CEMEX were approached by Rydon Construction to be the sole supplier of Dry Silo Mortar for the redevelopment of Packington Estate. CEMEX were able to provide a durable and resistant mortar, including a silo solution that met both Rydons Construction's short and long-term needs.

The buildings that made up the 1960’s housing estate had been prone to structural flaws, a solution was required to solve this infrastructure problem. The customer was looking for a single supplier to provide their services for the duration of the contract with the consistency of quality in their product over the period of 5-7 years. With this being a large scale contract and flagship site for the customer, pre-start meetings were with CEMEX to discuss what products and solutions they could provide. During engagement meetings with Rydon Construction, CEMEX were able to gain an understanding of the customer’s needs, whilst maintaining the aesthetics of the buildings. During the successful discussions it was agreed that CEMEX’s Dry Silo Mortar (DSM) in bulk and bagged was the ideal solution for the job as it met the customer’s requirements.

During the project, CEMEX worked closely with the customer, explaining the product technical information and site visits that they put in place to discuss service improvements and safety. The solution to solving the problem was to provide the customer with specific materials that fulfilled its duty, such as M4 Silo Plus (extended retarder mortar). Bulk DSM Silo’s were provided for 90% of the job as well as bagged products.

CEMEX’s Readyspread was also utilised at the start and final phases, especially when main water, electric and silo concrete pads were not in place or when small volumes of non-standard mixes were required. This innovative method included above and below damp course, natural and coloured material.

M4 Silo was recommended as it allowed the mortar to be batched in both the morning and afternoon, prior to being used the following morning. This solution meant there was no noise pollution caused by heavy machinery early in the morning, so the impact on the local community was very little. The volume requirement and programme constraints meant they would need to install 3 x 32 tonne mortar silos on site and carry out all of the relevant safety visits / site surveys.

The advantage of using DSM for this particular project was to provide strength and durability for the structure of the buildings. Not only does the product provide site productivity but the aesthetics of the material meets the customer’s desire to keep the era of the infrastructures present.

Overall, silos were considered the best option as there is little wastage produced and the process is quicker using this product. CEMEX produced 3 bespoke coloured mortars for the contract in both bulk and bagged form. The coloured mortars were to match existing brickwork and to produce the correct architectural contrast to areas where specialist bricks were being used.