The brand new Morgan Stanley Building at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital has benefitted from the high performance and durability qualities of leading paint manufacturer Johnstone’s Acrylic Durable Matt paint.
The building is the first of two that will form the Mittal Children’s Medical Centre and boasts excellent environmental credentials, with sustainability central to the design and construction of the building. It will provide modern inpatient wards for children with acute conditions and chronic illnesses, state-of-the-art operating theatres and enhanced diagnostic facilities.
The project had a decorating value of £1.2 million and was one of the largest ever undertaken by Northamptonshire-based MJM (Painters & Decorators) Ltd.
Ordinarily, the company works on projects with decorating values of nearer £100,000 to £600,000 so this project put its long-term planning and logistical skills to the test.
At the outset of the project just two decorators were present on site, but for a three-month period towards the end of the project, there were in excess of 40 professional decorators working nine-hour days in order to meet the strict deadline. These highly skilled decorators put their trust in Johnstone’s Acrylic Durable Matt paint to provide the building’s hallways, stairwells, staff rooms and main cafe with a highly durable finish that provides the perfect solution for combating the high levels of traffic that a hospital has to contend with.
The vast majority of the Acrylic Durable Matt was used in Brilliant White, however a handful of areas, such as the reception area, parent sitting room and play areas, were given a splash of colour in the form of bright blues and greens, while calming colours such as soft yellows and muted duck eggs have been used in the quiet zones.
Andrew McCarthy, Contracts Manager at MJM (Painters & Decorators) Ltd, comments: “This was the first time we had used Johnstone’s Acrylic Durable Matt and it’s fair to say that everyone involved with the project was hugely impressed with the quality of the finish it provided. When applying acrylic paints in the past, we have noticed that you can see the imperfections in substrate and finish.
"However, with Johnstone’s Acrylic Durable Matt, it provided such a perfect, flat finish that we were all left shocked at how good it was.
“We were so impressed with the product that we have already used it on a number of other projects, such as care homes and sports complexes, and look forward to using it on many more.”
Johnstone’s Joncryl Water Based Primer Undercoat and Acrylic Gloss were used on all of the building’s woodwork, such as window boards, skirting, door frames and doors, to provide them with a high opacity finish that is quick drying and non-yellowing.
In addition, Johnstone’s Two Pack Epoxy Solvent Based Floor Paint was used on the floors of the building’s plant rooms, in order to provide them with an abrasion and impact-resistant finish.
