10 Devonshire Square, London
Strip Out and Enabling
| Client: | Core Five |
| Project: | 10 Devonshire Square, London |
AWARD WINNING SITE
KpH Deconstruction won a Bronze Considerate Constructors Scheme (CCS) 2018 National Site Award for this project. These prestigious Awards are only presented to the highest performing sites inspected by the CCS Auditors, so this is a huge honour in recognition of our efforts to maintain high standards.
Brief Description:
Over a 16 week period, acting in the capacity of Principal Contractor, KpH undertook strip-out and enabling works at 10 Devonshire Square in London working with Gardiner & Theobald and Core Five, on behalf of our client Blackstone Property Management.
Scope of Works
Our soft-strip works back to core spanned across all 8 floors (Lower Ground to Floor 6, including the Plant Room and investigation and validation of services on the Roof). We arranged for the removal of all fixtures and fittings, ceilings, floors, plasterboard partitions, doors, redundant M&E service, riser walls and non-licensable and non-notifiable asbestos. We also installed scaffolding (for removal of light strip-out waste) and temporary hoarding (to enable for the removal of asbestos and heavy waste through the public domain).
Considerate Contractors Performance Beyond Compliance Certificate
This project was registered with the Considerate Constructors Scheme and, as such, was subject to an audit to ensure compliance. Performance Beyond Compliance was achieved in recognition of our companies approach to key areas within our business, a few of which have been highlighted below.
Community
A score of 9 was achieved in the category called “Respect the Community”, which shows a level of commitment which far surpasses expectations for an SME organisation such as ourselves. The auditor was extremely impressed with the ingenuity of our team in designing a scaffold construction within a confined space which allowed large volumes of waste to be removed without causing excessive disruption to the neighbouring tenants.
Listed Building Considerations
KpH designed an elaborate canti-levered scaffold gantry system to remove waste from the building. This installation involved fixing the scaffold into listed brickwork (the exterior of the building was Grade 2 listed) using existing holes where possible. All window reveals needed to be protected, after the window was removed, to enable the scaffold system to be tied into building.
KpH took all appropriate steps to comply with the relevant Grade 2 listed regulations and made sure the remaining structure was preserved and protected.
Dust Suppression
To help minimise the nuisance of dust from disturbing the restaurants and members of the public (that were active all the way around the building), we had an industrial water cannon installed to dampen down the particles. In addition, the waste was sent down two chutes into the back of 40 yard containers, completely enclosed in a curtain system that could be lowered and raised within minutes to protect passers-by from dust and debris.
An extensive cleaning regime was employed to ensure all live operating systems were kept clean and free of dust. This involved additional dust management techniques such as aircubes and fans to direct fresh air through the building.
Noise Reduction
Echo Barriers were used to help reduce the noise levels from skip lorries being loaded from the scaffolding gantry. We took care to monitor our noise levels and carried out weekly readings on site, in the immediate vicinity of the building and, in some cases, within the neighbouring premises.
When undertaking noisier works to the Ground Floor, which shared a slab with the adjoining restaurant, we worked with the restaurant Managers to schedule our works outside of their opening times.
Neighbour Liaison
KpH liaised daily with the active restaurants and shops on the Ground Floor to mitigate any issues that could arise from our works. In some instances, to prevent any disturbance to business trading hours, we carried out our investigations, validations and enabling works out of hours. This was particularly challenging because some of the shops were open from 8am – 6pm and some restaurants were open from 12 midday – 12 midnight. We also had to divert electrical feeds and mechanical systems, and isolate and re-integrate fire alarms for four different concessions, in order to achieve this.
To minimise the impact of excessive vehicle movement within the limited public space, we also organised the delivery and removal of skips outside of hours.
KpH was able to successfully manage the needs and expectation of the local community by sending out regular Newsletters (giving all interested parties advanced notice of our plans), arranging regular Site Meetings with the Building Management Team (to discuss or resolve any queries or concerns) and being prepared to change our sequence of works at a moments notice.
Live M&E Services
The Lower Ground Floor, where the building’s Plant Rooms were situated, not only contained redundant M&E systems but also newly installed equipment. This equipment had to remain live throughout the project to ensure that neighbouring concessions and businesses could continue to operate un-impeded. Some of the live services also fed businesses across the Devonshire Square Estate therefore all works had to be carried out using innovative access techniques and careful planning.