Putting on coats, in this heat

The insulated render is now being applied to the external walls.  Now I know this doesn’t sound very exciting, but it’s a part of the project that will have a major longterm benefit to the cinema.

The insulation part is basically 2 inch think polystyrene.  This is excellent at trapping in heat that’s in the building and preventing heat from outside from getting in.  What this means then is that we make some decent savings on our fuel bills in the winter and save less on cooling the cinema in summer.

The polystyrene is initially glued then bolted to the walls, after that a layer of thin concrete is spread over to protect the insulation.  Finally a top coat of render is put on to finish the look of the wall.  The render itself is the colour that we want the wall to be, which means two things; 1. We don’t have to then paint the render and 2. As the wall weathers it should stay the same colour so saving future maintenance costs as well.

See, that was more exciting that you thought it might be.

Elsewhere on site the carpenters have been busy.  Not only have they built a new stage in the auditorium, (see Jodi’s previous set of pictures), they have built the frame for the new set of double doors as you enter the auditorium.  This will give us much better sound insulation from the lobby below and new cafe.  The carpenters have also built a new set of steps leading to the back stage area, replacing a small and dangerous ladder as well as building new roofs over two small voids on the projection floor.  This makes the whole top storey covered for the first time and enables there to be a small lobby outside what will become new offices.

We’re preparing to say au revoir for three months when we close in ten days time.  We’ll be keeping you informed of how the work progresses via this blog, so read on.