Sandtex Trade Hydrobond has been used to provide long-term decorative and protective benefits for one of Cumbria’s best-known hotels, The Westmorland Hotel.
Nestling in the countryside, but just a minute’s drive from Tebay Services on the M6, the 50-bedroom hotel is used as a convenient base for exploring the Lake District and as a quiet and tranquil stopover for travellers eager to get away from the motorway.
The hotel is maintained to a high standard by a small in-house team of decorators who are also responsible for the other businesses in the family owned Westmorland group. These include Tebay Services (M6 north and southbound), two farm shops, The Rheged Centre, Westmorland Caravan Park, and J38 truckstop and services.
When the time came for them to spruce up the exteriors of the hotel, group projects manager and buyer Rodney Doldon specified Sandtex Trade Hydrobond for the masonry on the recommendation of his local paint specialist, Kendal Paint & Colour.
“We were working on the oldest part of the hotel which was built back in 1976,” he said. “As we were having the original wing re-roofed we decided to carry out all necessary exterior refurb and decorating work at the same time, making full use of all the scaffolding that had been erected.”
“Painting a building like this is a big and potentially disruptive job that you don’t want to have to undertake very often, so we were looking for an exterior coating that promised long term durability and appearance retention. Given the age of the building and its location, we weren’t just looking for a lick of paint to brighten up the appearance; we wanted a high performance coating that would help to protect the substrates. As anyone who lives in the Lake District will tell you, we really do experience all extremes of weather here, and the hotel is totally exposed to the elements all year round.”
“We buy most of our materials from Kendal Paint & Colour and they advised us to use Hydrobond from Sandtex Trade,” Rodney continued. “It’s waterborne, so it’s convenient for my men to work with, and ‘low odour’ too, which is good news for our hotel guests. However, it promises all the long term durability and high adhesion to the substrate that you would normally only expect from a solvent-borne product.”
This high adhesion is the result of Hydrobond’s advanced Hydropliolite® resin. While it guarantees long-term durability, it also offers practical benefits for applicators, which can be invaluable in areas of the country where the weather is unpredictable.
“We’ve found with Hydrobond that you can still get work completed even if there’s a threat of rain in the air, as the finish is resistant to showers after just half an hour,” said Rodney. “As you can imagine, that’s a great help in this part of the world, which is truly beautiful and a fantastic place to visit, but not exactly renowned for all year round sunshine!”