Category: JACKOBOARD®

JACKOBOARD®, the market-leading brand of construction boards and tiling backerboards from BEWI, has helped notch up a major win at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show.

Working with the multi-award winning G.K. Wilson Landscape Services led by Company Director Gareth Wilson, JACKOBOARD® products have been a key element in the RBC Brewin Dolphin Garden, which has won a Silver Gilt Medal at the Show.

Designed by the celebrated garden designer Paul Hervey-Brookes, the garden features walls down two sides (totalling 90 square metres), which are tiled with 10mm Caledonian Stone Dover Taupe porcelain wall tiles 1m x 1m in size.

With the use of a diverse range of plants which themselves cost £45,000, the garden was designed to appeal to a young couple with a lifetime theme. It created an absolutely stunning impression and was a worthy winner at this year’s Show. The combination of the walls, the porcelain paving, water features and ceramic sculptures – and of course the amazing floral displays, ensured that the RBC Brewin Dolphin Garden would create the best possible impression with the judges.

JACKOBOARD® XPS Construction Board provided the ideal backing for the tiling work, due to its high bond strength, high weight supporting, lightweight and waterproof characteristics and the fact that it is very easy to cut and shape on site creating no dust or other mess.

“Our landscaping team are specialised in helping clients achieve the garden design and landscaping themes of their dreams. We went with JACKOBOARD® following an industry recommendation,” says Gareth Wilson, company director of G. K. Wilson Landscape Services. “We were advised that the company was reliable and good to work with. That has certainly turned out to be the case – and that is at least as important as the quality of the products, which cannot be faulted in our experience. I would like to thank JACKOBOARD® very much for their support in sponsoring us and also congratulate them for being a part of our success.”

JACKOBOARD® is supporting The Tiling Association (TTA) Awards again this year through its commitment as a Gold sponsor. In fact JACKOBOARD® was the first brand to commit to supporting this year’s Awards, immediately after the conclusion of the 2022 event.

JACKOBOARD® has been a sponsor of TTA Awards in the past, since it strongly supports the Awards’ values of excellence and achievement – and the team is very much looking forward to this year’s Awards, which will be held on 12th May in Birmingham.

“The Awards night and Tiling Show is a fabulous opportunity to acknowledge the efforts of the JACKOBOARD® team in the UK and meet great friends from the industry,” says Michael Hailwood, Business Unit Director – BEWI. “We were honoured to be finalists in 2022 amongst some great brands in the world of tiling. Mike McCann dressed as a giant bee was a particular highlight! We are now very much looking forward to the 2023 event, where again we will be Gold sponsors”.

Speaking for TTA, Chairman Paul Luff said: “We were pleased to see the return of JACKOBOARD® as the first Gold sponsor of the 2023 Awards. Having major industry brands on board from the start of the planning for 2023 was a real endorsement to the success of the day. Without this valuable backing TTA Awards would not be what they are.”

Manufactured with an extruded polystyrene (XPS) foam core and a special coating on both sides, JACKOBOARD® construction boards form an ideal base for tiling.

JACKOBOARD® products have been used on the Native Manchester hotel project, which has been voted ‘The Sunday Times Best Hotel 2019 in the North of England’. A Grade II listed building, the hotel is marketed as Manchester’s coolest hangout.

JACKOBOARD® played its part in achieving the project’s success because the company’s high performance construction boards provide the flexibility to meet modern requirements in bathroom design. What might have once been considered just a washroom is now elevated to a private wellness oasis. In recent years, the demands placed on bathroom finishes have changed dramatically to allow refurbished bathrooms to shine like new with flexible and high-quality renovations.

According to Michael Hailwood, Business Unit Director of BEWI, ‘Native Manchester is a spectacular building based in the heart of Manchester, a stone’s throw from Piccadilly. At its beating heart is a fabulous atrium, great bar and restaurant and complemented by beautifully designed and appointed apartments.’

Michael explains that there is a twist to the story of the building, since he was involved in a previous project on the same site.

