Several Ardex products were used to install over 80 tons of finished stone in the lift lobbies of the office tower complex located at 215 Adelaide Street, Brisbane.

The refurbishment project carried out at the office complex included a complete revamp of the ground floor foyer as well as level one through to external entries and bathrooms. The scope of work also included the lift lobbies within the tower.

Executed over a period of eight months by the Peter Johnson Tiling team on behalf of Hutchinson Builders, the project involved coating the 8.5-metre high entrance and foyer with more than 80 tons of finished stone.

ARDEX products used in the installation included ARDEX X 18 used with ARDEX E 90 additive in addition to ARDEX WA 100, a two part epoxy adhesive for use with natural stone. Specified due to the complexity of the installation, ARDEX X 18 provided additional strength to the tiled areas (up to 3 metres high) thanks to the specially formulated fibres within the adhesive. ARDEX WA 100 was used for sections of the wall up to 8 metres high as the adhesive was formulated for fixing and bedding natural stone such as marble on walls.

Installing more than 80 tons of finished stone required a huge amount of co-ordination. The marble wall tiles were 17-18mm thick and weighed approximately 50kg/m². Since the weight of the tiles and the height of the installation exceeded ARDEX guidelines (32kg/m² and up to 3m high) for adhesive fixed tiles, additional mechanical fixing strips were epoxy bonded into grooves cut into the back of each tile and then secured to the wall substrate.

The finished work was nominated by the Master Builders Association of Queensland, with Peter Johnson winning the Commercial Trade Contractor Award for the Year.