Wire Basket fits pace and looks at prestigious office refurbishment

23-07-2018

Marshall-Tufflex’s Fast-Coupling Wire Basket ensured a quick installation at a prestigious South London office redevelopment.

The multi-million pound Edinburgh House Project, located in Kennington’s conservation area, has seen the complete refurbishment of a 1960’s office block into a spacious, contemporary workspace complete with a south-facing central atrium, café, seating areas and a conference suite.

Thousands of metres of Marshall-Tufflex 65mm Fast-Coupling Wire Basket have been installed at the three-storey site, along with 700 bespoke floor boxes and accessories. All wire basket and floor boxes are exposed so needed to match the look of the high specification interior.

Electrical contractor Andrew Aird of Sapphire Mechanical & Electrical Services, Forest Row, said: “Our specification was for a good value product from a market-leading manufacturer. Marshall-Tufflex’s products fitted the bill. In particular the floor boxes were unique as we used a grey powder coated steel option that fitted the bespoke look on this project. Fitting went very smoothly. I was also really pleased with the Wire Basket’s connection system, which made it quick and easy to install.”

Made from steel, with an electro-zinc finish, the basket system is strong but lightweight with a unique rippled design to enhance strength. It offers easy threading of cables and increased load capacity with resistance to flexing, as well as an excellent aesthetic finish. Most importantly the baskets assemble in just two steps using integral couplers. Couplers are pre-fabricated so there is no need to screw and bolt lengths together. This super-fast installation improves efficiency on site and reduces labour intensity, which was of huge value to the electrical contractors working on the re-fit.

Supplied by BEW Electrical Distributors in Gatwick, the Fast-Coupling Wire Basket system can be manipulated to overcome complicated changes in direction and is corrosion and fire resistant (class E90 compliant).

The high quality Marshall-Tufflex floor boxes, providing power and data to desk areas, have 3mm thick standard support plates that tolerate high traffic levels, while the sub-frame does not restrict wiring space and allows for fine adjustments to be made to accommodate uneven flooring. This meant that the products could be cleverly adapted to address any challenges.

Mr Aird added: “In a couple of areas we had a challenge with minimal floor void space, but we were able to use the angled plates and shallower underfloor boxes to overcome this, which was really helpful. We would definitely use these products again.” 

Edinburgh House is due for completion this summer.