Des Smith Director from Ultimate Cladding was contracted to lay the thousands of blocks required for the development. With time a key factor for laying the 20,000 standard 20 series blocks originally specified for this project, Des recommended the use of Firth's mortarless EsiBloc^® system to Matt Smith, Project Manager for various Ryman Healthcare projects around the country.

"Being a new system it took us a few days to get into a laying rhythm before we got up to speed," said Des. "Firth's EsiBloc^® system can be laid in about half the time of the standard block. We also normally would be required to have clean-out ports at the base of the block work but with EsiBloc^® these are not required and we were able to request a redesign by the engineers of this process, which offered additional time and cost benefits through eliminating some of the tasks associated with the traditional block and mortar methods."

'In commercial construction time is money," said Matt. "Not only were there hard cost savings in the use of EsiBloc^® but there were soft cost savings as well. Using EsiBloc^® has meant that weather delays were minimised, the site was surprisingly tidy and workable due to the lack of mortar and water, and the system required less input from the building crew. Being faster also meant that my project kept ahead of schedule and I could rely on a level of production that is normally so influenced by the weather."

Benefits of using EsiBloc^® as highlighted on the Ryman development:

• Half the laying time of a mortar-based system
• Approved design changes - saving additional time/money
• All weather laying - no lost days due to bad weather
• A clean and tidy site - no mortar dropped, saving on labour costs to maintain the site
• Less tradespeople on site

"We evaluated the risk and decided to run with Des' recommendation and it certainly has paid off for us," adds Matt. "There are considerable benefits in using Firth's EsiBloc^® system and I would certainly look at using it on other Ryman projects. We work in the interests of our stakeholders and this product gives everyone a better result. We commenced construction in November and are well on track to be ready to move our new patients into the hospital in May."