National Grid HQ Car Park, Warwick – IKO Permapark

Project description

The National Grid required a solution to a long-standing problem. The main car park at their HQ in Warwick had been leaking for a number of years. Various systems had been employed to tackle this issue; however, all had failed.

With the double-storey car park leaking, some areas were condemned as ‘out of action’. The National Grid were having to hire the use of a nearby car park for its staff and visitors, then run a bus service for collections and drop-offs at the inconvenience of everyone involved.

This was also at a considerable cost to the business and also caused disruption to the daily working pattern of employees.

The solution proposed by IKO and subsequently provided, meant stripping and replacing the existing 6,500m2 car park deck within a twelve-week period, in two phases, whilst keeping the remaining 18,000m2 open to its employees, minimising disruption to the business, staff and visitors.

The solution

As this was a refurbishment project and the car park deck was covered by rubber compound, block paving on a sand bed and liquid waterproofing there were a lot of unknown variables which could possibly increase costs and delay the project.

IKO Permapark was chosen because it could guarantee that regardless of the ambient temperature, finish of substrate condition and moisture content within the deck, it could overcome these issues with little disruption to the project time-line.

IKO Permapark also offered an unrivalled Guarantee of 20 years, with an agreement certificate of 50 years. This ensured The National Grid would be provided with a long term solution.

The project team at The National Grid had not previously considered Mastic Asphalt as a solution and had looked at various other installations, considering yet another liquid coating which would not have offered the robust, long term solution that IKO Permapark would provide.

After discussing their requirements and the tight program schedule they had set themselves with IKO, it was decided that IKO Permapark was the right system necessary to solve the long-standing issues.

The project was carried out in two phases, only closing half of the car park area at any one time. 6,500m2 of the current car park surfacing was stripped up and replaced with IKO Permapark over an 8 week period.

The only disruption to The National Grid whilst work progressed during the 8 weeks was the loss of the spaces.

The project was delivered ahead of schedule and on budget, giving The National Grid the full use of the Car Park again after many years of leakages. So successful was the project that a further 6,500m2 of IKO Permapark is scheduled to be installed on the adjacent Car Park later this year (2016).