A Sika flooring system installed to ensure the perfect platform to film Britain’s longest running soap, has been named ‘Large Project of the Year’ at a prestigious industry awards ceremony.
Chosen from more than 30 submissions, the annual Best Practice Awards hosted by FeRFA (The Resin Flooring Association) recognised Sika and resin floor installers Zircon Flooring Ltd for their work on the construction of ITV’s new Coronation Street studios at MediaCityUK, Trafford.
Sika was also highly commended in this category for its work on the Greenwich Peninsula Marketing Hub with Senso Flooring and Remmers UK.
Despite facing tough competition for the accolade from other big players in the industry, the resin flooring manufacturer’s impressive portfolio of work with contractors on major projects meant that four of the six finalists in the category were Sika projects.
When ITV’s new Coronation Street studios called for perfectly smooth anti-static floors to facilitate the fluid and safe movement of HD camera equipment, Sika worked with Stewart Draper, owner and director of resin floor installers Zircon Flooring Ltd, to devise an innovative solution utilising Sika’s high-performance, self-smoothing, epoxy resin floors.
Impressing the judges by working in partnership with Stewart and his team – which included his son Keelan Draper who has recently achieved the NVQ2 in situ resin floor qualification from FeRFA, Sika delivered the project to schedule and to budget.
Designed for use in areas with sensitive electronic equipment, the system – comprising of Sikafloor Level 30 and solvent-free, anti-static Sikafloor 262 AS – was expertly applied by Sika approved industrial flooring contractor Zircon Flooring across four studios totalling 3,800m2.
Helen McGachie, Chief Executive Officer at FeRFA, said: “Sika’s work with Zircon Flooring on the Coronation Street studios really impressed the judges because of the excellent quality of the product application, as Sika and Zircon rose to the challenge, working together to achieve precise floor flatness specification.
“ITV required a robust and sustainable flooring solution suitable to stand the test of time due to such high volume of daily usage with heavy equipment. Sika were able to not only meet this, but also provide a solution to prevent potential static build up to ensure a flooring system that will work for years to come, which we were very impressed by.”
Richard Kay, Key Account Manager – Flooring at Sika, added: “To be involved in the construction of the new ITV Coronation Street studios set was a particular highlight in our commercial project portfolio, so for it to win ‘Large Project of the Year’ too means we are absolutely delighted.
“Stewart and his team at Zircon have a great understanding of what products work best in studio settings, and our offering fit the bill perfectly. Working together with such a highly skilled contractor meant we were able to rise to the challenging brief which others walked away from.”
Stewart Draper, Director at Zircon, added: “Having worked closely with Sika over the past decade we have got TV studio flooring off to a fine art and the finished floor in grey looks absolutely superb – and we’re thrilled to have won this award!”
The FeRFA Best Practice Awards took place on 28 November at the De Vere Staverton Park, Northamptonshire, and were presented by TV personality Mark Durden-Smith.
