Renovating an old office property for a new airport hotel

An old office property located at Lentäjäntie 1 at Helsinki Airport is being transformed into a hotel. Kiilto’s products are also used in the renovation project carried out by Peab.

The hotel room bed looks soft and inviting. However, it is not quite yet ready for guests to enjoy.

The renovation project carried out by Peab is transforming the old office property into a new hotel, Scandic Airport. One of the rooms was furnished as a model room at the end of October. 

According to Peab’s site manager Juuso Kaukola-Risku, other rooms are also being renovated at a brisk pace, and with very little noise. The Scandic Airport hotel is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2018.

“We must ensure that the noise from the worksite does not disturb other occupants of the building. For this reason we’ve been working in the evening, and in the middle of the night as well.”

The hotel will be located on floors 3, 4, 5 and 7 of the west wing of the TOKE office building. The property will continue to house a number of other operations, such as air traffic safety functions, a police station and examination facilities of Mehiläinen medical clinic.

“We must also take the operations of the airport into consideration, for example by ensuring that our outdoor crane does not interfere with airport radars.”

Kiilto 80 for thin levelling of floor slopes

The hotel will feature 150 rooms and the same number of bathrooms, and five meeting rooms. One of the meeting rooms can be divided into three separate sections. The premises will also include a bar, restaurant, food preparation kitchen and lounge. The old surfaces have been demolished down to the concrete foundations and replaced with new structures.

According to Kaukola-Risku, the bathrooms feature a very thin levelling to ensure the floor is not elevated too much.

“We used the new Kiilto 80 levelling screed to accomplish this. It enabled us to apply coatings of just a couple of millimetres thick while still achieving sufficient hardness.”

He says he received guidance on using the product directly from Kiilto.

“First the product dried too quickly, which was a problem. We were given instructions on how to modify the texture of the product to ensure it suits thin coatings better, and to adjust the drying time to meet our needs.”

Good cooperation

Our brief tour on the worksite showed that other familiar products are also being used in the renovation. We sawcontainers of Kiilto Kerafiber, cementitious adhesive and tile grout.

“I’ve been working with Kiilto for approximately five years now. Our collaboration has proceeded excellently. Deliveries arrive quickly, and the company is very responsive whenever we need help,” Kaukola-Risku says.

Jari Kuronen, sales and development manager at Kiilto Construction, is also very happy with the cooperation with Peab.

“It is always nice to work with professionals who want to participate in product development at an early stage, and who are interested in new solutions and products,” Kuronen says.