Balcony decking replacement at Concordia Street, Leeds, completed by Axis Group, delivering fire-safe balconies to the residents

Amidst the building safety crisis, many conscientious building owners and property managers are seeking futureproof and cost-effective solutions to ensure their buildings are up to standard with the current regulations. In a time where multi-storey multi-occupancy buildings are undergoing stringent review, many within the industry now recognise aluminium decking as the new de facto standard for balconies, terraces and walkways.

AliDeck recently visited a balcony decking replacement project in Leeds. Originally planned as a cladding refurbishment process, the balconies were also included to satisfy EWS1 concerns for the residents within the building.

Working alongside Axis Group, AliDeck were proud to supply products to such a major project. Located on the banks of the River Aire, The Quays apartment building offers superb views for the residents across the third-largest city in the UK. To many of the leaseholders, their balconies are a private outdoor living space to enjoy the fresh air and a key amenity for their quality of life.

AliDeck maintain a great relationship with the team at Axis and they look to specify us for any jobs that involve decking work. Across the refurbishment process we carried out several site visits to guarantee a successful outcome, working closely with Axis at all times to ensure the smooth and hassle-free running of the project.

Early meetings to map out the scope of the job and the materials requirements were followed up by site visits in which the AliDeck team provided installation training to the site crew. This project saw the use of our Senior Board in conjunction with our Low Joist and Supa Joist. Both of these joists are custom engineered for compatibility with the entire range of AliDeck aluminium deck boards, but each design serves a core purpose. A versatile design allows them to be used flat-facing or side-on to meet a variety of build-up heights.

The joists were notched and set into the steel frame to provide the most flexibility. In the CAD drawing provided above, you can see the Low Joist has been used on its side to achieve the longer span of almost 1500mm required on the project and is also notched and set within the steel framework. This allows the decking to be fitted level to the top of the steel frame, to meet the pre-existing build-up requirements.

We worked alongside Axis to design 6 unique bracket connections (A – F) in order to support the required build heights and support the board installations to the steel framework. Some of the brackets were used to join the inside face of the parallel flange channel (PFC), while others were used to rest upon steels and support the joist in place.

There are a number of corner apartments on the block that boast larger, L-shaped balconies. In order to manoeuvre around the building edges without compromising the structural integrity of the boards, they were cut to length and width. In order to minimise the quantity of board needed while maintaining a consistent and horizontal aesthetic on both sides of the balcony decking, Axis installed the second run of Senior Boards adjacent to the first.

Another excellent project completed with a fantastic outcome achieved thanks to our absolute commitment to close collaboration and customer support across this process. We look forward to working on future projects with Axis Group as we continue to supply fire-safe and futureproof aluminium decking boards to balconies across the UK & Ireland.

If you have an upcoming balcony remediation project that you would like to discuss with us in-depth to find the most suitable and cost-effective solutions, please call us on 01622 235 672 or email info@alideck.co.uk.