TEC® Ensures Successful Tile Installation at Oak Ridge National Laboratory with High-Performance, American-Made Products

In 2009, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), a multi-program science and technology laboratory managed by UT-Battelle, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy began construction on a new three-story, 160,000 square-foot Chemical and Materials Sciences Building.

Located outside of Knoxville in Oak Ridge, TN, the new building was intended to expand ORNL’s research and development efforts by replacing the existing complex, which was limited by high maintenance and energy costs and constrained by outdated laboratory spaces.  The new facility was designed to house a total of 56 laboratories, 164 offices and 91 modular workstations.

Breaking Ground for Groundbreaking Research

The state-of-the-art facility was designed and constructed to be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Gold certified, meeting strict guidelines for environmental sustainability set by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Since construction of the new Chemical and Materials Sciences Building was supported in part by funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, all products involved in the job were to be manufactured in the U.S.A.  

H.B. Fuller Construction Products’ line of TEC® brand products was selected as the ideal choice because of their high-performance characteristics required to meet the demands of this job, their contribution to LEED certification, and because they are made in the U.S.A.

In addition to several other areas of the facility, TEC products were used in the elaborate entryway, which featured tile floors and walls, in both interior and exterior areas.  With its soaring ceiling, the entryway’s walls reached three stories high, totaling 10,000 square feet.  The flooring area throughout the facility spanned a total of 25,000 square feet of tile.

Ultimately, a total of 11 different products from TEC were supplied by two area distributors -- Louisville Tile and Winco –including multiple types of highly specialized mortar, grout and caulk for the various challenges of the installation.  

TEC IsoLightTM mortar was selected for the interior, due to its superior non-sag feature on walls, as well as 11% recycled material content. TEC Super FlexTM mortar was used for its unparalleled bond strength and exceptional ability to handle the extreme weather conditions to which the tiles would be subjected.

Construction of the $95 million facility was successfully completed in June 2011.  For more information about the TEC products used in this installation, visit www.tecspecialty.com.

The trademarks listed, unless otherwise noted, are owned by H.B. Fuller Construction Products Inc.  LEED® is a registered trademark of U.S. Green Building Council.