Soundcraft’s Operations Manager, Will Jones, enthuses about an unusual project, completed earlier this year, at a world famous historic site that allowed the company to demonstrate its wide range of sustainable performance products, including fire and acoustic doors and screens, sliding/folding doors and tilt & turn windows.
‘I’ve just finished my favourite job of the year, honestly it’s true.
It was an intricate blend of modern joinery for performance windows and doors in a real heritage site. The space has been designed by Panter Hudspith for The Cellarium Café to complement and enhance the original fabric of the building and included a range of performance door and windows from Soundcraft.
Well that’s the corporate line anyway.
It’s fantastic – The Cellerium at Westminster Abbey was used by the Monks in the 14th century to store their food and drink and it’s going to back to an up to date version of its old use – food and drink.
From the first meeting with the specifer it was such an interesting job, a real blend of old meets new. And of course it all had to meet the requirements of Part M; low thresholds, accessibility, visibility, opening widths and opening forces.
One of the trickiest parts was the fire doors in medieval openings, new joinery in the ancient walls of the abbey. I did all the detailing and measuring on site followed by the templating to make sure there was no margin for error when the window and doors were delivered to site for installation – no pressure then!
It was nice to see the job take shape in the factory, seeing it though from start to finish always gives more of a sense of achievement. The BBC were there filming a documentary I wonder if I’ll end up on television…’
This project is a good example of Soundcraft’s ability to satisfy a wide range of performance door and window requirements. These included fire resistance (FD30), sound attenuation (37dB) and weather resistance, all supplied in FSC® timber, with the fire doors manufactured under a 3rd Party Scheme.
We’re all looking forward to the next update from Will on the work he’s been doing at the Royal College of GP’s on conservation acoustic glazing.
