The Towers, four newly refurbished residential blocks in Lichfield, Staffordshire, are set to keep their fresh new look for even longer thanks to the use of leading manufacturer Johnstone’s innovative new Self-Cleaning Masonry paint.
Located in the centre of Lichfield and close to the city’s main rail and road networks, the facades of the privately owned flats were showing signs of damage from years of weathering and pollution. To provide a paint specification that would help to minimise future maintenance requirements and redecoration costs, leading national contractor J & S Seddon (Painting) Ltd suggested the use of Johnstone’s Self-Cleaning Masonry paint in magnolia.
Carl Allcock, area manager of J & S Seddon’s Burton-on-Trent office, explains: “Cleaning, preparing and painting the exteriors of four tower blocks was no mean feat and so, both in terms of practicality and cost, it was vital that the need for frequent repainting was minimised. Johnstone’s Self-Cleaning Masonry paint was found to outperform other products on the market and the long-term benefits it offers in addition to its ease of application and quality of finish, made it ideally suited for such a challenging contract.”
Key to the product’s specification was its 15-year guarantee, with the paint’s self-cleaning properties ensuring that after one application, the buildings’ exteriors will retain their aesthetic appeal for longer without the need to be repainted or refreshed.
Owing to the project’s urban location, it was also vital that the masonry coating selected would be able to protect the exterior facades from the damaging effects of pollution. As Johnstone’s Self-Cleaning Masonry Paint has undergone stringent anti-carbonation tests to successfully meet the standards of Class 1 of the EN ISO 7783-2 accreditation, it provides a durable protective finish and is suitable for application on a variety of substrates including cement rendering, rough cast, brick and concrete.
Johnstone’s Stormshield Self-Cleaning Masonry Paint is the first UK product to use advanced nanotechnology and features microscopic nano particles, which at one billionth of a metre are invisible to the human eye. It is these tiny particles that adhere to the surface, transforming the normal crater landscape into an extremely smooth finish that dust and dirt simply can’t stick to.
Touch-dry in one hour, Johnstone’s Stormshield Self-Cleaning Masonry Paint can be applied using a brush or roller and as it is water-based, is fully compliant with the new VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) legislation that will come into effect in 2010. As well as being environmentally responsible the new paint also maintains its flexibility without chalking and is available a choice of over 6,000 colours through the use of Johnstone’s market leading tinting machines.