Rutland Mills, Wakefield

• Building Type: Commercial
• Main Contractor: Morgan Sindall Construction
• Subcontractors: KAM Electrical / Cool Air / Morley Vent
• Services: Electrical Containment / HVAC

Rutland Mills was completed in 2024 and is included within Tileyard North's 135,000 sq. ft masterplan. Tileyard North has become the UK’s largest creative community outside of London helping to boost Wakefield’s creative industries.

Tileyard North is a historic complex of nineteenth century mill buildings in Wakefield which had been derelict for 20 years. As part of the refurbishment, the developer was able to retain over 80% of the original building fabric. Morgan Sindall Construction was then appointed as main contractor to deliver Rutland Mills, a four-storey new build office development as part of the wider scheme.

As main contractor for this project, Morgan Sindall Construction's team would typically appoint 'fire watchers' throughout any new build site to ensure all hot works are performed in a safe manner to comply with building regulations. Hot works can involve the use of angle grinders and other equipment which apply heat to prepare building materials on-site. From an M&E perspective, this can involve various subcontractors cutting threaded rod, channel and other materials into specific lengths so they can be used to suspend building services. Gripple's range of M&E suspension solutions are manufactured in Sheffield and are prefabricated prior to being delivered to site.

Morgan Sindall Construction opted to use Gripple on this project as they were able to eliminate the requirement for hot works permits and fire watchers as all wire and track suspension systems supplied by Gripple are ready to be installed straight from the box with no material preparation needed.

Gripple's innovative Fast Trak system was installed throughout by subcontractor KAM Electrical to suspend cable tray from the metal decking on each floor. Fast Trak is made up of a prefabricated slotted channel, whilst a patented 'Track' and 'Cartridge' allows you to safely install a complete trapeze bracket up to six times faster than traditional rod and strut. On the top floor of the building, various subcontractors utilised Gripple's UniGrip wire rope kits to suspend air conditioning units and electrical containment from the purlins above.

For every metre of Gripple wire rope specified to replace threaded rod, it is estimated that a saving of 1.2 kg of embodied carbon is made. This equates to a total embodied carbon saving of up to 95% when switching from threaded rod to Gripple wire rope. This installation method ensured a quick, sustainable and cost effective way to install services on-site at Rutland Mills.

In summary, Morgan Sindall Construction was able to deliver a faster and safer building schedule as subcontractors were able to drastically reduce manual handling of building materials and much less time was spent working at height due to Gripple's quicker installation method. The carbon footprint of the site was also reduced as hot works permits, fire watchers and power tools such as handheld angle grinders were not required for suspending M&E services.