Nearly 600 PVC-U tilt-turn windows in the Profile 22 system were chosen for The Gateway, a £22million student accommodation in Lincoln.

The work was carried out in line with strict deadlines, and the project was completed in good time ready for the beginning of the academic year.

The tilt-turn windows were fabricated by Profile 22’s Approved Window Contractor, Polar Windows, using the fully chamfered system, foiled with smooth finish RAL 7016 Anthracite grey as a special order to colour match the aluminium design scheme. The main contractor on the eight-storey building was Kier Construction Central for The Gateway (Lincoln) Ltd, a JT venture partnership between Jackson and Jackson and Richardson Capital LLP, working with Stem Architects. The mixture of studio apartments and cluster flats are used by students at the University of Lincoln.

As well as achieving the specified acoustic ratings of 39 Db reduction and a U-Value of 1.4 W/m²K, solar control glazing was used in the mainly east, south and west facing elevations to limit the solar gain to G-0.4. Meanwhile, the windows were further weatherproofed with EPDM membranes to ensure an airtight seal against bad weather.

Logistics for the installation were particularly challenging, as Alan Crowe, managing director, of Chesterfield-based Polar Windows, explained: “It was essentially a lot of work to be done in a little space because of its city centre location. Deliveries had to be meticulously timed and a crane had to be installed and removed with minimum impact on traffic. It also meant we had to liaise especially closely with the main contractor and other trades to ensure everything ran smoothly.”

Polar Windows has been a Profile 22 Approved Window Contractor for many years. As such, the company had extensive support from the Profile 22 specification team for The Gateway project on matters such as drawings and wind loading calculations. Alan Crowe said this was particularly valuable given that Polar had design liability on the contract, so needed to be much more proactive in getting the detail of the windows right to achieve the required specification.

Andrew Reid, commercial sales director at Profile 22, commented: “Together Profile 22 and Polar Windows worked on the designs to ensure that every need was catered for and the end-result was sympathetic towards the original design of the building. Profile 22’s Approved Window Contractors network is designed to make everything as easy as possible for clients, giving them access to contractors whom have the right experience and accreditations to get the project right first time backed up by full support from their specification and technical teams at Profile 22.”

Further information on Profile 22 can be found at www.profile22.co.ukStudent Aco