AIRTIGHTNESS...
a breath of fresh air or just a bag of wind?

Apparently buildings are very leaky. No, not water but air. The problem appears to be that if you want your building to be warm when it is cold you don't want to heat up lots of air that just escapes out of all the holes.
Some of the holes are so tiny that you can hardly see them but there might be lots of them (buildings are made of thousands of bits that go together...so it's bound to be a bit difficult to seal it all up).

So buildings are now 'airtested' to see if they meet the standard. so big fans are put in the doorways and taped up and then they pressurise the building and then sensors monitor the pressure at points all over the building and from the readings on the sensors and the speed of the fans you can work out how much air is leaking out.
You have to do lots of sums to work out how much surface area the building has, how much air is leaking out and then how much air leaks outs in cubic meters for every square metre of area each hour at a special pressure of 50 Pascals.

To pass the test the building must get lower than 10. Weird...it's actually better to get a lower score!

We helped take the readings. Each test took 30 minutes. Watch the video to see how windy it was.

Hmmm...did you guess what these were?

Below you can see are all the paving slabs that make up part of the ground level playground. They go on the roof of the nursery/reception classes below.

So that there isn't a step at the classroom doors (so that it's easy to get from inside to outside) the slabs are put on these special 'legs' that wind up and down to get the height just right.

There is a big space under the slabs and this is where all the water goes when it rains.

We stayed around for a while watching the guys doing the 'setting out' of the slabs. They were ever so careful to try and get them laid out straight and square to the building and make sure that there weren't lots of silly little cut pieces.

ATRIUM (the bit in the middle)

You'll be able to see this soon ...as school will be open for the new term and it's all looking so exciting. We're not allowed to show you these pictures in colour as that is a surprise for when you first visit! The reception area and lift shaft (the thing the lift goes up and down inside) have some really FAB colours that you'll just have to come and see yourself!

WHO'S WHO

Let's meet the consultants in the design team

Dick is the Project Structural Engineer

His job is to make sure the school stands up, and doesn't fall over in high winds or under the weight of snow or lots of rain and more importantly that it will hold up the weight of the planted roof!
Dick and his colleagues (that's his structural engineering friends) Richard and Simon have to do lots of sums to work out how many beams and columns we need and also how big they need to be.

Their calculations filled 3 big books!

Did you realise you needs hundreds and hundreds of things to make just the structural bit (structural steel frame) that holds the building up? Over 3000 bits are needed and these are held together by over 20 000 bolts and other fixings. Dick also like biscuits to give him energy for the long 11 mile bike ride home! Morta likes biscuits too and tried to sneak a bite while Dick wasn't looking!

Richard does lots of sums to make sure everything is OK. He has a big book that has diagrams and big sums in it and as well as doing sums in his head he has to do his big sums with a calculator as they can be very hard.

Somtimes it can be a bit of a puzzle!

Chris is the Mechanical Engineer

He deals with the heating of the school and the ventilation (that's fresh air to you and me).

The new school will have underfloor heating. Long hosepipes under the floor will carry hot water that has come from the 'ground source heat pump' that gets the heat from under the park (we told you about that earlier). This means it warms up your cold feet when you have walked to school and it dries your wet shoes. It's also great to lay on and read a book, it's really cosy.

In the summer if it gets hot the heating can run backwards and instead of putting heat into the school it can take it away and put it back under the ground in the park!

Chris also makes sure there is enough fresh air inside the school so areas like the kitchen and the toilets have fans to suck out hot smelly air and bring in clean fresh air. In other places you have to remember to open the windows and in the atrium there are some windows right at the top that will open on their own on hot days to let out the hot air and help keep the school cool.

Andy is the Electrical Engineer

His job is to make sure that all the things that run on electricity have some and that they are connected in the right way and it is all safe.

Andy has to do diagrams (they're drawings with symbols on) that show all the electrical things and where they go.

This includes things like the lights, sockets (the things you put the plugs in), data (that's the special wiring so the computers can talk to each other) as well as all the special things that give warnings/alarms like for fire or security and the pumps and controls that run the heating system.

There are miles of cables inside the new school!!! You probably won't see any of them are they are all hidden behind the ceilings.