‘This is the second time I’ve been involved in the refurbishment of this iconic building,’ he says. ‘The first time was almost 20 years ago, when as a much younger Contracts Specification Manager, I supplied the tiles which were fixed by one of Manchester’s finest, Fitts & Chadwick.’

Michael concludes, ‘I’m delighted to say that JACKOBOARD® wetroom systems and waterproof boards were used second time around for the 168 bathrooms in the hotel, supplied by the renowned Euxton Tiles and fixed by GF Holdings prior to the same company carrying out the tiling work.’

This amazing swimming pool refurbishment project in Knutsford, Cheshire was undertaken by Abstract Pools Ltd. Tiles from Designworks and more than 100 JACKOBOARD® construction boards were used.

Manufactured with an extruded polystyrene (XPS) foam core and a special coating on both sides, JACKOBOARD® construction boards form an ideal base for tiling. The surfaces of the JACKOBOARD® system provide an extremely strong bond and can be used on virtually any substrate. The boards are waterproof, thermally insulating, truly lightweight and very strong. This combination of characteristics makes them ideal for pool hall work. The result of this refurbishment is absolutely stunning and the owners of the property are delighted unsurprisingly.

The owner was abroad while the renovation was carried out. The pool was situated in the basement of the house and had been left empty for a few years. The contractor was tasked with refurbishing the pool hall and bringing it back to life. They stripped everything back to the existing substrate, and then rendered and screeded the pool itself, the jacuzzi and the pool surrounds.

A new steam room was added, using JACKOBOARD®. All of the pool hall walls were lined with JACKOBOARD®, ready to receive tiles. All tiles on this project were supplied by Designworks Tiles, the specialists in tiles and mosaics for swimming pools and spas. The tiles used on the project were Ezarri Lisa Black Mosaic for the pool tank, District Grey 1200x600x10mm for the pool hall walls, District Dark Grey for the pool coping tiles and District silver 600x600x10mm for the pool floor surround.

The feature tiles on the wall with the water fountains were actual volcanic tiles giving a spectacular feature. Glazed screens were installed to separate the pool hall from the living and games area. More volcanic tiles behind the wine rack were used to create further impact.

In total the project used more than 100 JACKOBOARD® construction boards, together with washers and joint tape. The clients were absolutely thrilled with the results on their return home. Anybody looking at the pictures can easily see why they would be very impressed with this outstanding project.

JACKOBOARD® offers many benefits for installers of wetrooms and bathrooms. JACKOBOARD® is a waterproof, weight-loading and thermally insulating construction board for use in all types of tiling jobs.

Critically, because it is manufactured from 100% waterproof XPS, there is no need to tank wetrooms constructed using JACKOBOARD®, either with a waterproof membrane or a paint-on solution. This saves the installer both time and money, since a separate tanking system is not required and only the joints where the boards meet need to be taped.

The NHBC Standard states that “backing surfaces may require protection from a suitable tanking system”.

“This guidance is completely correct,” says Martin Harragan from BEWI, “but it should not be interpreted to mean that if you are using an XPS backerboard, such as JACKOBOARD®, you have to tank the entire substrate of your wetroom. The closed structure of an XPS board means that it is totally impossible for water to pass through it, in the way that it would through a fibre cement board for instance.”

JACKOBOARD® is keen to communicate this message to the many different trades who get involved in the installation of wetroom systems, from the shower tray upwards. Although there are wetroom specialists, this job is often down to plumbers, M&E contractors, tilers, dryliners and flooring contractors. So, as wetrooms continue to increase in popularity, there are different trades who need to be aware of the benefits of XPS backerboards.

While offering the benefits of XPS, JACKOBOARD® can also offer a price advantage in the marketplace, due to the fact that the company manufactures its own foam, giving it complete control over cost, product quality and sustainability of manufacturing processes. These factors have enabled JACKOBOARD® to become the UK market leader in XPS construction boards.