Estover Community Campus is one of the biggest investments for children and young people in Plymouth in the last decade. 441 Leaderflush Shapland Designer and Extended Performance doorsets were specified for the £28m project which is due for completion late 2010. It will create a home for Estover Community College; Estover Primary School, Plymbridge Children’s Centre and Nursery School, the Soundhouse, Estover Library, Estover Youth Centre, part of Plymouth Hospital School and Downham School.

Features include flexible space to allow classrooms to change size and shape, breakout areas, an amphitheatre for hosting outdoor performances, dedicated wings for subjects such as design and arts and information technology, and open plan internal and external dining spaces alongside mezzanine areas. An inner courtyard area will act as the heart of the campus and a central link to all of the facilities.

The doorsets were laminate faced in a range of colours and specified to meet performance characteristics of 60 minute fire resistance and 38 RwdB sound reduction. Leaderflush Shapland’s revolutionary hand and finger protection solution, Sentinel was also specified, which prevents fingers from getting into the hinge area of the door. ROSPA reports that 30,000 children trap and seriously injure their fingers in doors each year. Sentinel is aesthetically pleasing, robust, cannot be easily damaged or pulled off and complies with British Standards for accessibility.

Further innovations include EnduraCor - Leaderflush Shapland’s engineered performance doorset core whose durability and strength is especially suited to withstanding such harsh environments. Independent testing showed EnduraCor to be 100 times more durable than multi-layered chipboard cores. EnduraCor achieved 2,000,000 cycles during the test, 1,000,000 more than the requirements of EN1191 class 8 - this easily equates to the number of door opening occurrences throughout the lifespan of a busy school building. This highly cost-effective solution may never have to be replaced and could significantly reduce ‘whole life’ repair and maintenance costs.

Main contractor Kier's Dafydd Hollyman commented that; "As Project Director for Estover Community Campus I was impressed by the quality of the workmanship and materials within the doorsets supplied by Leaderflush Shapland. It was also great to include some real innovation on this flag-ship scheme such as the use of Sentinel, Leaderflush Shapland's finger trap protection system, which made installation easy and has provided a neat solution in high risk areas of the Campus".

Email: marketing@leaderflushshapland.co.uk