The point I'm making is the huge need for refurbishment. Every office built after 1995 does not have the infrastructure modern offices need. Even the latest wireless offices need data cabling. Most pre-1970s buildings have insufficient ceiling voids to accommodate air conditioning. Many offices only just over ten years of age are now being modernised.

Add to those offices in need of refurbishment, all the shops that want to update their 'shopping experience', the hospital wards and wings and prisons and other public buildings needing updating and you begin to appreciate why refurbishment is such big business.

The pace of change driving that need is accelerating because, no matter what type of building it is, a building has to meet its operational needs and those needs now change faster than ever.

Fitting a building to its needs

Take the public sector. The big institutions drive their refurbishment programmes by looking at the strategic and operational needs the building has to satisfy.

It's the same in the private sector. Companies understand that their building environments affect their people's performance. Sick building syndrome is no joke. In the 24/7 economy and in a corporate culture where companies pride themselves on how well they look after their staff to beat the talent challenge, although money's a key consideration, it's not the principal driver.

The cost of refurbishment

It's a fallacy that refurbishment is cheaper than new build. Refurbishment can cost a lot more as it's a more demanding work environment and you're often working in the dark.

The health & safety risks are higher with refurbishment because, more often than not, you're working in a live trading or an occupied environment.

Our work with the retail sector is in city centres and it's around the clock. That calls for rigorous programming, communications and teamwork. Offering to work around the clock is easy. It's finding the people who will work those shifts and commute into city centres - that's where the difficulties lie.

Plus with the current skills shortage, skilled tradespeople can call the tune of where and when they want to work. Those shortages are exacerbated when you're working within a tight calendar window with strict drop down dates.

It's the same when working on the City's trading floors. There is no room for error if the wrong power is switched off and the computer system with it.

Occupied environments need to be limited to the usual 'building abuses' such as vibration, dust pollution, drilling and other noises. We've overcome these difficulties by self-imposing drilling curfews and regular consultations with a building's occupants. Parking and storage solutions are less easy to come by although just in time deliveries seem to ease that.

DVLA's refurbishment

Our Cardiff operation is currently refurbishing two blocks (100,000 square feet) of the DVLA at Swansea in a contract worth £6.5m.

C Block comprises three floors to be refurbished in a 45-week programme and the 16-storey D block is being done, four floors at a time, over 108 weeks with all works finishing at the end of 2007.

The works comprises full M&E installation with added specialties such as chilled beams and perimeter heating.

The main contractor is Kier Western employed by Land Securities Trillium - the facilities manager.

This job is a feat of synchronisation and a real test of any building contractor's people skills. Moving four floors of people in a timely fashion is difficult enough. But then you have to add the sensitivities of working in an occupied environment and all the issues that brings such as noise, dust, access and manners!

You have to take care to select the right people for the right job. It's rare that someone's as happy on a building site as they would be in a school for instance - each worker has his or her own strengths.

Hidden costs of refurbishment

The client who understands the process is best-placed to get his or her refurbishment on time, on budget and to their performance benchmarks. As key contractors, it's our job to educate clients. For instance, on several retail refurbishment jobs, in-process changes will be made which can throw out the schedule as the contractor has to source the appropriate products, skills or materials. It's amazing what can be achieved when we all work together.

Refurbishing a warehouse into a hospital

Converting a warehouse into the NHS’s first private sector treatment centre in Derriford, Plymouth for private health care company, PHG, was an especially complex project.

Creating a private diagnostic and treatment centre from a warehouse within a tight deadline was the challenge PHG laid down to us, along with the other partners involved with the project – QP Architects, MIDAS Construction and Gifford M&E and structural consultants.

It was a brief that was always going to evolve as the project progressed and so it was very much a case of working with all the partners to make sure we all delivered for the client.

Weekly, short site meetings where everyone goes away with a clear idea of their responsibilities and trust in one another to get the job done, was key to the success of the project. ‘Partnership’ and ‘trust’ are often overused but that approach made a tangible difference in bringing the project in on time.

We had to add a floor to the building to make it two-storey and it now comprises two wards, a critical care unit, physiotherapy, two operating theatres and sterile services unit, a recovery ward, a day care ward, consulting room, pharmacy and a café. And that’s a former warehouse!

A particular challenge with that project was the large but cramped plant room situated above the theatres. We were totally involved in the design for both the plant room and the pipe work to make it all fit. Compounding the issue, we weren’t allowed to support any services from the roof of the building so that meant large, steel platforms had to be constructed to support the plant room and pipe work.

Gifford M&E Consultants have said that if we’d all been able to start with a blank page, rather than the constraint of converting a warehouse, we’d have ensured the substation and standby generator were more local to the switch. The fact that they weren’t meant a lot more cabling and reduced plant room space.

We worked with the Gifford team to find other solutions. A cabling system for lighting and power which didn’t use conventional trunking was designed which was quicker to install and which involved less work in the ceilings. We also accelerated the installation of the lighting by opting for a modular system which allows you to plug-in socket connections for lights locally.

The whole conversion worked well because of the collaboration between all the contractors. Between us, we pulled together what was a huge feat of coordination, under pressure. There was potential for many clashes and co-ordination problems however we’re thrilled that it all went really well.

Cities that never sleep

Our futures probably lie in cities - rather than our regions and shires - for reasons of logistics. Cities continually need to renew themselves which is why there will always be a healthy demand for refurbishment combined with the government's drive for more brownfield development. But who knows what the future holds. Given how different it was in the early nineties, who is to say what will have developed by 2015.

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend