Fairmont Cheshire, The Mere, Knutsford
A Complete Timber, Resin and Soft Flooring Solution for a Five Star Golf and Spa Resort
Objective
The Mere Golf Resort & Spa in Knutsford has been reborn as Fairmont Cheshire, The Mere, only the fourth Fairmont hotel in the UK and the first in the North West. Working alongside main contractor Russell WBHO, our objective was to deliver every floor finish across the resort to a five star standard, from the newly extended guest wings through to the public spaces, the championship golf facilities, and Gordon Ramsay at The Mere. Each finish had to stand up to the daily demands of a busy luxury hotel while doing full justice to the interior design.
Approach
Not many projects call on the full breadth of our craft the way this one did. Engineered timber, hand trowel applied resin, custom woven carpet, safety vinyl and entrance matting; a roster of specialist suppliers; and everything from bespoke block patterns and radial set outs to curved staircases and a thousand square metre ballroom. This was a scheme that needed every skill in the business, all working in step.
To be trusted with a project this high profile, and this highly regarded, is a real source of pride for our team. We sequenced each of our specialist skill sets carefully around the wider programme and the other contractors on site. Working closely with Russell WBHO and the design team from an early stage, and staying flexible as the specification developed, meant that even the most intricate design intentions could be realised without ever compromising on quality or the finished look.
Timber
Timber ran through the heart of this project, and every board of it was set out, bonded and finished by our own team. Across the new build extension and the refurbished rooms we installed engineered European oak from Havwoods, fully bonded for stability over underfloor heating, and framed in the guestrooms by inset carpet borders with antique brass trims. At Gordon Ramsay at The Mere the design called for three patterns in one space, bespoke panels in the restaurant, classic herringbone in the bar and a striking radial entrance, each set out so the transitions read as one coherent, elegant floor. The hotel lobby brought a bespoke block pattern designed specifically for the space, where the repeat, the joints and the borders only look effortless because of the planning behind them, and the Golf Lounge and Bar carries a wide 180mm plank with an enhanced wear layer, ready for the busiest social space on the golf side.
The staircases showed the sharpest end of those skills: curved treads and risers templated and fitted to fine tolerances, castellated brass tread inserts, wide 250mm boards and antique brass trims. Details like these are what turn a flight of stairs into a piece of fine joinery, and they run right through the resort.
Resin
Behind the scenes, the kitchens and food prep areas, including the Gordon Ramsay kitchen, were finished in a slip resistant, hand trowel applied polyurethane resin system, laid onto a resin primer to a seamless finish. It is exactly the kind of hygienic, hard wearing, easy to clean surface a commercial kitchen of this calibre needs, and tough enough to take the daily punishment. All internal angles were formed with 50mm radius resin cove and careful detailing around drains, gullies and manhole covers, so the whole area performs as one sealed, robust floor with no weak points for water or dirt to get into.
Carpet
Throughout the guest corridors, the standard bedrooms and the suites we installed custom woven wool Axminster carpet from Alarwool, a Spanish weaver whose looms and design studio produce bespoke carpet for many of the world’s leading hotel brands. These were dense 10 row cut pile carpets with bespoke carving detail, designed specifically for the resort. The public areas raised the bar again, with custom Axminster running through the pre-function space, the meeting rooms, the ante room and, at the heart of it all, the ballroom, which alone runs to more than a thousand square metres that had to be planned, matched and fitted seamlessly.
The golf side of the resort carried the theme through into the reception, the retail shop, the first floor golf lounge and terrace, and elegant stair runners finished with brass nosings. Getting bespoke woven carpet to line up perfectly across seams, corridors and stairs takes meticulous setting out, but our team excelled.
Vinyl
The working heart of the hotel got the same care as the showpieces. Back of house we installed heavy duty, slip resistant safety vinyl with coved skirtings throughout, along with carpet tiles where specified, prepared and laid to the same standard as the guest facing spaces. And at the entrances, a closed construction aluminium matting system from INTRAsystems, bronze anodised with textile wiper inserts and set into recessed matwells, scrapes and holds dirt and moisture before it ever reaches those beautiful new floors, tying in neatly with the antique brass detailing carried throughout the resort.
Sustainability
Sustainability runs through how we work, and this project gave us plenty of ways to show it. Engineered timber makes efficient use of slow grown hardwood, putting the real oak only where it is seen, and the oak we used is responsibly sourced. The resin in the kitchens is made with more than half its content from renewable natural oils, and wool, the fibre running through every carpet in the building, is about as natural and renewable as a floor finish gets. As with every job our team recycled timber off cuts rather than sending them to landfill, and working flexibly through the variations meant products were changed on paper before they were ever ordered or delivered, avoiding waste further up the supply chain. Small details on a project this size, but they reflect the way we like to do things.
Summary
Across the full length of the resort, we delivered engineered timber, hand trowel applied resin, custom woven carpet, safety vinyl and entrance matting to a consistent five-star standard for Fairmont Cheshire, The Mere. From the bespoke block pattern lobby and the three pattern oak at Gordon Ramsay at The Mere, to the thousand square metre ballroom carpet and the resin kitchens working quietly behind the scenes, it is a project we are genuinely proud to have been part of, delivered in close partnership with Russell WBHO.
