External Flooring Improvements at Racecourse

Client Requirements

Newmarket Racecourse in Suffolk is one of the country’s premier racecourses and often referred to as the headquarters of British horse racing. Zenith was asked to make good the external flooring area within Newmarket’s Champagne Pavilion and prepare external steps leading to the pavilion.

Overview of Works

The main requirement was to make the flooring area watertight and ensure any ingress of rainwater would be drained away. This involved preparing the existing concrete by scabbling to abrade the surface, ensuring a strong mechanical key, and installing new plastic drainage channels. A 100mm thick polymer screed was supplied and laid by trowel onto the falls to the new drains, and a resin bonded coved skirting was installed.

Once the external flooring area was watertight, the client was then able to install a raised floor with a tiled finish.

The external steps leading to the pavilion needed to be both anti-slip and aesthetically pleasing. To achieve this, Zenith first prepared the steps using a handheld diamond grinder to provide suitable key. This was followed by the application of a single coat of an epoxy resin DPM damp proof primer, which was fully blinded using a graded quartz aggregate, providing the basis for the anti-slip property.

Finally, a coat of rapid curing polyurethane was applied in light grey, followed by yellow safety nosing in a similar material. As this area of the works is also partly external, all products used were UV stable.

Products and systems used:

• Floor area: 100mm thick polymer screed
• Plastic drainage channels
• Resin bonded coved skirting