Client: Bournemouth Development Company
Architect: Brightspace Architects, Hill Cannon
Main Contractor: Morgan Sindall
Roofing & Cladding Contractor: Composite Profiles Ltd
Steel Contractor: James Killelea & Co Ltd
Building Systems UK products: ComFlor® 60 with Colorcoat FD® 170, ComFlor® 51+
Year: 2013-14

The project comprises three interconnected student accommodation buildings and a seven-storey car park close to Bournemouth’s seafront. It was completed on budget and on time, to a tight fast build programme and achieved a very high build quality with two nominations for Local Authority Building Control awards.

The car park floors consist of composite metal deck construction using ComFlor® 60 with Colorcoat FD® 170 to the soffit; whereas the student accommodation, also a composite deck was specified in ComFlor® 51+ with a galvanised finish. 

The challenge

With Morgan Sindall in overall control of the design and build project as well as providing the structural engineering input, Brightspace was appointed as the lead architectural consultant, with Harrogate based Hill Cannon recruited as a specialist in multi-storey car parks. Less than a mile from the sea, the corrosion resistance of the soffit of the composite floor deck in the car park was a major factor.

In addition to meeting the significant load and span requirement demanded by the project, ComFlor® 60, with Colorcoat FD® 170 prefinished steel was chosen, not only because the white finished soffit helped to provide the light, safer environment needed in a multistorey car park, but also because Colorcoat FD® 170 offered significant extra protection in the aggressive C4 coastal environment.

The solution

Using Colorcoat FD® 170 meant that traditional through deck stud welding techniques were not used, as Mark Norton, Managing Director of Composite Profiles Ltd explains “The shear studs were pre-welded to the beams and galvanised by the steel fabricators prior to site delivery which required careful planning and co-ordination of the floor deck layout far earlier in the design process, but helped provide more efficient installation of the floor decking on-site.”

In the student accommodation, the primary driver was to provide a shallow floor zone with excellent acoustic properties and a two hour fire rating. In the car park however, a white finish to the exposed soffit was desirable, as part of a light, safe environment and also to provide the enhanced corrosion resistance required in a coastal location.

In the case of the accommodation buildings, the designers wanted to achieve the best acoustic reduction performance between floors whilst minimising the floor depth. Two hours fire rating was required for the floor slab with no protection to the soffit. These criteria made ComFlor® 51+ the optimum choice.