Premier Inn

1500 Welded Steel Framed Bathroom Pods

The Business Problem

Premier Inn were using a traditional lightweight steel frame bathroom pod system to build their hotels. This design relied heavily on a light plasterboard and traditionally tiled bathroom solution. However the hotelier had committed to build three prestigious Hotels across the main Airports of London.

The main problem being their traditional light weight bathroom pod supply route had run into financial difficulties and could no longer provide a continuity of supply. They also could not provide a hot welded steel bathroom pod solution.

The Contractor first approached Walker modular in 2010 to investigate Walker Modular’s hot welded bathroom pod solution and its speed of delivery for the London developments.
Central to the contract was that Walker Modular would produce a bespoke welded steel framed bathroom pod that had a tanked wall system around the bathing area.

How We Helped

A team of 4 specialists was assigned to the project, with skills in different areas including product design, technical development, project and service management.

Our first task was to create a hot welded steel bathroom pod that could be manufactured in mass volume to facilitate the rapid speed of build envisaged by the contractor. The bathroom walls had to be tanked in a waterproof membrane and the tiles adhered with a swimming pool flexible grout and tile adhesive to as not to delaminate during the travel and build process.

Once the structure had been approved the task of manufacturing the huge volume of bathroom pod was tasked to the manufacturing facilities.

The frames were manufactured and Walker Modular began supplying bathroom pods in 20011 at a rate of 50 per week.

The Result

By properly engineering the bathroom so that it was a matched hot welded frame a whilst using the finest adhesive systems Walker Modular managed to deliver all 1500 bathroom pods on time and in full.

Through careful engineering Walker Modular were able to provide a unique bathroom solution to a blue chip client. The client was extremely brave in its choice of new high-tech materials for the bathroom construction.