In an industry-first, building envelope specialist, CA Group has been awarded LPS 1175 status, for specific versions of its Twin-Therm built-up roof and wall cladding system. In turn, this has allowed CA Group to be admitted into the official police security initiative: Secured By Design (SBD).
The SBD scheme is managed by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and was set up to support all aspects of the construction industry to “design-out crime” by helping to develop robust specifications in conjunction with member companies that can offer certified products.
CA Group’s success is in obtaining SBD status, makes it the only roofing and cladding manufacturer with this approval. As a result, the company has secured the specification for the Segro Park project in Enfield, North London. The project is part of a flagship SBD development for the industrial real estate developer.
Mark Wiper, technical engineering manager at CA Group, explained: “When it comes to warehouses, traditionally, the most common way to guarantee that security was ‘built-in’ was to opt for brick and concrete construction materials. However, while these materials are no doubt robust, they bring with them certain challenges: they are costly, require additional trades to be involved in the program and the construction process can be relatively slow. Another way was to construct a metal envelope to close the building in a shorter time frame and then to build a block wall inside, however this approach takes up valuable floor space.
“The challenge we were set, was to use our expertise as a building envelope specialist working with metal, to design an alternative that was not only quick to construct but which had security designed into the very fabric of the building.”
After carrying out extensive physical attack testing at BRE, Watford – variations of Twin-Therm roof and wall systems have now been successfully certified up to security rating 2 (in accordance with LPS 1175 issue 7).
Wiper concluded: “Designing-out crime is such a logical route to take, in terms of securing peace of mind for all those involved, but the benefits don’t end there. Because the building comes with the SBD seal of approval, planning applications are generally looked on more favourably.”
These enhancements now allow developers such as Segro a greater freedom to specify Twin-Therm SecureWall and Twin-Therm SecureRoof on buildings with specific security requirements such as bonded warehouses and data centres.
