With the opening of restaurant tycoon Richard Caring's 'Sexy Fish' in Berkeley Square, came the opportunity for us at GRP, to show off our skills in illusion and trickery!
The new state of the art kitchen, required the best in extraction technology, which in turn needed an innovative solution to hide it's existence.
Tall flue duct pipes, in shiny stainless steel ran horizontally and vertically against the side of the prestigious Berkeley House in London's Mayfair. In order to satisfy planning regulations, the ducting was surrounded by a steel frame, which was then clad with our brick effect and smooth stone effect panels. The removable louvred panels were also supplied by us, to match the brown window frames and allow access to the ducts at regular location points.
Such a lofty structure could not be built in traditional brickwork and even brick slips would be too heavy to use in this instance. The answer is a series of U-shaped fibreglass brick effect sections, colour-matched to the existing facade and weighing only 7kg per square metre.
Fixed to the frame through the mortar lines, with a combination of countersunk screws and adhesive, a pigmented filler mix is used to conceal the screws and joint lines.
We worked with the contractor, Shaca Construction, to provide colour-matched samples of each finish for planning approval prior to manufacture. The resulting formation runs from first floor to roof level meeting the aesthetic requirements of the building.
The contractor has embraced the use of GRP as an alternative to traditional materials, choosing to utilise our render effect panels to clad a lift-shaft in Somerstown.
For more information, see our flue cover fitting guide or flue covers webpage plus a great article on the Shaca Contstruction website