ITV Television Studios – Manchester

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION FOR SIKA’S HIGH PERFORMANCE FLOORING; A Sika flooring system has provided the perfect platform from which to film Britain’s longest running soap. 

When the construction of ITV’s new studios called for perfectly smooth anti-static floors to facilitate the fluid and safe movement of HD camera equipment, architects Jenkins Design worked alongside Stewart Draper, owner of resin floor installers Zircon Flooring Ltd, to devise an innovative solution utilising Sika’s high-performance, self-smoothing, epoxy resin floors.

Designed for use in areas with sensitive electronic equipment, the system, comprised of Sikafloor®-Level 30 and solvent-free, anti-static Sikafloor®-262 AS, was expertly applied by Sika approved industrial flooring contractor Zircon Flooring across four studios totalling 3,800m2.

Zircon Flooring have a wealth of experience in delivering HD TV studio quality flooring and worked closely with main contractor Mace throughout the three month installation in Salford, Manchester. The finished floor was flat to within 1mm over a 3m straightedge, which exceeds British Standards.

Adrian Bleasdale, Project Leader at ITV, said: “We found the teams at Zircon Flooring and Sika easy to work with and proactive, and the finished floors are absolutely fit for purpose.”

Richard Kay, Sika Flooring Area Manager for the North West region, said; “ITV Studios may be home to the world’s most famous cobbles, but behind the scenes studio floors are required to be perfectly smooth to ensure the very highest standards of filming. We were delighted to deliver one of our flooring systems to such an iconic project in conjunction with our highly skilled approved contractor Zircon Flooring, who delivered a first class project.”

Stewart Draper, Managing Director at Zircon Flooring, and his team – which included son Keelan Draper who has recently achieved the NVQ3 in situ resin floor qualification from FeFRA, the resin flooring association, delivered the project to schedule and budget.

Stewart added: “Given the state-of-the-art equipment found in studios it is important to opt for flooring systems with anti-static features to prevent electrostatic discharges from operatives damaging sensitive electronic components. Having worked closely with Sika over the past decade we have got TV studio flooring off to a fine art and the finished floor in grey looks absolutely stunning.”

This project was shortlisted and won FeRFA project of the year in 2014.