BATHSHACK has recently invested in excess of £200,000 in opening a brand-new showroom on the Boucher Road in Belfast, which will create four jobs for the area.

The 8,000 square foot showroom, which officially opened in mid-July, is the company’s sixth showroom and joins a list of established stores in towns and cities right across Ireland including Ballymena, Dargan Crescent, Belfast, Lisburn, Dublin and Cork.

Boasting a full range of bathroom tiles, flooring and supplies, Peter Dunlop, Managing Director at Bathshack claims that the company’s latest expansion is part of a longer-term plan to increase showrooms across Ireland and Great Britain.

“At Bathshack, we believe in a hybrid model of showrooms and that e-commerce is the right model for the bathroom market,” Peter said. “Our Boucher Road showroom is part of our longer-term plan to increase our showroom locations across Ireland and Great Britain.”

Explaining how Brexit has impacted the company, Peter explained; “Brexit for Bathshack has offered opportunities as well as challenges, but we’ve been extremely proactive, opening our own warehouse, sourcing direct from Europe, hiring more people and all of this has stood us in good stead. As a result, our exports are performing well with the Republic of Ireland accounting for 70 per cent of export sales. Our trade with GB is also performing well, particularly with our online sales, which has grown fivefold in the last three years in this area.”

Alongside the opening of a new showroom, Bathshack is also working on a number of new housing developments across Northern Ireland.

Students from South West College have been awarded the Construction Industry Training Board NI (CITB NI) inaugural bursary award aimed at encouraging school leavers to consider a career in construction and undertake a third level Built Environment related qualification. 12 first year, full time students from across Northern Ireland, were awarded £1000 towards the cost of their training. 

South West College students Callum Snow, Emer Condon and Padraic Rodgers  who are studying Civil Engineering Foundation Degree were the recipients of the  CITB NI bursary. To qualify applicants must have applied to study a third level Built Environment related qualification at Level 4 or above with a Northern Ireland training provider. Following the completion of an application form, applicants were entered into a draw for one of the 12 awards.

The bursary scheme 2021 will open to applicants from 9^th August, terms and conditions apply. With such varied and wide-ranging opportunities,  a career in construction is challenging, exciting and rewarding. From the design, construction and maintenance of buildings and infrastructure projects such as bridges, roads, tunnels, waterways, etc. Construction boasts a variety of careers including skilled trades, IT, marketing, project management, design and much more. New emerging digital technologies are rapidly changing the Built Environment landscape.  With Building Information Modelling, Drone usage and Augmented Reality/ Virtual Reality, Computer Aided Design (CAD) and even nanotechnology on the rise, companies are actively seeking to recruit people with these skills.

Congratulating the students awarded the inaugural Built Environment Bursary Award, CITB NI Chief Executive, Barry Neilson said:

“ CITB NI is delighted to award 12 students with our inaugural Built Environment Bursary Award for third level students. This is fantastic support for undergraduates who have completed their first year. We hope that this support helps students on their built environment career journey.  The bursary will reopen for applicants on 9^th August 2021 and the process is simple. All applicants need to do is visit our website, ensure they meet the criteria set out in the terms and conditions, fill in and submit the application form. We wish everyone applying this year the  very best of luck.”

Applications for the Built Environment Bursary will be available from 9^th August 2021. Download the application form and terms and conditions from www.citbni.org.uk. Follow CITB NI on Facebook, twitter and Instagram #BuildYourCareer.

Caption: Front Row –  Students Padraic Rodgers & Callum Snow, Back row Danielle McKelvey (Deputy Head of School for Natural and Built Environment), student Emer Condon, William Young (Project Officer for Civil Engineering Curriculum Development Programme), Amanda Stevenson (CITB NI), Paul McCusker (Lecturer in Natural and Built Environment). 

Market-leading single ply roofing manufacturer Sika and five of its Certified Contractors have triumphed at this year’s Single Ply Roofing Association (SPRA) Awards.

The awards, which recognise best practice within the single ply roofing industry, saw Sika Sarnafil, working with Berkshire-based Malone Roofing, take home the Best New Build award for their contribution to St George’s college’s new sports facility and its bespoke freeform glulam roof. The lightweight system was ideal for the complex curved roof. Also the addition of Sika décor profiles meant rainfall could be interrupted and guided across the roof area ensuring high pitched areas could provide more slip resistance, offering substantial health and safety benefits.

Sika, working with Perth-based AIM Developments Ltd, also came out top in the Best Safe Working category for their work on the iconic dome shaped Bell’s Sports Centre roof in Scotland. The contractor’s expertise in working with the flexible single ply system for over 35 years meant the complicated project was installed safely and finished on time.

The Best Refurbishment category was won with Oxfordshire’s Owlsworth Roofing, for their work on the University of Reading’s immense library overhaul. 13 different roof areas on 8 separate levels didn’t faze the Sika contractors, with technical guidance and support in creating bespoke specifications for each roof area. Throughout the full roof refurbishment, the library was still safely accessible to students.

For the first time ever, the DIY SOS team headed to Bangor in Northern Ireland, the childhood hometown of build manager Mark Miller, to help the McCreight family.

Mandy McCreight suffered from a variety of medical issues, including Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, postural orthostic tachycardia syndrome, fibromyalgia and gastroparesis, which left her bed-bound over 80 per cent of the time.

Nick Knowles and the team are renowned for transforming the homes of families across Britain. They issue a call to recruit friends, family and local trades to help and he was amazed by the response from Northern Ireland tradespeople – builders, joiners, roofers, plasterers, tilers, painters, landscapers and others.

Home-coming Bangor-boy Mark Millar was in his element managing the build. In an emotional speech to the assembled workers after the build was completed he told them, ‘‘My home was about twenty houses from here,’’ he said. ‘’I left Northern Ireland thirty-four years ago with not a lot of hope. I’m the proudest man standing here today. Every single one of you, you’ve all got into my heart. You’re amazing people of Northern Ireland, the love you’ve brought to this build, you’ve been fantastic. What you’ve done, what you’ve produced in this build has been absolutely incredible, so thank you to every single one of you.’’

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