The placement of floor screed has begun at the new corporate headquarters of specialty chemicals company LANXESS in Cologne, Germany. Raised access flooring is to be installed over the next five months on some 38,000 square meters of office space, including a load-bearing layer made of self leveling calciumsulfate screed. The self leveling screed is supplied by Düsseldorf-based CEMEX Deutschland AG on behalf of system flooring manufacturer Sybotec GmbH, Frammersbach, Germany, which is performing the work. One unique feature: The screed is based on the LANXESS calcium sulfate binder CAB 30 Compound. “As the future tenants, we are really pleased that our own products form the 'best basis for flooring',” says engineer Michael Witte, Anhydrite Marketing Director in LANXESS’ Advanced Industrial Intermediates business unit. “As the manufacturer, we are proud that one of the most modern office buildings in Germany will serve as a reference object for our premium binders.”

“We have a very high regard for LANXESS as a binder supplier, and have been business partners with them for many years,” explains Klaus-Dieter Schmidt, CEMEX Deutschland Key Account Manager for the northwest region. “All the happier we were to now deliver products for the construction of LANXESS' new headquarters.” Since early November 2011, employees at the CEMEX plants in Langenfeld and Kerpen-Türnich have been producing CAF-C25-F5 self leveling calciumsulfate screed for the large construction site in Cologne. A total of 3,000 metric tons of screed mortar will be delivered there by March of next year.

Self leveling calciumsulfate screed based on LANXESS CAB 30 Compound displays very low shrinkage and therefore can be laid over large areas without joints. Furthermore, it supports high daily output: With just one crew, Sybotec, a specialist in raised access flooring, easily achieves laydown rates of 1,300 square meters of screed per day or even more. The raised floor made of plasterboard is usually installed from Monday to Thursday, the screed poured on Fridays. In most cases the screed is laid down in a thickness of 38 millimeters.

The raised access flooring, also referred to as raised flooring, enables occupants later on to design office space flexibly: Wherever a desk area is to be located, an opening is provided in the load-bearing layer. After completion of the floor, telecommunications equipment and electrical connections lie hidden in the hollow space between the load-bearing layer and the concrete floor.

Modern business card

LANXESS is leasing the 100-meter-high building in prime location on the Rhine in Cologne-Deutz in order to join the majority of its management areas under one roof. Owner of the property is Warburg-Henderson Kapitalanlagegesellschaft für Immobilien mbH, which manages the Special Fund for the Rhine Region Pension Funds. Project developer is Hochtief Projektentwicklung GmbH. Lufthansa's head offices were located in the office tower up to 2007. It currently is being totally renovated and modernized; extensive revitalization measures are creating high-quality offices up to new building standards for the over 1,000 employees at LANXESS headquarters. Starting in the second half of 2013, the specialty chemicals company will manage its global business not from Leverkusen, but from the Cathedral City of Cologne.