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February 2016

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FEBRUA RY 2016 | 21 Restoration Products & Services PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY ARRISCRAFT INTERNATIONAL Spray foam insulation is another product that is being increasingly used on res- toration and retrofit projects. "People like foam insulation because of the air seal- ing. It is almost as important as R-value. A small hole or leak area will nullify the insulation you have in that space," says Gene Goodreau, president and CEO of Eco Insulation Franchising Inc. and secretary treasurer of the Canadian Urethane Foam Contractors Association (CUFCA). The company, along with its five franchise outlets in Ontario, provides foam insu- lation installation services, but also offers clients other insulation products. "Many structures can benefit from multiple types of insulation," Goodreau says. Whether it's modern, ambitiously-designed office buildings or an older building with complex and irregular angles, foam insulation in such applications can cost less than rigid foam, says Bruce Young, Canadian regional sales director with Icynene Inc. "Because of the closed cell insulation we use, which combines insulation, vapour and air barrier, it saves some steps, therefore, time and money," he says. A recent project that merged heritage preservation with modern design used Icynene's MD-C-200 closed-cell insulation. Located in downtown Halifax, the RBC Waterside Centre is the city's first "Class A" space in over 20 years, Young says. The design combines the site's original facade while adding additional floorspace for a total floor area of about 100,000 square feet. The project is on track for LEED Gold certification. Technical craftsmanship, as well as technology and engineering played a criti- cal role in another development that involved heritage facade and, in this case mov- ing them as well; part of a Brookfield Properties project in downtown Toronto. "The facades had to be saved, so a role at key locations at Yonge and Temperance Streets was made for them," says Donovan Pauly, conservator at Clifford Restoration Limited. Before the two facades were moved in large sections (some of them 11-by-14 feet) to other locations on the site, shotcrete, to a thickness of about six inches, was sprayed on the back face after first removing the finishes. "We had to drill hun- dreds of holes. Stainless steel rebars that were custom bent were inserted and held in place with epoxy glue. They protruded about four inches. Wire ropes embed- ded in the shotcrete and woven into the pattern of the rebar were used for lifting the facades," Pauly says. Although he adds, "This kind of project hasn't been done before around here." Clifford Restoration had carried out similar work in the past, however Pauly comments that "the scale was larger than on any other project with a comparable approach." When it comes to stone, Arriscraft's products are unmatched in the restoration sector. In the 1950s the company pioneered its environmentally natural process tech- nology. Using all-natural ingredients of sand, calcium silicate and limestone that nat- urally react and bind, Arriscraft's stone products provide a remarkable authenticity. "It's the quality of Arriscraft's products and the company's ability to customize colour that makes it such a success for historical restoration specifically, and just like quarried stone, it doesn't break down or fade," says Marta Zonneveld, market- ing manager at Arriscraft. In fact the company's unique blending process and production technology at its laboratories can blend colours to create near perfect matches to older natural stone. "Our stone products look like a quarried stone in terms of texture, appearance and performance, which makes it extremely unique," adds Zonneveld. In 2015 alone, Arriscraft worked on several restoration projects across North America. One of those projects was Miami University – one of the oldest public uni- versities in the U.S. "Arriscraft was challenged to make a custom colour that would perfectly suit the existing, early 19th-century stone already in place. Arriscraft refined one of the standard Fresco Building Stone colours to be a better match than the quarried stone option," explains Zonneveld. Other notable restoration projects include Virginia Tech in the U.S. that used a custom colour and bond pattern of Arriscraft's Cumberland Building Stone to rep- licate its iconic Hokie stone, only available at a local quarry. Arriscraft also contin- ued its work in 2015 at the University of Western Ontario, using a custom colour of Laurier Building Stone (see below) and Renaissance Masonry Units to match existing historic buildings. Looking ahead, Arriscraft is working on a number of high profile universities, as well as regular restoration projects for which both their full-bed and thin-clad stone products are ideal. A

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