After adding a specialist fire design and contracting arm to its already diverse skill mix, Meldrum Group employed a similarly new product from the range of FIREFLY® during phased refurbishment work within the historic Berwick Barracks, located in the heart of the Scottish Borders: uprating the level of protection within the original pitched roof structures.
Brought in by main contractor, Meldrum Facilities to carry out a range of tasks including installing dozens of new fire doors, Meldrum Fire Engineering utilised FIREFLY® Roof Cavity Closer Batt to ensure the continuity of the compartmentation provisions within the extensive roof-spaces to the brick-built barracks.
A prominent landmark in Berwick-upon-Tweed, they date from around 1720 and are the home of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers – attracting many thousands of visitors to its museum every year. The work there has been carried out under the scrutiny of English Heritage, while Edinburgh based LDN Architects has filled the role of lead consultant on the project. The first phase has seen the museum moved across the courtyard to the opposite wing which had already been refurbished, with the plan being to return the exhibits to their original location once that building has been upgraded.
The Contract Manager for Meldrum Fire Engineering, Ian Cross, commented: “The scope of our work has expanded rapidly over the past 18 months, carrying out contracts for the NHS, the new University of Glasgow campus, the Magdalen Trust and a number of care homes as well as clients in the commercial office sector – so we have a good mix of new-build and refurbishment work.
To date we have had half a dozen of our operatives undergo product training at FIREFLY® Rochdale premises, with more due to attend soon. Not only are the FIREFLY® products very straightforward to fit, but we get very good technical guidance from the company, with Daniel Gordon, the Scottish Sales Manager, always coming back to us very quickly when we need details. Also, he was always willing to visit site to confirm the installation has been carried out correctly. ‘Right First Time’ is very much part of our ethos.”
“The use of the FIREFLY® solution was initially proposed by Meldrum Facilities’ Project Manager, Shane Murray and agreed with LDN. Then when it came to installing the cavity closers, we were on site for approximately a week, using the FIREFLY® systems to seal either side of the existing brick walls in the roof, as well as coating the timbers to the roof trusses with intumescent paint where they penetrate the walls. We installed some 80 metres of the Roof Cavity Closer in all, using two mechanical fixings for each batt as well as fireproof sealant.”
In addition to completing a very neat installation, Meldrum Fire Engineering also logged all of the products used on the Bolster quality assurance system, before fixing QR codes alongside all of the different details within the roof space so that the products can be referenced for future maintenance and safety checks.
The FIREFLY® Roof Cavity Closer is designed to be fitted beneath the roof’s tiling membrane or felt so that in the event of a fire its intumescent graphite strip will expand and seal the void to the underside of the tiles. As well as being mechanically fixed as occurred at the barracks, the ablative batts can also be friction fitted into voids with the edges ‘buttered’ using the manufacturer’s FR Intumescent Acrylic. They can further be employed in combination with FIREFLY® membranes or FIREFLY® FB180 ablative batts as part of system solution compliant with Part B of the Building Regulations.
Images shown are taken during installation and some sections of the installation might be incomplete.
