Better Building Services

    Clermiston Primary School serves the Clermiston and Drumbrae area in the North West of the city and has a roll of 470.

    h

    Client: City of Edinburgh Council
    Location: Clermiston Primary School, Edinburgh
    Sector: Education
    Main contractor: Maxi Construction
    Project value: £500,000
    Contract period: 12 months
     

     

    The project

    PREAH were sub-contracted by Maxi Construction to provide mechanical and electrical services on a £1.8m refurbishment project at Clermiston Primary School for the City of Edinburgh Council. The initial project brief involved replacement of the existing boiler plant, controls and all existing radiators within the school. After conducting a thorough site survey, we considered it necessary to also provide insulation to all heating pipework and mechanical extract ventilation in toilet areas.

     

    Service provision

    • M&E
    • Heating
    • Gas

     

    Our expertise

    PREAH's extensive surveys and tests determined that the existing low temperature hot water system (LTHW) was no longer fit for purpose. On the back of this discovery, we worked with the mechanical design team to develop a design to replace the LTHW pipework distribution throughout the school.

     

    The challenges

    Carrying out these works in a fully-operational school during term time gave our team a number of challenges. We carefully planned the work with the principal contractor and the headmaster to minimise disruption to students and staff as much as possible.

    Because the school was still in use, we also had to make sure there was minimal downtime for the heating facilities. Our team worked over a weekend to install a large 150Kw temporary gas boiler within the plant room. We made sure that all major works were completed over this one weekend, so students returned to a fully heated school on Monday morning.

     

    Future projects

    We have just secured another project with Maxi Construction in April 2019.

     

    PREAH have a good structure in place and are quick to respond to the ever-changing demands of a large refurbishment, from commercial aspects to resourcing within program constraints.

    I would gladly work with PREAH on future contracts as the M&E contractor of choice. They played a crucial part in delivering the project and they worked closely with the Main contractor and the subcontractors for the benefit of the project.

    Brian Ward

    Maxi Construction