The Eurostar train is a showcase of modern design and performance being brought together to create something truly amazing, so good in fact that it competes well with any of the airlines through Europe. The new St Pancras International Terminal was created with quality and luxury in mind with no detail overlooked, comparable to the standards of airports.
The 800-million-pound project needed roughly 6, 000sqm of FSC certified Jatoba solid wood flooring which is believed to be the largest solid wood flooring installation in the UK in 2007! This wooden flooring was used in the departure and arrivals halls where top quality was a must have.
The architects in charge of the project chose to use WOCA surface treatments and maintenance products which they both manufacture and supply in Denmark. By using these products they set a standard for the quality of the finish for wood floors in Europe.
It was with great pleasure that on November 6th, 2007 that the Queen would open the St Pancras International Terminal in London. The importance of her visit highlighted the key of attention to detail and quality of them job at hand which it is expected that millions will have the pleasure of passing through each year.
WOCA's contributionWOCA who are known as “Trip Trap” in Denmark are one of the major world manufacturers of real wood flooring products such as maintenance products and treatments in particular for heavy traffic projects such as St Pancras International.
Before the decision was made to go with WOCA products the architect team along with the design team visited Copenhagen Airport as a similar floor had been fitted there and in service for close to two decades. This wood flooring had been treated with WOCA oils and maintained using WOCA maintenance products.
The team took what they had learned from Copenhagen Airport and came up with an oil treatment and protection plan to suit the proposed flooring. Like all wood flooring even oak flooring a protection plan was needed.
Surface treatment for St PancrasThe solid FSC Jatoba wood flooring needed to be machined, once this had been done and the flooring had been fitted the ladder bordered floor was ready to be belt sanded with 100 grit abrasion. To eliminate sanding marks and achieve a great finish on the cross beams they were then hand abraded. Once this was done two coats of high solid natural WOCA master oil were applied then on top of that a final coat of WOCA maintenance oil was applied.
To achieve the high quality finish that was needed for this project a unique oiling and buffering technique needed to be used. This was done using Dane Care special discs on the 2nd and 3rd wet coat, this achieved a very fine and hard wearing finish of a very good quality.
There was some time between the floor having its final finishing and the grand opening and since there were trades people inside the building walking around, the floor would need a complete re-oiling to keep it fresh with the perfect finish. As a result the team looked to WOCA again who produced their product the WOCA oil refresher. This is applied just like their other product the WOCA master soap but the advantage of the refresher is that it has the ability to remove dirt and also to restore the floor to the condition it was in once the floor was just finished and add an added level of protection.
Thanks to the WOCA products the Jatoba flooring was finished well in time and in excellent condition for the Queen. The WOCA team noted that in her speech the Queen commented on how impressed she was with the attention to detail after she walked around on the completed St Pancras International termainal.