Case Study – Education

Project: Sunderland BSF
Client: Sunderland City Council
Main Contractor:  Balfour Beatty

Sunderland BSF 

Orbis timber doorsets have been supplied with ironmongery to 3 Academies and 3 schools as part of Sunderland City Council's £120 million "Building Schools for the Future' initative. In addition a further £15.3 million academy at Darlington was added to Laidlaw's package. Making those sites involved, Darlington Eastbourne Academy, Academy 360, Castle View Enterprise Academy and Red house Academy together with Washington School, Biddick School Sports College, and St. Robert of Newminister RC School. Washington School was a complete rebuild on the existing site and has been awarded a Green Apple Award for Environmental Best Practice. Further refurbishment work is underway at Biddick School Sports College.

The doorset specification was based on a paint grade frame, bespoke core framing of the laminate faced door and Orbis Commercial Silk Anodised Aluminium ironmongery. The design began in early 2008 with Laidlaw working closely with Balfour Beatty Design and Customer Service Team to rectify historical concerns over the durability and robustness of doors within educational facilities. This process culminated in compilation of a design manual which was used as a reference document throughout the process, both by the Laidlaw scheduling and on-site team. This was backed up by a "tool box talk" manual which provided fixing team's installation advice prior to commencement of each school.

Balfour Beatty's Operations Director Derek Walker commented "Balfour Beatty had suffered from a number of issues relating to doors and ironmongery on previous education projects and we were determined to address and eliminate inherent design problems, robustness issues and supply issues on the Sunderland BSF scheme. Laidlaw Solutions provided an ideal partner to work with. They were keen to get involved from the outset, working closely with us reviewing their standard door details and door structure and were willing to amend these designs to meet our exacting requirements but also they remained competitive throughout. Overall Laidlaw have provided an excellent service and a product that will stand the test of time.

In addition to a complete transformation of the learning experience, the BSF developements have been designed for the positive impact they will have on regeneration initiatives, inward investment, the local economy and efforts being made to meet the demands of skills shortages in Sunderland.

Laidlaw Business Development Manager Clint Robertson commented, "The demanding nature of scheduling multi-site projects involves a team of people working closely with those on site. I am confident that we have overcome our customer's historical durability concerns and will continue to develop the design both with the doors and ironmongery on future projects. This is a perfect example of Laidlaw's experiences for such high profile, fast-track eductational projects and our ability to be flexible to our customer's needs to concerns".