Friends of Westonbirt Arboretum

Wolfson Tree Management Centre: An Update

Posted: August 19, 2015 at 13:06 pm Author: Sophie Nash

Work is currently underway on what will become the new Wolfson Tree Management Centre. The new facility will provide all that Westonbirt’s expert tree team needs to manage the tree collection.

The timber frame is almost ready to be lifted into its final position in mid-September. The contractors are waiting for the steel brackets to arrive so are currently preparing the cladding.

The machinery store building will be predominately clad in timber with a polycarbonate wall by the new vehicle wash down area. The cladding is being fabricated in panels so it can be lifted into position once the frame is up which helps speed up the completion of the building.

Cladding being fabricated

The cladding is fixed to large cladding rails. A frame/rig is created so that the contractors can ensure the cladding panel is the correct width ready for fixing to the timber frame.

Cladding being created to the correct size

This photo shows the packers used to create a small gap between each piece of cladding.

Packers create gaps between each piece of cladding

Some very large screws have been used to hold the large sections of timber in place!

A finished cladding panel

A finished panel! Several different sizes of timber have been used in the cladding which should look great when in their final position.