St Williams Church, in Dormanstown, Redcar, has been renovated to become a respite centre for children with disabilities after the site was leased by Ark Consultants.

Ark Consultants had been in contact with the Newman Trust, which offers holidays for children with disabilities, and became aware of a significant shortage of places for children in the Redcar and Middlesbrough area.

To address this need, the company bought the disused church with a plan to convert it into a full-service respite centre with provision for overnight stays.

They needed a heating solution for the building that would be efficient and effective enough for the large space while also removing the potential dangers to the children - and design limitations of – multiple radiators.

Ark called in Ace Concrete Flooring Solutions, based in Thornaby-on-Tees, and commercial underfloor heating specialists UFCM.

A UFCM underfloor heating system was chosen to avoid radiators throughout the building making it a safe environment and having a good control of heat throughout.

They installed a wet underfloor staple system at 150mm centres to the ground floor over 200m2. They also installed a low-profile crate system at 150mm centres on the first floor.

A fast-drying cementitious screed was applied to both floors at approximately 50mm covering a total of 200m2 on the ground floor and 100m2 on the first floor. The product with the fastest curing time available was chosen in order not to delay the opening as the local need is so great.

When Ark initially started looking at the project before lockdown there were 68 children in the Redcar area who didn’t have any provision for respite care but now the figure is 120.

Ark have worked closely with stakeholders including the local childrens’ care commissioning team on the design of the church refurbishment. The new centre is due to open in July 2022 and will feature nine beds for overnight stays and specialist accessible wet rooms.

Luke Greenwood, Specification Manager at UFCM, said: “We were delighted to be able to contribute to this amazing project which is going to be so vital for so many people in the local community.

“Large buildings of this type are ideally suited for underfloor heating as it offers the most efficient solution to ensure a consistent temperature while keeping costs much lower than alternative systems.”

Sarah Linskey, Contracts Director at Ace Concrete Flooring Solutions, said: “We thoroughly enjoyed this project from start to finish.
“As this beautiful building is being converted into a respite centre for children with disabilities of course we were honoured to be able to take part. I’d like to thank UFCM for their full support from the offset and during the whole project until completion.”