Sainsburys, Selly Oak

Birmingham

The Sainsbury’s store is a free-standing first floor building on stilts, with a car park on the ground floor. The contract also included several smaller units in the retail park.

A²O installed Siberian Larch rainscreen to the supermarket; the smaller units to the staircase towers of the car park. The timber was sourced from a nominated specialist French milling company, who produce customised profiles with long lead times.

Client

Interserve

Challenges

The architect’s intent was to clad the upper level of the building with varying widths and projections of Sival-treated Siberian Larch, laid vertically and mounted onto Eurobond. The method for mounting the timber had not been defined.

The windows were installed by others and A²O’s vertical mullions had to line through.

Extended lead times on materials were an issue on this project.

Solutions

A²O worked with panel supplier Eurobond to design a timber batten layout and fixing regime to support the heavy timber sections. A²O advised on face fixing the timber with architecturally sensitive torx head stainless fixings. This avoided any potential twisting and cupping in the timber.

A²O set out the timber mullion flashings on site to ensure they lined through with other finishes. Our team cut down the horizonal timber members on site to ensure a neat fit between mullions.

The Sival treatment on the timber was on an extended lead time. As a programme critical element, this had to be ordered in advance of full drawing sign-off to ensure continuity on site. Site inventory was monitored, and subsequent areas were called off as the works progressed.