A construction company has saved time and money by opting to install Cembrit Cemwood cladding as an alternative to bricks, at a newly built community centre in Quakers Yard, South Wales.
The Fir Tree Community Association Centre wanted to open a centre in Merthyr Valley to support the local community. Work began on the new site in April 2014. Bridgend-based construction company, Holbrook Construction was the contractor for this new build project, and having worked with Cembrit previously, specified its Cemwood cladding. Supplied via Marco Industries, Sittingbourne the project required over 200 m² of Cemwood, in two different lengths and painted in two RAL colours.
“From past experience, we knew that the Cemwood cladding would be easy to cut and install” explains Steve James, Director of Holbrook Construction. “With the labour shortage in the construction industry, particularly with bricklayers, we wanted to reduce the bricklaying element on the job and Cemwood helped us to do this. The colour options made the process of agreeing materials with the Local Planning Authority much easier, as we could provide them with a number of possibilities. This contributed to the project only taking five months to complete. ”
The Fir Tree Centre opened its doors in September 2014, providing the Quakers Yard community with a welcoming environment in which to take part in leisure and learning activities. The centre has so far hosted a number of social events, a youth club, art classes and a food cooperative. It also includes a state-of-the-art IT suite for classes and drop-ins, along with training and meeting rooms available for local residents to hire. The Cemwood cladding has provided an attractive, wood-effect finish to the two-storey building.
Combining the attractiveness of wood with the durability of fibre-cement, Cemwood is ideal as a replacement for timber, or to maximise new build design options. The fibre-cement, wood-effect weatherboard is fire, rot and insect resistant, as well as being unaffected by heat or sunlight. This allows Cemwood to be extremely low-maintenance and long-lasting.
Cembrit Cemwood is an autoclaved fibre-cement board with a texture on the front face, perfectly suited for all types of weatherboard applications. The boards can be supplied in grey for on-site painting or staining, or pre-coated in a large selection of coloured finishes with guaranteed colour stability for up to 10 years.
