Peter Bilson House, Wolverhampton

This residential development is located on Bond Street in Wolverhampton, West Midlands. As part of the refurbishment works, Gripple supplied Fast Trak and Fire Rated Clip to suspend electrical containment and pipework services. Peter Bilson House was officially opened in March 2023 and is used by the local council for housing vulnerable people.

  • Building Type: Residential
  • Main Contractor: Wates Construction
  • Subcontractor: Orton Group
  • Services: Electrical Containment / Pipework

The three-storey development was transformed from a vacant City of Wolverhampton Council owned office building into a residential hub for Wolverhampton Housing and Homeless Service. The new building has accommodation and space for multi-agency support for vulnerable people and people with a history of rough sleeping. Upon completion, the building became known as Peter Bilson House in memory of the late Wolverhampton councillor. The site houses 34 units of emergency and settled accommodation and provides bespoke, multi-agency support for the vulnerable people living within the development.

This is the first time we've used Fast Trak. It seemed easy to use so we trialled it on this site. We have been very impressed with the fast installation and the small amount of components needed to install the M&E bracketry. Not having to store loads of material on-site was beneficial for us as this project is based in a busy city centre location.
Managing Director, Orton Group

Wates Construction were appointed as main contractor by Wolverhampton council. Wates subsequently appointed Orton Group as M&E subcontractor in early 2022 due to their three decades of experience. Orton opted to use various Gripple solutions to suspend M&E services as they provided them with significant labour, material weight and embodied carbon savings over traditional threaded rod and channel support systems. Alongside these benefits, Orton wanted to ensure the best end result for both the end user and client. Gripple was able to meet these high standards and satisfy concerns.

During pre-construction, a Gripple representative provided a toolbox talk to Orton and conducted a pull test on-site to verify the suitability of the hollowcore soffit prior to any M&E bracketry being installed. A pull test report alongside a technical submittal was presented to Orton to provide them with key information on Gripple’s product specifications including load ratings, safety factors and safe working loads.

Gripple conducted on-site pull tests as Orton Group were first-time users of Fast Trak and we wanted to give their installers full confidence that we could deliver a value-engineered solution that was much less labour intensive than traditional systems. As part of the design process, our in-house Technical Services team were able to identify areas in which services could be potentially moved so that Orton could utilise single tier Fast Trak brackets to suspend both electrical and pipework services.
Andy Riley, Area Sales Manager, Gripple

Fast Trak is a versatile, pre-fabricated, off-site solution that vastly simplifies the installation of building services. The four-sided bracket provides a suspension point on every face; ideal for installing combined bracketry and multi-tiered configuration to accommodate additional services. Fast Trak is made up of a prefabricated slotted channel, whilst a patented 'Track' and 'Cartridge' allows you to safely install a complete trapeze bracket up to six times faster than traditional rod and channel supports.

Orton also utilised Gripple’s Fire Rated Clips to fasten smaller runs of cables to the ceiling across the development. The clips are available in two sizes (single or double) to suit various amounts of cable and are supplied with fire rated concrete screws as standard. Fire Rated Clips provide contractors with a simplified installation as no cable baskets or trays are required as smaller cables can be secured directly to the soffit. Gripple’s Fast Trak and Fire Rated Clip range of products are third party fire tested to BS 476 (ISO 834). For more information please contact our Technical Services team or visit our website to access our Fire Rated Product Matrix.

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Tags: Building Services

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