Blog Posts

May 18, 2017

One of the great benefits that you get from introducing Lewis Deck into a residential development is the option to install a wet room floor into bathroom/ en-suite areas with extreme ease compared to other flooring systems as well as maintaining one solid concrete slab in the room reducing the possibility of leaks from a number of different materials being used to create the floor.

When we talk about the benefits of what Lewis brings to a project this seems to be one of the benefits that seems to get lost in conversation with people generally wanting the acoustic or solid floor improvements before anything else. However, over the last few months (with us spending a lot of time at trade shows) both myself and Chris have been having more and more conversations with people looking to add that little bit extra to their bathroom areas by having wet rooms rather than traditional bathroom and shower areas.

This posed us a bit of a dilemma, how do we get the point across to people that Lewis is the material of choice when it comes to thinking about upper floor wet rooms.

The answer, Swindon.

As has been mentioned in a number of different places on this website we have a permanent stand at the National Selfbuild and Renovation Centre in Swindon.

This is it!!

  (and this is what the stand looked like last week)

Stand E171 was, once upon a time, shared between ourselves and Gyvlon, the screed manufacturer. Earlier this year however, Gyvlon decided that they no longer wanted to share the stand so we took over the whole (even though it’s only small) thing!

With us being based in the north east we needed a reason to go down to Wiltshire and replace the bottom model with something new so this was the perfect time, and the perfect reason, to go down and update what we have down there.

So, a couple of weeks ago we set the plan into motion. First of all we needed old timbers to replicate joists in a house. Chris found the local timber reclamation yard and off we went to pick up a few bit of wood from it. When we got there it was closed!! Who knew Google told you when businesses were open and closed!

We eventually got going and over the next week or so the new model started to take shape.

One of the things that we wanted to do with this new model was show people how easy it is to install a drain into the Lewis and then create the falls to allow the room to function as it should. With that in mind below you’ll see a number of photos showing you how easy it is to install a drain into Lewis then create the falls!!

Firstly cut a hole through the steel deck large enough for the waste pipes to fit through. I say large enough seen as though the first time we did it the hole was just too small!

At this point the waste pipe can be inserted into the deck and the drain fixed into position within the drain as below.

Once the drain is in place ensure that the whole connection is sealed and that the hole that was cut into the steel is also sealed completely. This then ensures that no concrete screed leaks through any gaps when it is poured.

March 23, 2017

The end of March saw us attend our 2nd exhibition of the month. This time at the Homebuilding & Renovating Show held at the NEC in Birmingham.

Our longest show of the year, and one that we’ve attended for the previous 6 years, is the first Homebuilding show of the year. It also seems to be getting bigger and bigger as the years go on. This year was no exception. For those of you who know the NEC this years event was held in halls 9, 10, 11 and 12 and lucky for us we seem to be right slap bang in the middle of it at the edges of halls 10 and 11.

As this is an exhibition more tailored to the self builder/ contractor, as oppose to the design team like Ecobuild is, this show allows us to focus more on our core business products of Lewis Deck and Lacomet rather than our more commercial grade systems, it also means we don’t have to lug that massive Op-Deck display model around like we did down in London.

This year as well we were able to have our new 36mm thick screeded floor with underfloor heating system on display for the first time at one of these exhibitions. Ideally suited for renovation projects where there are issues with beam strength and also floor to ceiling heights, it provides floors with a stronger alternative to traditional heated upper floor systems. We are still running through the R&D process with the help of Teesside University, but it was great to see it on display and having people asking questions about it.

We also had this new website launched in between Ecobuild and this show so both myself and Chris were directing people to it as much as we could.

March 16, 2017

March is always a busy time for us. Not only is it a lot of companies end of year (so we seem to get inundated with last minute orders!) but it’s also our busiest month when it comes to trade shows, and it begins with the biggest one we do, Ecobuild.

Ecobuild, held at Londons EXCEL arena, is the leading exhibition and conference for construction, design and energy in the built environment, attracting over 33,000 high calibre, senior level decision makers and influencers from architects and developers, to local government and major infrastructure clients (their words not mine).

As for all of the exhibitions that we do the logistics of getting us there always prove to entertaining and there’s always something that either gets forgotten or lost as we transport 7 or 8 models and displays from our warehouse down to the capital. This year we’d even left it late to book a hotel for us to stay in! Fortunately we were still able to get into the hotel we’ve stayed at over the last couple of years.

