F. Ball and Co. Ltd. has helped to support frontline NHS workers as part of SalutetheNHS.org, a major non-profit initiative, set up to provide one million nutritious, free meals to these vital NHS staff over a three-month period as they have fought the coronavirus pandemic. Specifically, F. Ball has donated floor preparation materials and adhesive to install temporary flooring at a former aircraft hangar in Bicester that has been transformed into a food distribution centre for the duration of the project.
F. Ball & Co.
The brainchild of former McLaren boss Ron Dennis CBE and his daughter Dr Charlotte Hall, an NHS anaesthetist, SalutetheNHS.org has been delivering nutritious and ready-to-eat ‘BOOST’ meal packs to NHS doctors and nurses working on the front line and those infected and self-isolating at home.
The business-led initiative brought together a group of leading food, logistics, packaging and other specialists including supermarket giant Tesco, which donated the food for the meals. The ‘BOOST’ meals have been fulfilled at the purpose-designed facility in ‘Hangar 113’, a former aircraft hangar, now an events space at the Bicester Heritage site.
The installation of vinyl safety flooring over a 1,500 m2 area of the hangar was undertaken by flooring contractors John Butler Contracts of Nottingham.
Because the hangar is a designated heritage building, only minimal preparation work could be undertaken on the building’s existing concrete floor before the vinyl floorcovering was installed. After sweeping clear the floor area, JB Contracts installers used F. Ball’s Stopgap 460 Exterior Rapid Repair Compound to fill in a small number of damaged areas of the subfloor that were considered to be hazardous to health and safety.
The fast-setting repair mortar is specially designed for use in damp conditions and has excellent freeze/thaw resistance when used in external environments.
Contractors then installed multiple sections of F. Ball’s loose lay Stopgap Isolator Membrane over the entire 1,500 m2 floor area, securing abutting sheets of the membrane with Stopgap Jointing Tape.
Stopgap Isolator Membrane is an impervious laminated sheet that is designed to provide a moisture barrier to damp subfloors, which cannot be prepared using alternative, liquid based solutions because the floor is contaminated or needs to be returned to its original state afterwards, such as those in heritage settings.
The sheet provides a sub-base for the installation of vinyl, linoleum and rubber sheet floorcoverings. Nodules on the underside of the sheet create an airspace to allow water vapour from the subfloor to migrate to the edges, normally into a dry wall or ventilated skirting.
The JB Contracts team installed Gerflor Tarasafe vinyl safety flooring, provided by commercial flooring specialists, Techfloor, based in Blackburn, over the isolator membrane, using F. Ball Styccobond F46 pressure sensitive acrylic adhesive to firmly bond it in position. Adjacent vinyl sheets were then welded together to prevent water ingress, with plastic trims fitted to the edges and adhered to the concrete subfloor using double-sided tape.
Commenting on the project, F. Ball Managing Director Mark Hughes said: “We’re delighted to be involved in such a fantastic initiative as SalutetheNHS.org, helping to support the incredible work of the doctors and nurses putting themselves on the line as they battle through the coronavirus crisis.”
