Phoenix lands Virgin Atlantic

Date Nov 07

Specialist interior fit-out company Phoenix Interiors has installed a range of ceiling systems at Virgin Atlantic's impressive newly refurbished training centre, known as "The Base", in Crawley near Gatwick Airport.

The work on this prestigious 22,000 sq m facility, where as many as 1,500 Virgin staff train every week, tested the skills of its experienced installation team as it called for an array of special features using:

• 1,500 sq m of Armstrong Microlook demountable ceiling.
• 1,200 sq m of BG Rigitone square-edged perforated plasterboard.
• 400 linear m of cone-shaped glass reinforced gypsum (GRG) sections and nosings.
• 600 sq m of British Gypsum standard plasterboard bulkheads and metal furring taped and jointed ceilings.
• 390 sq m of Decoustic Ceilenco acoustic panels fixed to an aluminium framed support grid.
• Eight 9m-high fire barriers.

"The Rigitone plasterboards demanded a steep learning curve," says Phoenix contracts manager Bernie Brock "The tape and jointing was not carried out in a traditional fashion. Instead, the boards had to be treated along their edges 24 hours before installation. On top of this, the installation was carried out from elevated platforms, some 8m high, along corridors and through exposed existing steel beams, which restricted access to the workface. "The mechanical and electrical installations also had to be carefully co-ordinated as the Rigitone boards would have had to be thrown away if they had been fitted and then removed."

The Decoustic Ceilenco system also threw up a range of installation challenges, adds Bernie: "Like the Rigitone, it had to be installed from elevated platforms to a 9m high sloping soffit between exposed 300mm wide 'H'-beams at varying centres. The Ali support grid had to be assembled on the ground and then raised in sections to the workface, fixed and braced to the soffit. Care had to be taken when assembling the acoustic panels as the finished face could be damaged quite easily."

Some of the fire and acoustic barriers were 9m deep and, compounding this, the soffit Phoenix Interiors had to fix them to was constructed from a porous lightweight concrete slab, which required a special chemical fix that involved a 24-hour curing process.

The site, which features a 200-seat auditorium and more than 50 rooms as well as flight simulators and practice escape chutes, is a mixed 1960s-type building development. As a result, some areas have existing exposed steel beams in modules 3m square and 2m below the required ceiling height. The installation in these areas had to be carried out using an armada of two-man, single-width, elevated mobile platforms. "Despite these hurdles, the programme was maintained and the work was completed to the original programme and to an excellent standard," says Bernie. The main contractor was ISG Interior Exterior and the architect was PDP Architects of Epsom, Surrey.