The construction of a stylish and sensitively designed riverside leisure centre in Northumberland is making full use of high performance tilebacker boards from the range of Marmox Ltd. throughout all of its wet areas: selected as a lining to blockwork walls in place of traditional render.
The Morpeth Leisure Centre is being built by Willmott Dixon for the Advance Northumberland body. P. Plunkett Tiling Contractors Ltd. is the North-east based specialist sub-contractor involved, which carries out challenging commercial contracts of this scale across the country, while the company’s Managing Director, Steven Allsopp, proposed the use of Multiboard to the project team.
A total area of 2,600 square metres of Multiboards are being installed using 10,000 of the special Marmox dowels and Marmox waterproofing tape, ready for the installation of mainly white ceramic tiles to complete a fully waterproof lining to the poolside walls and other wet areas.
Steven Allsopp commented:
“Our contract involves all of the screeding, waterproofing and tiling works as well as other responsibilities. Although we have used Marmox Multiboards on a number of past projects, this is the first time we have got them specified in lieu of render, after putting them forward to Willmott Dixon. We have some 40 very experienced, directly employed operatives who are used to fixing Multiboards in places like saunas and spa rooms, but we view this as a bit of a breakthrough in commercial work: reflecting the product’s practicality, accuracy and speed of installation, coupled with it being a waterproof board which resulted in the switch being accepted. With all the surrounds to the main, 25 metre pool and learner pool, plus changing rooms and showering areas, we have purchased a total of 1,800 of the 12.5mm thick tilebacker boards along with some 200 rolls of the manufacturer’s waterproof tape. Work has progressed well and we expect to finish on schedule.”
The Project Architect for GT3, Simon Robertson, confirmed:
“Plunkett put the Marmox Multiboards forward to Willmott Dixon as an alternative method to render work across the very large areas of blockwork within the Morpeth Leisure Centre, which was duly approved as a suitable substrate for tiling.
“As a practice we have worked on many leisure projects across the country – giving us a wide knowledge of both wet and dry methods of construction – while we have a good working relationship with Willmott Dixon. It is clear that Multiboards offer huge benefits in terms of reducing time on site and we are assessing whether we want to incorporate them into future specifications.”
Marmox Multiboards are manufactured from extruded polystyrene (XPS) covered in a layer of polymer concrete which offers an ideal surface across which to fix tiles, while they can be combined with the manufacturer’s special tapes and multipurpose sealant to create fully waterproof wetroom installations. This includes Multiboards use across the floor and upstand areas to create a tanked interior which also offers excellent loadbearing capacity, and whose thermal performance is even recognised by The Energy Saving Trust.
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