CPD Specifier May 2015 issue January 2014 | Page 17

Repair, Refurb, Retrofit

Tenmat’s Fire Rated Air
Valves lead the way
Recessed Ceiling Air Valves are widely used
in both domestic and commercial buildings.
Once a hole is made in a ceiling for an Air Valve,
the integrity of the construction and its ability to
perform in a fire is reduced significantly. Ceiling Air
Valves, if left unprotected, allow a fire to spread
rapidly through a building. Ceilings must be fire
protected in accordance with Approved Document
B of the Building Regulations, which states the
ceiling must be firestopped to reinstate the original
fire rating.

TENMAT now have the only complete range of
Fire Rated Air Valves on the market that have
the appropriate testing to enable them to be
installed in ceilings. Unlike competitor products,
the TENMAT Fire Rated Air Valves have FullScale 60 minute fire testing to the latest European
standards for installation into ceilings.

TENMAT offer a full range of Fire Rated Ceiling
Air Valves, available in all common sizes for
both Extract & Supply, tested to the latest EN
test standards. The TENMAT Firefly Fire Rated
Ceiling Air Valves are a unique and highly cost
effective alternative to Air Valves with Fusible
Link Fire Dampers. In a fire situation, the integral
intumescent material rapidly expands to seal off
the Air Valve and reinstate the fire resistance
rating of the ceiling. This limits the risk of fire and
heat spread throughout the building. The Fire
Rated Ceiling Air Valve is installed as normal with
air flow unaffected. The product also requires
no maintenance unlike many Fusible Link Fire
Dampers.

0161 955 2479

www.tenmat.com

Eircom get a facelift from Remmers

The Eircom exchange building,
constructed in the 1970’s, consists of
a rendered exterior of architectural
interest and features curves and
round ‘pothole’ style windows.
The exterior render was suffering
with a high degree of cracking.
Repairs to the render were carried
out using Betofix RM, a fast cure
feather edge repair mortar prior to
application of the coating system.

anticipated movement and give a
high degree of finish to the exterior.
The Elastoflex system incorporates
mesh reinforcement within a
highly elastic coating compliant
with EN1504 - surface protection
coatings. The coating has
good water vapour diffusion
characteristics, is highly water
repellent and highly resistant to the
diffusion of carbon dioxide.

Remmers Elastoflex system was
chosen to accommodate the
www.remmers.co.uk

Reader Enquiry: 24

It is now common practise to install Fire
Rated Downlights in order to reinstate the fire
performance of a ceiling, yet in the same ceiling
there are often unprotected Ceiling Air Valves. This
means that in the event of a fire, the unprotected
Ceiling Air Valve would act as an open passage for
fire spread.
The rule of thumb is, if you have Fire Rated
Downlights you will need Fire Rated Ceiling Air
Valves.
In 2012 TENMAT scooped The
Queen’s Award for Innovation for it’s
range of Fire Protection Products
and has now backed this up by
winning The Queen’s Award for
International Trade in 2013, with
dynamic export sales over recent
years. This shows that TENMAT
cannot only develop world beating
fire protection products but also
offer supreme distribution and
customer service world wide.
The products developed and manufactured by
TENMAT can compete and win against both
locally and internationally produced products
both in terms of commercial and technical
specifications.

Farrell & Clark award winning 1960’s retrofit
reduces energy use by 2/3rds

Farrell & Clark Architects have much
to celebrate following success at
the Greenbuild and Grown Gown
Awards 2013.
The energy saving library retrofit
project for the University of Bradford
aimed to transform an energy
inefficient, dark and outdated,
heavily serviced building into a low
energy, comfortable, vibrant student
facility.
Whilst creating a student focused
library with greater access to group
and individual study areas, the
project lined the 1960’s concrete
frame building internally with high

levels of insulation, upgraded
windows and replaced the original
heating and ventilation with a
controlled natural ventilation
solution.
Twin new atria topped with
glazing, were inserted to bring )