Mapei floor preparation and fixing products have featured as part of a net zero carbon in operation school project at Winterstoke Hundred Academy secondary school in Somerset. Works carried out by Flortec included installation of Forbo vinyl flooring throughout the new building. The construction was carried out by Kier, for North Somerset Council and the educational trust the Cabot Learning Federation. The project was funded through Homes England’s Housing Infrastructure Fund.

Winterstoke Hundred Academy is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form located in Weston-super-Mare. The new building, at Locking Parklands, provides an investment in the future of the region, increasing intake by 900 school places across years 7 to 11, with the sixth form provision accommodated in the original building. It was designed to achieve a BREEAM ‘excellent’ rating and protected local plants and wildlife through a biodiversity net gain of 10%.  It includes solar panels, which will power the classrooms and bike storage areas to encourage more sustainable travel, and the school aims for carbon neutrality by 2030.  Forbo designs specified included Sphera Element homogeneous vinyl flooring, Sphera SD anti-static vinyl flooring, Surestep Original safety flooring and Safestep R12 safety flooring.

During the flooring installation, Mapei Eco Prim T Plus universal acrylic primer was used to treat the substrates. Mapei Latexplan Trade – a protein-free, low odour levelling and smoothing compound – and Ultraplan Renovation Screed 3240 fibre-reinforced self levelling compound were used to prepare subfloors, along with Mapeproof One Coat surface damp proof membrane. Two Mapei adhesives, featuring solvent-free and very low VOC formulations, were used to complete the flooring installation. They included multi-purpose adhesive, Ultrabond Eco Fix and Ultrabond Eco TX3 wet grab adhesive.