Horizon Cubicle Speeds Up Office-to-Apartment Conversions

The shortage of homes across the UK is not a new issue and is not one that will be solved quickly, however, changes to permitted development rights for office to residential conversions has thrown up huge opportunities for developers such as Peterborough based GKL Holdings Ltd.

GKL Group is a regional developer and building and civil engineering contractor that delivers dream homes to be proud of and has delivered nearly 200 quality apartments under the office to residential permitted development rights.

Varity House in Peterborough is one such project. Formerly a huge office block for engine manufacturer, Perkins, it is currently undergoing conversion to 97 high quality apartments - all of which have been sold off-plan. The company was looking for a high quality showering solution for all the apartments that would save them time and reduce the need for follow-in trades following installation. Company Director, James Brackenbury, saw an article on the Kinedo shower cubicle and took the opportunity to visit an exhibition to see the product in the flesh. A presentation and demonstration of the benefits of the product in the show home on-site sufficiently impressed the GKL team and their plumbing contractor, L&M Euro Plumbing, and the Horizon was duly specified.

Project Manager for GKL, Karl Hunt, is impressed with the look of the cubicles and the intuitive assembly process;

"The first set of cubicles went together really well and they look very modern, which suits the style of the apartments. The service from Saniflo has been excellent. We had one small item that was broken on delivery, which we accept can happen out on the road. One of the technical team came out immediately with a replacement for us to help avoid any delays. Our sales representative has also been back to check progress, which is great as it shows they care about their customers."

The Kinedo cubicles have a delivered a whole raft of benefits to the overall project. Gary Ayres, from L&M Euro Plumbing, is responsible for fitting out the bathrooms;

"This was the first time that we've installed these cubicles and now we're used to the process they do go in nice and easily. I can see why they've been specified. They save on tiling, there are no dirty grout lines and we don't have to use silicone to make the cubicle watertight. The design of the tray and the interior glass panels ensure that there are no leaks. It is definitely quicker to fit than a standard enclosure with tiles and we believe it will minimise call backs because of leaks, which can happen in new builds."

The Horizon cubicle comes as a complete package with integrated tray, rainfall shower head, valve and handheld shower head and even features a neat shelving system for storage of bathroom products. This saves the developer the time and effort in sourcing separate items.