In the new Aviva Stadium in Dublin, the follower of the oldest rugby ground in the world, PCI products were used for all the tiling and the major part of the flooring.

It replaces the legendary Lansdowne Road stadium, the world’s oldest rugby stadium, located in Ballsbridge, which is a district of the Irish capital. Like the old stadium, inaugurated in 1872, the new sports ground is a combined rugby and football stadium that offers additional possibilities of use. It has a capacity for over 51,700 seated supporters, and consists of 3 restaurants, served by 9 kitchens, 36 corporate boxes each with their own individual kitchens and 69 bars on various levels. The Presidential Suite, located on level 4, provides entertainment for up to 450 guests, with a "Chef's Table" offering dishes from around the world. In 2007, the Lansdowne Road Stadium was demolished with the existing structure crushed on site, resulting in 25,000 tonnes of concrete re-used as landfill on site. In addition, over 1,500 tonnes of steelwork from the old stadium was recycled to add to the structural steel used for the new stadium.

PCI materials were used throughout the new stadium, with all floors, except for resin and carpet coverings, receiving some application of PCI products. Firstly, the wall tiling in all the kitchen in the corporate boxes were fixed with PCI Nanolight® and grouted with PCI Durafug®, with PCI Silicoferm® S in all expansion joints. The floors were primed with PCI VG2 and levelled with PCI OSP 31 and then covered with a vinyl sheeting.

The floors of the main kitchens and servery kiosks as well as staff changing/recreation areas were primed with PCI Primer G, Primer W and levelled with PCI Periplan, and the flooring was stuck down with PKL 324 flooring adhesive. An additional area of floors including entrances, public toilets, VIP entrance, lockers rooms etc were all primed with PCI Primer G and PCI Primer W and levelled with PCI Periplan® CF 25. Certain sections of this floor area required filling in with PCI Repahaft® and PC Novoment® Z1, particularly, at the entrances where cabling or wiring for the electronic turnstiles had to be embedded in the concrete floors. In addition, in the premium entrance, the concrete contained a series of cracks in its surface so that the entire flooring was covered with PCI Pecilastic®, before tiling with PCI Nanolight and grouting with PCI Durafug.

PCI Elritan® 140 was applied to all expansion joints in this floor area In the players’ changing rooms as well as the area where the players enter and leave the playing pitch, the floor was primed with PCI Primer G and levelled with PCI Periplan CF25. Then special rubber sports tiles were bonded to the floors using GKL 357 flooring adhesive. The adjacent shower areas as well as players plunge pools, one cold and one hot water fed, were tiled using PCI Nanolight to fix the glass mosaic tiles for walls and pools as well as the porcelain floor tiles. Floors were grouted with PCI Durafug and walls, including both pools, grouted with PCI Aquafug®. PCI Silcoferm® VE was used for expansion joints in the pools.

In terms of areas, there was approximately 4,000 sq. m of floor tiling, about 1,500 sq. m of wall tiling and over 8,000 sq. m of floor levelling done with PCI materials. In addition, PCI Pericret® was used to form the walls and seating in the players plunge pools, shower areas were tanked with PCI Seccoral 2K, and PCI Pecitape® and PCI Durapox® grout were applied in some kitchen areas.

“PCI was accepted by both designers and main building contractor due to the many years of successful cooperation with the appointed tiling contractor, Tudor Tiles”, explained Tom McCarthy, National Sales Manager of PCI Ireland. “Tudor Tiles is one of the leading tiling companies in Ireland that uses only PCI materials on all their contract work. They know from experience that they can count on our technical experience and support on site”. During the tiling and flooring stages Mr. McCarthy practically lived on the site and was so able to resolve the difficult issues when they appeared by providing quick solutions to ensure the tiling and flooring progressed and did not affect the overall construction program. “It was very comforting to know that PCI could supply a solution to any tiling or flooring issue that emerged”, stated Ashley Deegan, Contact Manager for Tudor Tiles. “All issues were resolved there and then – saving time and nerves.“

In July 2010, the new Aviva Stadium hosted its first rugby game, with Ireland vs. Argentina the first international football match will take place on 11 August, and, last but not least, the UEFA Europa League final will be held in 2011.