Newfield School, Sheffield

Newfield School, Sheffield

Client: Sheffield City Council
Architect: HLM Architects
Contractor: MI Contracts
Type of works: supply and installation of Altro floor and wall products in BSF project.

As part of the Government’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) project, Newfield School in Sheffield has received an interior transformation thanks to flooring and walling specialists Altro. Over 3,000m of products including Altro Marine™, Altro Suprema™, Altro Stronghold™ and Altro Whiterock™ have been installed in a variety of different areas throughout the school, helping to keep pupils and staff safe from slips and trips.

With hundreds of youngsters pounding the floor every day, durability, cleanability and aesthetics were key so Altro Suprema was fitted in laboratories, toilets and general storage and circulation areas. Altro Suprema is a hard-wearing vinyl safety flooring offering excellent slip- and impact-resistance. It provides a safe and durable surface with an attractive finish with none of the sparkle commonly associated with traditional safety flooring. Furthermore, it incorporates Altro’s revolutionary Easyclean™ Maxis technology for its ease of cleaning which ensures the floor retains its aesthetic qualities for longer.

Altro Suprema was also chosen for its sustainability credentials. Kay Allen at HLM Architects who worked with the school and Sheffield City Council to specify the products used said: “The environmental credentials of materials used within construction projects is an extremely important consideration. Specifying Altro Suprema, which has an A rating under BRE profiling, helped us to achieve our sustainability goals.”

Within the kitchen and canteen, the likelihood of spilled food or chemicals is greater and the need for high levels of hygiene was paramount, therefore a combination of Altro Stronghold and Altro Whiterock was chosen to offer a complete flooring and walling solution. Resilient, comfortable to walk on, and with the added benefit of acoustic properties, Altro Stronghold is a heavy-duty safety flooring which is easy to clean and combines excellent under-foot security with long-term durability and ease of cleaning.

Altro Whiterock, a semi-rigid hygienic PVC cladding system, was applied to walls within the kitchen and canteen. This easy-to-clean surface is low maintenance and offers resistance to stains, chemical spillages and impact. With no grout or cracks, the seamless finish gives fewer areas for bacteria and moisture to accumulate.

David Heath from MI Contracts who completed the Altro Whiterock installation said: “As an Altro premier installer we have used Altro Whiterock for a number of years and have always been extremely impressed with the quality of the product and how easy it is to install. You don’t have any of the problems you can experience with some of the cheaper alternatives on the market. The installation at Newfield School went very smoothly and gave a fresh clean look to the kitchen and canteen areas.”

For the Craft, Design and Technology (CDT) areas a particularly hard wearing and durable safety floor was required so AltroCrete PU Excel™ was chosen. Combining wear- and slip-resistance with outstanding protection against aggressive chemical attack, AltroCrete PU Excel can withstand temperatures from -40°C to +60°C, and offers a fast track installation with moisture tolerance.

Chris Fox, Business Manager at Newfield School said: “The interior surfaces from Altro look superb and will help us to provide students with the best possible learning environment throughout their time with us.”

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