Cardiff City FC and Cardiff Blues RFC

Type of works: training facilities clad with the Kingspan Render Panel system from Kingspan Insulated Panels.

New world-class training facilities for Cardiff City FC and Cardiff Blues RFC have been built as part of a £10 million sports complex at the Vale Resort at Hensol near Cardiff. The Vale Pavilion is the centrepiece of the new facilities, and has been clad with the Kingspan Render Panel system from Kingspan Insulated Panels.

The Vale Resort complex is the home of a host of major Welsh sports teams, including the national rugby and football teams. The new 18,000 sq ft pavilion houses a range of facilities for both Cardiff City FC and Cardiff Blues RFC, such as sports conditioning and physiotherapy areas as well as changing rooms, offices and meeting rooms.

It was crucial that such a high-profile building looked the part and this led to the specification of Kingspan Render Panel, which allowed cladding contractor Art Roofing to combine a high quality textured render finish with all the benefits of a composite panel system. Gareth Skeet, project director for developer Leekes explains further:

“The two existing buildings that neighbour the new pavilion have a render finish, so we were eager to continue this look and make sure the building fitted into its surroundings. We specified the system because it meant we could achieve the look we wanted without the need for further trades after constructing the building envelope. This helped to really speed up build time by keeping work on site simple and allowing internal trades to get started earlier. The thermal performance of the system meant there were no problems in complying with Approved Document L2A.”

Kingspan Render Panel uses an innovative gasket to minimise the visual impact of jointing and ensure that the product can be installed smoothly to integrate with the building design without compromising thermal performance or air permeability. The render finish, available in a number of different colours, is applied off-site under controlled factory conditions to avoid the dependency on weather conditions found with traditional renders and to create consistency in colour and flatness.

The system can provide U-values as low as 0.15 W/m²K, an air leakage rate of 5m³/hr/m² or better which is well within current government standards and is backed by the Kingspan Total Guarantee for thermal and structural performance. It has successfully undergone extensive independent testing for air permeability, freeze/thaw and wind resistance, and full technical support is available through Kingspan envirocare technical services with installation guidance from the Field Services Engineers department.

Kingspan Render Panel has an ECOsafe insulation core, containing no CFC’s or HCFC’s with a low Global Warming Potential, achieves an “A+” rating according to the Green Guide to Specification and is available in FIREsafe LPCB insurer-approved form for assured fire performance. It is also fibre-free, removing the risk of loose fibres being released and causing irritation.

Kingspan Insulated Panels has recently won a ROSPA Gold Award for Safety for the second year running, recognising well developed occupational health and safety management systems and culture, outstanding control of risk and very low levels of error, harm and loss.

The Vale Pavilion is part of a 40-acre sporting site at the resort to support the development of elite sport, which includes six international standard training pitches for football and rugby as well as state-of-the-art 3G artificial pitch built for the WRU to FIFA and IRB specifications.