the right specs are being used in the right way.
Specifiers want digital data
Given its benefits in speed and accuracy, it's not surprising specifiers want product information in a digital format. In fact, in last year’s NBS Digital Construction Report, 81% of specifiers said they want manufacturers to provide information as BIM or digital objects. In medium-sized organisations, 92% want information this way.
It’s a sign of the times. Increasing pressure on time encourages specifiers to seek ready-made solutions from product specification platforms during the design stages of a project. With a complex decision process to manage, it pays to have the level of detail they require on any product, material or system available at the click of a mouse.
For suppliers, having products listed in this way with all the significant data specifiers need can significantly increase the chances of those products being specified.
Those companies that have their ducks in a row when it comes to product information management (PIM) will no doubt reap the rewards.
Time to get onboard
If the words of Peter Caplehorn, the Chief Executive of the Construction Products Association (CPA), being quoted in the online portal PBC Today* are anything to go by, manufacturers shouldn’t dawdle. He says: “Good product information must go hand-in-hand with competence in the handling of construction products and digitalisation of product information. Only when all these come together can we achieve lasting and tangible results.”
At the moment, the Code for Construction Product Information remains UK-specific on an opt-in basis. But if it proves successful it isn’t a stretch to imagine this leading to mandatory measures. The UK might be the initial testing ground that results in a roll out to the rest of Europe and beyond.
Of course, it’s unlikely that change will take place overnight and it’s only when projects begin to demand that the supply chain subscribes to the CCPI that we will see real transformation. If and when that happens, manufacturers will need to address how their product information is managed.
Manufacturers that choose to disregard this move could be doing themselves and construction in general a disservice. More resources given to PIM should improve the accuracy and quality of product marketing content, attracting more specifiers, leading to improved compliance and resulting in higher sales.
*PBC in PBC Today stands for Planning, BIM & Construction.
Storm Malik has left people living near Glasgow’s sandstone Trinity Tower wondering when they will be able to return home.
They were evacuated and six roads closed because the tower was considered dangerous. It already had scaffolding around it, erected by Enigma Industrial Services last year because the sandstone from which the tower is constructed had started falling off.
People living near the landmark tower fear they might be unable to return home for months.
The storm saw winds of up to 80mph and led to the death of a woman in Aberdeen when a tree blew over on her.
After the storm, an exclusion zone was set up around the Trinity Building in Glasgow, which was converted to apartments in 1986 having originally been built in the 1850s as a theological college for training church ministers.
Glasgow City Council said the tower's structural deterioration had worsened in high winds during Storm Malik.
Contractors from JCJ Group, who had begun repair work on the tower earlier in January, contacted the council after the storm saying the high winds had worsened the condition of the structure.
It was decided that the area had to be evacuated for the safety of the public.
A page on the Glasgow City Council website has been devoted to keeping residents informed about developments. It can be accessed at https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/trinity.
