Maxit Fills The Void For Golden Gates Housing
Maxit LWA lightweight aggregate is being used to significantly speed up the refurbishment of homes in a major repairs programme involving hundreds of homes in Warrington, Cheshire.
Bagged maxit LWA has so far been used during the replacement of rotting wooden floors and failing solid floors in approaching 200 homes under the programme managed by Golden Gates Housing Ltd -- which oversees repairs to Warrington Borough Council’s housing stock -- saving at least two days on each ground floor replacement.
Under the scheme, floors in properties built between the late 1930’s and early 1960’s are removed, then replaced with bagged maxit LWA and a new solid surface finish to create insulated “warm floors”.
Working with construction partners Connaught and Bramall’s, together with its own direct works team Golden Gates Housing aims to upgrade several hundred homes under the Government’s Non-Decent Housing initiative by 2008.
Work is carried out once homes become vacant and problems with floors range from suspended floors suffering from wet or dry rot in older properties, while more recent properties encounter problems with the impurities in the original red shale fill “blowing” the surface or sinking to create voids.
Following a study by its construction partners, Golden Gates Housing specified the bagged filling technique involving maxit LWA as a clean, quick and easy method of filling the voids left by removal or excavation of floors and, at the same time, improving insulation values.
Explains Golden Gates Housing Resource Manager Eddie Ashton: “We specified LWA due to the savings in construction time for the installation and as a solution to manual handling regulations because it avoids the use of heavy hardcore.
“Our partners carried out a comparisons with other methods and this proved very favourable, speeding up the work by at least a couple of days in each case. The ease of laying the material and limiting the loss of revenue on empty properties due to their earlier availability for re-occupancy were also factors.”
Manufactured from expanded marine clay, maxit LWA is five times lighter than conventional hardcore and is delivered to site in 50 litre bags weighing just 15 kg – well within health and safety single man repetitive lifting limits. The bags are arranged unopened to fill the required area, any gaps are infilled using loose material, a damp proof membrane placed over the bags and a new floor screed installed.
Where required, maxit LWA can also be delivered in bulk and pneumatically blown to the point of installation.
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