Riverwell, Watford

The full Riverwell development in Watford transformed 70 acres of formerly contaminated industrial land into a vibrant and rejuvenated community. When completed, the redevelopment area will include 750 residential units, office, leisure and retail space. As part of the project, the banks of the river Colne were transforming this brown site into a family-friendly living space with access to 4.5 acres of green open space. The project was managed by Kier and Jarvis Contracting and the architect was Lewis & Hickey Architects.

Challenge

Time constraints were a major challenge for this project and all trades needed to work efficiently to keep to the schedule. To keep the programme running smoothly the balconies needed to be ready to be delivered to site on time and installed quickly without delay.

In addition to this, Schoeck cast-in anchors had been installed in incorrect positions posing a challenge for the Sapphire accredited installers.

Solution

Thanks to our Rigid.Ready.Right. brand promise all 84 balconies were manufactured and securely stored ready to be called to site according to the project’s needs. Once the site was ready to receive them the balconies were loaded onto Sapphire lorries and transported to site. From there the Glide-On™ system meant the balconies were installed quickly and easily preventing costly delays associated with traditional bolt-on balcony systems.

While incorrectly positioned anchors would cause significant delays with traditional balcony systems, our innovative Glide-On™ Cassette® system allows for a tolerance of up to +/- 20mm. This meant the balconies could be fitted correctly the first time without the need for difficult on-site adjustments.

Installation Process

Step 1: The scheme used cast-in Shoeck anchors to provide a thermal break and Sapphire’s arms connected directly to these, taking the bracket from the thermal break within the cavity to outside of the finished façade.

Step 2: Cassette® balconies were prefinished offsite, including the balustrades, decking & soffits.

Step 3: Cassette® balconies were transported with balconies ‘nested’ onto each pallet making transport both cost-effective & safe. Balconies were pre-slung offsite ready for installation upon arrival.

Step 4: Once lifted into position, the Cassettes® simply Glide-On™ to the pre-erected support arms, before completing the simple mechanical fixings.