History

Wallbarn has been supplying products to the construction industry for 40 years.

Wallbarn has been supplying products to the construction industry for 40 years. It started out life in 1980 as part of a larger construction group supplying petrochemical materials including waterproofing membranes, mastic sealants, concrete admixtures and other bituminous products.

It focused very much on supplying the other contracting companies within its group but also supplied a number of “white label” products to some of the large construction companies throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

The founder, Alec Thurbin Senior, moved away from the business towards the end of 1990s which led to disruption in the progress of the entire construction group.

In 2002 Julian Thurbin, who was then working in the television industry, started work at the company on what he thought would be a temporary basis. Twenty years later he is still there!

Alec Thurbin Junior, who had worked previously in the City of London also joined the company later that year.

The company was barely trading in 2002 with 2 products and 5 customers. Since then we have grown significantly.

We started off this “relaunch” specialising in the manufacture and supply of accessory products for waterproofing systems. This included the 9mm rubber paving pad, a product we still sell today. This product was used on the then-emerging design of placing paving slabs rather than gravel onto rigid insulation to ballast inverted waterproofing systems. We also supplied an early version of Bituminous Protecto-board.

As things progressed our product offering has increased to focus on a large range of structural architectural products and systems.

We are best known for our range of pedestals. We launched a plastic version of the paving pad in 2002 and have increased the range significantly over the years. In fact we introduced the first UK brand of adjustable pedestals for paving in early 2003. At the time it took a great deal of effort to convince architects and designers of the merits of winding these pedestals up and down to create better performing and better looking terraces.

Today we have the most comprehensive range of pedestals and suspension systems for podium decks, flat roof, terraces; including Class A non-combustible systems, full rail substructure support systems for structural architecture in heights from as low as 5mm up to over 1 metre tall.

We follow a similar ethos in all of our product development. Our clients require products that are: low impact which will not damage the waterproofing membrane or sub-deck; easy and safe to handle and transport; strong and hard wearing in long-term; properly and fully tested.

This ethos is demonstrated by the successful launch of M-Tray® , the award winning modular green roof system.

We are in constant dialogue with our manufacturing and designer clients to gauge their needs and we continue to design and develop new products and systems in the structural waterproofing, building envelope, landscaping and structural architectural fields.

Wallbarn is an independent company and proud of its tradition of bringing innovation and service to the construction industry and to putting our clients’ interests first.