Porcelain Facade - Leeds Bus Station

Shackerley’s SureClad® ceramic facade system has been installed at Leeds Bus Station. The lightweight cladding system was specified to provide an attractive ceramic rainscreen for the gable ends of the bus station building, as part of the £3.6m refurbishment.

The recent refurbishment project has involved new steelwork and canopies to create a more contemporary building, and the Shackerley SureClad® porcelain cladding system elevates the transport hub with a porcelain facade that complements the prestige of the adjacent historic Victoria Centre shopping arcade. The impervious Shackerley SureClad® ceramic facade is resistant to graffiti, algae, U/V and freeze-thaw conditions, so it will not discolour and will retain its high-end appearance, even in the demanding environment of a city centre bus station.

The mechanically fixed porcelain cladding system was installed by Rooksby Roofing using Shackerley’s Queen’s Award winning SureClad® Access system, which enables non-sequential installation of cladding panels. As the facade refurbishment had to be completed in a live transport environment with no interruption to bus services and a large degree of night-time working, non-sequential facade installation was a distinct advantage of using the Shackerley SureClad® Access mechanical fixing system for the ceramic facade. The ‘helping hand’ brackets that form part of the Shackerley SureClad® Access mechanical fixing system also helped the contractor to overcome the challenge of creating a straight and true ceramic facade, despite the out-of-plumb brickwork of the existing building.

The ceramic facade system was manufactured at one of Shackerley’s ISO 9001 certified factories in Lancashire, using site measurements to ensure the ceramic facade fits the legacy building exactly.

Alongside the standard large format cladding panels, Shackerley also produced a number of raked cladding panels and details for the sloped sections of the bus station roofline, along with cut-out sections where an ATM and digital bus departure time display boards will be retrofitted to the completed building. The layout of the ceramic facade panels also had to fit neatly with a powder-coated feature band that runs through each ceramic facade at the height of the new canopy structure.

Shackerley’s SureClad® ceramic facade system was specified in 1190 X 594 large format cladding panels as an alternative to concrete cladding, which was turned down by the planning authority. The cladding panels used for the project in two complementary shades of natural creamy-beige add to a wide variety of projects with Shackerley facades within the Leeds cityscape, including recent projects for Vita Student Living The project also builds on Shackerley’s track record at Leeds Bus Station, where we provided the ceramic tiles for the bus station’s floor around 20 years ago.

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Shackerley’s SureClad® ceramic cladding is the ideal ceramic rainscreen solution for any facade. The lightweight ceramic cladding system uses mechanically fixed large format cladding panels to create a ceramic facade that looks great on any building. Robust and hardwearing, the mechanical fixed cladding delivers a UV stable facade that will not fade or discolour over time. The SureClad® ceramic cladding system is UV resistant and creates a facade that is resistant to algae and graffiti. The large format

Ceramic cladding panels manufactured by Shackerley for our ceramic rainscreen system provide an installation-ready lightweight cladding, with undercut anchors for a mechanical fixed cladding solution that is secure and suitable for any porcelain facade design requirement.

Mechanical fixed facades means each panel is secured with secret fix undercut anchors and produced under factory conditions to achieve the project facade windload requirements

Shackerley’s SureClad® ceramic cladding answers the non combustible cladding requirements of BS EN13501-1. Our ceramic facade system is an A1 rated rainscreen. We offer a choice of A1 rated or A2 rated anti-fragmentation backing, resulting in an A1 rated ceramic facade or A2 S1 D0 cladding system.