Paul is the Drainage Engineer
What is this all about then? Well, Paul's job is to make sure that all waste water from the school is dealt with properly and taken away if required.

If he didn't do that then the new school would sit in a big puddle of rainwater (very muddy) and all the water from the toilets wouln't go anywhere (very smelly).

So, Paul makes sure all the water is collected in pipes and that they are big enough to work properly and not get blocked. The pipes from the toilets and sinks all join up in 'manholes' and then go to the 'sewer' (big pipe), in the road that goes to the sewerage treatment works where all the bits are removed and it is made clean before being allowed to go out into the river.

The new school is designed to save water with toilets flushed by rainwater collected from the roof and play terraces. There is a waterless urinal (a special toilet for just having a wee) for the men, all the taps have a spray outlet to use less water and they close off automatically so you can't leave them running and there are waterbutts on each terrace to water the plants that will be grown by each of the classes.

Hmmm...what are these

Can you guess?

THE MAIN ENTRANCE TAKES SHAPE We went to see the canopy over the front door (that's the thing above the door that keeps the rain off). It's made of wood and has two 'glulam' beams (they're the big bits of wood made from lots of smaller bits of wood-'glued laminations'). The big beams that held up the hall roof in the old infants school were glulam beams, they have been made into the new reception desk.
The canopy is held up by columns that are at an angle.

INSPECTION TIME...We had a close look at how they were put together by CONSTRUCTIONAL TIMBER-from Barnsley.

We went to site today...
We were allowed to drive the digger!

Here we are having a driving lesson.

BOILER ROOM

or actually the 'no boilers room'Do you remember all the stuff about the ground source heating? Well this is where all the pipes come to it is called the 'plant' room or sometimes known as the 'boiler' room. However, There aren't any plants in it and this one doesn't have any boilers either!!! It's all very confusing.

The big white things under where Brix is sat are the 'condensers' and they are what takes the heat from the liquid that goes down the pipes under the park and heats the school. In the summer they can work backwards and take the heat from the building and put it back under the park.

A little while ago it looked like this...

Tomorrow it will be different as lots more will have happened!

GLASS NUGGETS...?

We have some very special windows in the nursery they will go in some screens that are being made by SIS-Solutions. They have coloured glass, mirrors and some multi-coloured glass nuggets in them and they are being made by those very helpful folks at Central Glass in Sheffield (Hooray we found them as other companies couldn't/wouldn't do the exciting things we wanted!). We went to see the glass nuggets being put inside the double glazed units (a sandwich of two sheets of glass with a gap in between).

First the glass has to be cut to the right size by Andy with a special glass cutting tool that has a little wheel that won't cut you but does cut the glass. The cut glass is VERY sharp and Andy wears special protectors on his wrists.

If you cut 'laminated glass (special strong glass with a plastic layer in the middle), you have to cut both sides of the glass with the glass cutter and then cut the plastic with a sharp blade. Watch the video below to see...

Then the glass goes through a special washing machine.

In the pictures below you can see the nuggets being put into the double glazed unit by Sean and Tim while Brix watches. The special making table has lights underneath and you can see the colours of the nuggets really well. Mick from SIS-Solutions http://www.sis-interiors.co.uk/ chose the colours (off the internet and from the Hobbycentre-Meadowhall Retail Park) , we think they are FAB and go really well with the other things in the nursery.

When all the nuggets had been put inside the two sheets of glass the frame that keeps them apart has to be stuck together. There is another special table with little castors on the top to makes it easy to move the heavy glass units around. They are then clamped tight and some really hot (183°C) black stuff (Brix thinks it was Butyl rubber) was squeezed around the edges by Richard. He is good at it now but says when he was learning he would get burnt if he wasn't careful.

When the unit is finished it has to have a mark put on it to say what type of glass it is made from and this is done by James making a mark with some acid paste pushed through a printing screen. The screen has a mesh pattern of the picture and the acid goes through the gaps and then it etches the glass. When it is wiped off the glass is permanently marked. Can you see the circular mark it has made?

We thought it was really interesting seeing all the work that goes on doing the glass for windows, doors and other things. Thank you very much all those folks who showed us what they did and thanks again to CENTRAL GLASS, 42 Copper St, Sheffield, S3 7AG 0114-279 8773