In August 2022, Ziekenhuis Geel started the construction of four additional floors on top of the existing side wing of the rehabilitation center. For this construction project, the client is relying on Cordeel, which as the contractor is joining forces with Deschacht and Kingspan.
Ambitious construction project
Following an initial phase of preparatory works that started in June 2022, the actual construction of the new side wing of Ziekenhuis Geel began after the construction holiday. In the four extra floors on top of the existing side wing, the hospital is providing a new surgical day hospital, a clinical lab, and a completely new children's hospital. “The building's facade consists of concrete panels in two different colors, with Cordeel ensuring that the color of the new facade panels matches the current panels as closely as possible,” confirms Domien Engelen, Project Advisor at Deschacht.
Focus on fire safety
“Through a public procurement procedure, Deschacht was given the opportunity to contribute our expertise to this challenging construction project,” Domien states. “An important point of focus in this regard is the fire safety of the building. After all, extra conditions apply in a hospital when it comes to (fire) insulating material. If a fire were to break out, patients—some of whom have mobility issues—must be able to be evacuated in time.” “For cavity wall insulation, PIR is usually chosen; these are rigid foam boards that are structurally similar to PUR. However, this insulating material performs suboptimally in terms of fire safety, which places it in fire class E or F. For this construction project, we at Deschacht chose resol foam from Kingspan. This synthetic insulation material—known as Kooltherm—is based on phenolic resins. Of all synthetic insulation materials, it has the best insulation value, resulting in fire class B.”
Kooltherm as an ideal solution
“With Kooltherm resol rigid foam, we can offer Cordeel a top-quality product, featuring a lambda value from 0.021 W/(m·K), a slim application—and therefore less material required—and easy processing,” Domien confirms. “The collaboration between Deschacht and Kingspan has been running very smoothly for many years, which allows us to respond quickly to customer inquiries.”
Short lines of communication
For the Cordeel team as well, Deschacht has been a trusted partner for years. Domien: “They appreciate our open and transparent communication, coupled with the fact that we can deliver materials quickly at a fair price. The collaboration also went very smoothly for the Ziekenhuis Geel project. With short lines of communication between three partners, we often managed to deliver our Kingspan materials to the construction site within the requested delivery time.”