So on the Monday before the show I’m up at the crack of dawn and drive up to the office from where I live down in Lancashire. By mid morning we’ve picked the van up and after some fun and games getting the displays into the van we are set and ready to go just before noon. Each year we select one of our systems that we want to have as the focal point for the show. This year we decided that our Op-Deck system was to be the one that we’d focus on. So in the run up to the show we had a cracking new model made on a much bigger display box than we have had in the past. Sounds good I hear you say! Yes, but as this system is topped off with a nice section of concrete we’d completely forgotten (and by that I mean hadn’t even considered) how heavy this thing was going to be! Watching 3 (oldish) blokes trying to pick this thing up and put it into the back of a transit van was a thing of comedy gold.

 Our new Op-Deck model in place (eventually).

Anyway, following a quick bite to eat we were off heading south on the A1 on our 250 plus mile journey to the Docklands. Fortunately for me Chris decided he was driving as I’d done a 2 hour drive already that morning.

As far as journeys go it was pretty uneventful and we were down and ready to unload for around 5.30pm (this included our traditional taking the wrong lane on the last roundabout before getting to EXCEL).

Now for the fun part, how the hell do we get the Op-Deck model out of the van when we are a man down?? After a bit of quick thinking from me I managed to persuade a forktruck driver to give us 30 seconds of his time and lift said (heavy) display down for us, in the process saving us a good half hour of messing around and potentially dropping the thing and destroying it.

So with that taken care of we were all done and dusted and ready for the start of the show by 7pm. So after dumping the van at the EXCEL we were off on the tube across to Greenwich to our hotel.

August 17, 2016

A very warm welcome to the beginning of a new chapter for CDI-ICM. Today we take a very big leap into the 21st century and post our first blog to go alongside the creation of our new website (www.cdi-icm.co.uk). The plan is to post updates at regular intervals keeping you updated about what we are up to and what we are involved in. We also get asked some weird and wonderful questions around our products so we’ll answer some of them here as well just in case you’ve been thinking of them too but have been too afraid to ask.
But for today who are we and why are we here?

We’re a small family business, based in the north-east of England, behind building products such as FastSlab, Max4, Lacomet and of course our multi Oscar winning floor system Lewis Deck. Our philosophy is to help solve problems and offer products that enhance and improve projects from the whole spectrum of the construction industry no matter of size.

Today however I’m going to park what we do so I can introduce you us, so if you do get in touch you’ll kind of know who we are already, a handwritten ice breaker if you will.

Firstly, our Commander in Chief, our Managing Director, former army Captain (just not with the same singing ability as James Blunt) Mr Chris Holt. Chris initially joined the business back in 2007 when it was still in its old form of Ian Larnach Associates. It was Chris’s idea to move away from the consultancy side of the industry into what we are now which is why he wears a crown while sitting at his desk! Chris is a technical genius where our products are concerned so he’s your man if you have any queries regarding acoustics, loadings or any of the dark arts involved with our range.

Me, I’m Paul. I’ve only been a director at the company since the beginning of the year after being drafted in following my old man’s (Ians) retirement through ill health (in reality his golf handicap was starting to creep up so needed more time on the course to sort it out). It feels like I’ve spent my whole life being in and around the construction industry and after initially starting out as a junior QS I climbed up the ladder to eventually project manage some amazing multi-million pound projects.

Finally, the real boss in the office, our Office Manager Barbara. After being married to Ian for 40 odd years she can put up with anything thrown at her and quite often does. Grown men have been known to cry when a call is put through to them from Barbara regarding an unpaid invoice! She is the glue that holds the company together and is the happy voice at the end of the phone when you call in to us.

January 16, 2017

It might only be the middle of January but already we are seeing a number of projects that we were working on during the back end of 2016 starting to come across the line.

Today we have 3 full packs of 60 sheets packed up and ready to head south to a renovation project in the middle of London. Chris has been dealing with both the contractor and the client on this project for almost 6 month through the design phase into the construction period ensuring that the project profited from the full range of benefits that the Lewis system can bring to a project.

As well as the Lewis sheets this project will have our Lewis Sylomer TSS resilient strips and mineral wool flanking strips meaning that the building will have commercial grade acoustic performance within a residential project.

With underfloor heating also being installed on the project the floors that are being installed will now be extremely strong, have a very high thermal efficiency (meaning the heating bills will be lower than using traditional heating systems) and also benefit from the better than British regs acoustic performance.