Developers of a historic landmark factory building that has hosted a number of royal visits chose a new flooring system from Sherwin-Williams to finish its restoration as a modern warehouse facility.

The 24,400-sq-meter concrete floor surface of the 90-year-old former foundry known as The Copperworks in Leeds, UK, was in varying states of disrepair, with several layers of coatings and iron tracks with heavy wear and tear and oil contamination.

Sherwin-Williams’ experts, having examined the various challenging environmental issues, came up with a program of flooring installation to meet the exacting specifications, which included diamond grinding and shotblasting.

An oil-tolerant primer was applied to prevent delamination, and RS Dampshield - a two-component epoxy resin membrane - was used in areas where moisture had been detected.

This was finished with two coats of Resucoat HB, a high-build, low-odor, epoxy resin industrial floor coating for high impact and wear resistance. It is extremely hard wearing with a high-gloss finish and has strong adhesion onto varied substrates including concrete and appropriate primers. It also comes in a variety of colors.

The old works have been refurbished with buildings re-roofed and re-clad, and a modern warehousing and distribution facility of 300,000 sq ft has been created for owners Towngate plc.

Matthew Jones, of Jones Hargreaves building consultants who led the project, said, “A solution was required to coat the floor to provide a sound surface which the tenant could keep clean easily. Sherwin-Williams has provided a first-class solution, providing a suitable specification within a very short space of time to assist us in meeting the programme to a very high standard.”

The foundry was previously known as the Leeds Copperworks and then Yorkshire Copperworks, and has played host to a number of industrial breakthroughs, as well as royal visits, and at its peak was the workplace of a 5,000-strong workforce before it closed in 1980.

Sherwin-Williams’ high-performance flooring systems are used in diverse industries including food and beverage, pharmaceutical, industrial, retail, commercial and aerospace offering benefits of non-taint, hard- wearing, decorative, impact resistance, slip-resistance, abrasion resistant, chemical protection and thermal shock resistance.

For more information, email sales.uk@sherwin.com or see https://protectiveemea.sherwin-williams.com/.

By Sherwin-Williams