Royal Military Academy Sandhurst

• Client: Willmott Dixon
• Sector: Historic
• Services: Firestopping & Commercial Decorating
• Region: Sandhurst, Berkshire
• Project Value: £12 million

Project Overview

Sandhurst has been the site of the main training centre for British Army officers since 1812, three years before the battle of Waterloo.  

The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS), as it has been known since 1947, remains the “national centre of excellence for leadership” for aspiring officers.  

This is also home for the British Army Band Sandhurst, a 43-piece group that provides music at passing-out parades and other ceremonial occasions.  

Work was carried out in 2023 to construct a purpose-built facility to give these talented musicians an exceptional acoustic environment for their rehearsals and performances. 

Sentinel, the UK’s favourite specialist decorating contractor, was engaged by Willmott Dixon to provide passive fire protection and commercial decorating services throughout the new £12 million development.  

The new facility was delivered under the Defence Estate Optimisation Army Programme. This initiative represents a £3.35 billion investment over 10 years across 35 projects, designed to improve the lived experience for soldiers.  

Sustainability is a key feature of the programme, and the new band facility at RMAS has several environmentally friendly features.  

It also features an instrument store, music library, offices, rehearsal rooms, storage, changing and toilet facilities, and a crew room.  

Sentinel was busy at the site for six months in the second half of 2023, delivering firestopping features and commercial decorating services throughout the new building.  

The end result was a visually impressive addition to the RMAS landscape, one that offers a high-functioning home to the musicians who gather there to hone their skills.   

Project Brief

As a specialist decorating contractor with extensive expertise, Sentinel was comfortable with the demands of the work required at the RMAS in 2023.  

Our teams of specialist decorators always take the time to decide on the right approach and materials to use that will create the right result for our clients.  

In this instance, we were required to apply intumescent paint and topcoats to surfaces throughout the new British Army Band Sandhurst structure at RMAS.  

Most of the project related to the newly built construction – but we were also commissioned to help with the extensive refurbishment of some former stable buildings that were built in the 1850s.  

It was essential to retain the character of buildings that dated back to the era of the Charge of the Light Brigade, while installing fire protection measures that met 21^st-century standards. 

Sustainability goals were also critical to the overall success of the development – and the ratings achieved on this score suggests that all the teams who worked on this RMAS project hit their targets unerringly.  

Challenges / Solution

Sentinel’s status as the UK’s preferred specialist decorating and fire protection sub-contractor means we have the expertise to overcome any challenge and deliver outstanding results on every project.  

There were some natural habitats present on site, and it was essential that the fireproofing and commercial decorating work carried out by Sentinel did not interfere with them, or the wildlife living there.  

These ecological considerations were successfully incorporated into our work, as was the challenge of working on the refurbishment of stables that were built in the early years of Queen Victoria’s reign. 

Modernising such a historic building and upgrading its passive fire protection so that it meets today’s standards, requires sensitivity and know-how – and the end result showcased how successful we were in that respect. 

Within the main structure, our firestopping experts applied intumescent paint to the steelwork. This is a paint that expands under intense heat to form a protective barrier around the steel and allow extra time for the building to be evacuated.  

In this instance, we chose Interchar 1260 intumescent paint, which was complemented by an Intercryl 525 topcoat throughout the frame of the new building. 

We also applied passive fire protection to the round columns in the existing building. This involved shot blasting to remove the existing paintwork, before applying the Interchar 1260 and Intercryl 525. 

When it came to the cross-laminated timber (CLT) walls and ceilings throughout, our specialist decorators applied a range of Envirograf products.  

We use built-in fire protection solutions from the industry’s leading practitioners in projects where such a service is required. In this instance we applied a single coat of HWAP primer, followed by two coats of HWO2N intumescent paint, and finished with a topcoat of clear HW Enviro. 

The Result

We were delighted with the finished result of our work at the new British Army Band facility at RMA Sandhurst. Our satisfaction was shared by our client, and by the assessors of the sustainability credentials of the new structure.  

The completed work achieved Very Good and Excellent ratings on DREAM, the Defence Related Environmental Assessment Methodology that assesses the sustainability of contributions to the built environment.  

This rating was achieved thanks to sustainability features including solar panels and air-source heat pumps, as well as prefabricated containment kits and programmable lighting systems. These all contributed to reducing the carbon footprint of the project.