It's one thing to specify interior products to make your school or university look great – another to choose the right solutions that will keep it looking at its best for the long term.
After all, there are few environments more prone to damage than educational buildings. The constant swirl of pupils and staff moving between lessons means the environment gradually gets dirtied and damaged, necessitating frequent repairs and maintenance.
For many facilities teams, school holidays can be a busy time spent repairing, painting and maintaining the walls, ready for the pupils’ return.
However, your time may be better spent assessing damaged areas and installing wall protection to boost the long-term prospects of the building and its budget.
Bitterne Park School
As an example, one recent project saw us supply and fit a range of wall protection at the new £16m Bitterne Park School in Southampton.
The new school includes 80 new teaching classrooms, a purpose-built assembly hall/theatre, a new dining space with a fully fitted kitchen and purpose built fully fitted classrooms to house the students as part of their food and nutrition studies.
To enhance and protect the new school’s interiors from damage, we supplied and fitted SureProtect Pure® Wall Cladding to the commercial kitchen areas and the Food and Nutrition classrooms. SureProtect Pure® is the ideal specification where hygiene is a priority as it has a smooth easy to clean surface and creates an impermeable barrier to moisture. In areas of the kitchen where hygiene is of paramount importance, the SureProtect Pure® was thermoformed around the corners to eliminate gaps and to ensure cleanliness can be maintained throughout the working life of the kitchen.
Corners are one of the most vulnerable areas of a building and can suffer damage from multiple sources within the school including school bags. We supplied and fitted stainless steel corner guards in the school’s corridors to offer durable protection with a modern clean look, helping to enhance and protect the new school’s interiors from damage.
The new school required a robust wall protection solution that could withstand hundreds of people passing through daily as, once complete and at capacity, this will be the largest high school in the south. The corner guards and wall protection systems installed are of superior strength to protect and future-proof the building for many years to come.
An example of how not only the obvious interior solutions, but also invisible protection, have a vital role to play when specifying for educational environments.
Find out more about our range of wall protection solutions for education environments here