Page High / Sanctuary Housing Group
Communal Heating Installations to occupied dwellings x 92 in total
About
Page High is a communal housing block situated in Wood Green above a commercial shopping centre and is home to 92 dwellings under general needs tenancy.
The tender was issued by Faithfull and Gould and had budget costs of £610,000.00 for the complete installation of 92 individual heating systems consisting of Heat Interface Units, new emitters and associated pipework.
We secured the project and registered it with the Considerate Constructor Scheme (audit attached for review) due to the duration and specification of the project itself. We introduced a dedicated project manager and resident liaison officer to the project who were based within the Page High community taking ownership of a vacant flat for the duration of the works.
The project started on July 9th 2018 and was due to complete September 1st prior to any heat on issues for the winter period. The project itself was very political in that the residents had suffered a large number of system failures within their properties due to the age and nature of the existing heating system which was a micro bore system with obsolete parts. The original specification was for the pipe work to be steel with the press type methodology fixing as this was considered to be a more aesthetically pleasing installation as there was no allowance within the budget for boxing of pipework and any large amount of building works. The site office was to be the pilot flat to allow the residents to visit and view the intended pipe routes and system itself. It was evident from the first round of viewings that due to the steel pipework and the spacing between the pipes themselves to allow the crimp method to take place that they were not happy and refused access to their properties for any future surveys and or works to take place.
We acted as mediators between the clients’ representatives and the residents and after several meetings with the residents association we value engineered an alternative specification to allow the pipework to be installed and boxed in removing any negative feedback from the residents. The amendments to the specification not only managed to negate any resident issues, it also delivered to budget utilising the costs difference between steel and copper to allow for the boxing in and decoration works associated to it.
We managed to gain access to 90 properties to complete the heating installation within an 8 week period and received practical completion at the beginning of October which would have been within the original project time period if the project had not had the initial 5 weeks delays as above.
During the project we had an audit from Considerate Constructors which outlined performance beyond compliance highlighting the management of the employees and residents whilst on site with their health and safety, and welfare in mind.
