Barkway Court

Following an Inspection of the plantroom by Morgan Lambert and their findings, the 2 No MHS Jupiter HX300 central heating boilers have been identified by Clarion to require replacement and have therefore been included in a plantroom replacement programme. The project is for the replacement of the central heating boilers located in the plantroom of the building and to also rectify the system defects to bring the installation in line with current regulations and standards. The property itself is a sheltered housing scheme and is home to some very vulnerable residents and care needed to be taken to maintain their services throughout the project. 

The project was to be a six to seven-week programme starting with the installation of the temporary plant room to allow for all services to be maintained in line with client expectations and whilst this would have been a relatively straightforward installation the project was soon consumed by the Coronavirus Pandemic and all works needed to be temporarily stopped in line with Government guidance. This instruction was issued post completion of the initial phase of works which included the installation of the temp plant room and the decommission and removal of the existing old plant room equipment and associated materials. Through discussions with the site management team and ThermoServ and over a period of three weeks the teams established covid-19 measures, risk assessments and working practices that could be adopted to allow the works to continue to safeguard all parties especially due to consideration for the scheme itself and the vulnerable nature of the residents.

Milestone 1 - Risk Assessments

The first milestone for returning to work was to establish a working set of risk assessments specifically for the coronavirus which were issued and approved. Once these had been approved the next challenge was to re-align the programme due to the government guidance and working measures of social distancing which would allow operatives to work within the plant room although not the original volume so the works were ultimately going to be impacted and the timeframe would have to be increased. With the programme of works reissued and approved the operational team then had to review the increased level of personal protective equipment needed to meet the demands of the covid-19 risk assessment to maintain all safeguarding measures. The operational team not only introduce the standard hand sanitiser stations, gloves and masks they also introduced the use of the Ramsol Sanitiser Spray which was utilised daily on arrival to make sure that the plant room remained sanitised and a safe working area established prior to any operatives entering. These measures allowed the workforce to return and works to be continued at a reasonable pace within the plant room.

Milestone 2 - Flue Issue

The second milestone was to overcome the flue termination route issue from plant room through the Flue void as this was highlighted as an issue through the mobilisation stage on the first round of surveys prior to the C19 Pandemic in that a safe route for the flue would require extensive builders work to form fireproof/resistant openings to conform to current legislation and gas regulations. The onsite management team had to overcome the working measures to allow operatives within the property up until this time works within the plant room could be completed without accessing the property itself. The issues with working internally within the property and the primary concern was to safeguard the residents at all cost and to make sure that there could be no risk of the virus entering and or spreading. The working measures applied were in line with the covid-19 risk assessment and again the operatives needed to work within the assessment and adhere to government guidance to social distancing which was achieved through open discussions with the residents/management and the programme of works started. The residents were hand-delivered letters outlining the scope of works that would be taking place for the opening of the Flue void to allow the flue specialist access to remove the old redundant flue and install the new flue. These works took place over a three-day period with the letter being issued one week prior to allow plenty of notice to the residents so there were no surprises and everyone was fully appraised of the works to be completed. Once the new flue had been installed the building works for the new fire rated openings took place to conform to legislation and works were completed on time with minimal impact to the residents.

Milestone 3 - Additional Works

The third and final milestone was the additional works for the installation of the thermostatic mixing valves (TMVs) under all bathroom and kitchen sinks to limit the temperature of the hot water for the residents to mitigate any scolding incidents. These works would be under the same risk assessment although it required its own specific method statement as with all the previous works to allow full visibility of the works and how we intended to complete them. The residents were notified again through hand-delivered letters to advise that we would be completing the installation of the TMVs to two communal washing areas as pilot installations so they could the materials used, how we intended to install the valves and what they needed to do by way of cupboard clearance to allow the works to take place. Once the pilot installations had been completed a programme of works for the installation of the resident’s properties was formatted and is currently being completed during the month of June with two sets of TMVs being installed in each resident property.

Outcome

The project itself has gone to plan with very limited downtime for the residents and with no reported complaints. Outside of the delay caused through the coronavirus pandemic the project timeline has been within programme with all works being delivered on time and to budget.

The operational teams have worked extremely closely with the residents and client on-site team to deliver an exceptional project during what has been very testing and turbulent times in trying to decipher government guidance whilst maintaining true safeguarding measures for all staff and residents alike.

Site Address:

Barkway Court
58 Queens Drive
Hackney
N4 2YG