Cladding Coatings were commissioned by property developers to refurbish a site which would become the home of Wickes, home DIY retailer and Sports Direct, the leading sports retailer. Formerly a Homebase store, owned by Tesco, the busy site is located in a fairly central location on Roundhay Road, Leeds.

On visiting the site, our Surveyor found that the buildings exteriors had become tired and required a thorough clean before repainting to protect them for the future. Having worked on projects before for Wickes & Sports Direct we were familiar with the high standards demanded by these clients to create a good first impression for their customers visiting the stores. See the case study for Sports Direct here.

The project consisted of cleaning and protecting 3 elevations, 2 sides parallel with each other and a larger rear elevation where our workspace was much smaller. We immediately noticed that all 3 elevations have a double bull nose section which can be extremely tricky to pressure wash due to the curves in the cladding profile.

The front elevation of the building was being re-clad but rather than having to re-clad the entire external envelope, the developer saw the cost savings to be made by using Cladding Coatings to clean and re-coat the cladding to the sides and rear of the retail units.

Whilst the buildings were both empty for the duration of our time on site, we were required as usual to work to health & safety guidelines for working at heights and also complete a risk assessment of the site to ensure both our team and any passing members of the general public were safe at all times.

The Cladding Coatings team cleaned and prepared the external elevations which are all metal clad finished, leaving a clean surface that we could work with. Adhesion testing was also carried out on site to ensure that the coating system used would be suitable for the cladding material.

The clean surfaces were applied with the Rust-Oleum Noxyde paint system. Rust-Oleum Noxyde is a water-based, single component paint, it is easy to apply and yet gives the same protection as a complicated and more expensive polyurethane system. The paint forms a thick anti-corrosive membrane that offers excellent protection against water, salt spray and aggressive environments.

Noxyde®paint systems also offer a metal coating which is certified for 15 years lifespan in C5M environments, which is the toughest of environments recognised by ISO12944.

The Noxyde paints also gave the client the option to choose the right colour scheme for each unit, in keeping with their corporate branding.

On this project, extreme case regarding over spray had to be taken as the retail units backed on to a supermarket car park and the front of the building was brand new cladding. Using plastic sheeting and brushes rather than spraying equipment, these risks could be minimized.

Challenges including rain, tight spaces, parked cars and shoppers were unable to prevent the specialist team from completing the project on time and to a high standard.

Once completed the buildings looked as new, and were ready to welcome their new residents and of course the shoppers!