HOWE GREEN ACCESS COVERS TAKE THE SPOTLIGHT AT V&A MUSEUM

Beck Interiors has chosen Howe Green’s distinguished floor access covers to put the finishing touches to a prestigious refurbishment project at The Victoria & Albert (V&A) Museum’s Stained Glass and Sacred Silver Gallery.

The V&A cares for over 10,000 objects in silver and gold from many parts of the world. It houses some of the world’s most precious silver artefacts, and has more English silver and a greater range of objects than any other public collection worldwide.

Appointed as main contractors in March 2005, Beck Interiors is carrying out extensive refurbishment works at the Gallery and adjacent café area. This includes all structural, base works and coordination, plus the installation of steel frames and a false wall illuminated from the rear to house over 100 pieces of the stained glass collection.

Beck specified 32 stainless steel floor covers from Howe Green for the privately-funded project, to enable essential access to concealed electrical and mechanical services such as pipes and cables. The access panels are being laid in a modern terrazzo resin hard floor finish at the museum.

With the V&A’s floors set to be subject to heavy foot traffic from millions of annual visitors and tourists, a heavy duty and tamper-resistant access solution was required.

Chosen for their ‘stiletto-proof’ resistance and ability to cope with heavy pedestrian traffic, Howe Green’s 5000 series stainless steel floor covers were precision-made for the project to the exact dimensions required. Using Howe Green’s patented system, covers can be manufactured to any size or dimension at no extra cost.

Ensuring that the floor covers were aesthetically compatible with the V&A refurbishment works was an integral element of the project. As such, all that can be seen are stainless steel showedges which form a crisp outline on the resin flooring.

Due to their public-facing location, it was also essential that the covers fit perfectly flush with their surround in order to avoid distortion and prevent any slips or trips occurring for people using the facilities. Fitted quickly and unobtrusively, the covers are double-sealed to meet the highest standards of hygiene and security and are corrosion and maintenance-free.

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