The building features six classrooms on the ground floor and six on the top floor with external stairwells on two sides of the building. There is also a large first floor balcony, and an additional smaller balcony on the rear of the building with a sink for students to wash paint brushes and other equipment. Balustrades were needed for all these areas to meet Ministry of Education guidelines and keep students and staff safe.

Working with UNEX, the GHD Woodhead team specified 100LM of the heavy-duty ‘Finline’ postless balustrade for the project. Custom vertical 60 x 16mm aluminium fins were fixed along a channel system for both balustrades and stairs, with an interlinking side rail fixed off fins at stairs. The modern, vertical style of Finline makes it an ideal choice for adding visual interest to buildings, and offers options for side fixing. In this case the channel system was side fixed to steel PFC using M8 bolts via aluminium cylindrical spacers.

The level of support UNEX provided earned them a new client, with Petar already specifying them for another school project. “They’re solutions-focused,” he says. “When we had a problem, their main engineer and owner would come. They have intimate knowledge of the product so we could find a resolution then and there. I really like that. That’s how you earn trust.”