The term responsive maintenance evokes images of swift remediation to building defects; from roofers replacing weather damaged tiles or slates, to opening up inaccessible areas of a building so concealed defects causing a problem can be identified and assessed. But how to go about this opening up, or the subsequent making good?
This newsletter examines three instances where Whitechapel Art Plaster Co Ltd have been involved in the process of responsive maintenance in a working week.
Dry rot in an old schoolhouse
The first was the appearance of fruiting bodies from dry rot in an old schoolhouse attached to a traditional church. Leaking external rainwater goods had caused dampness and unsightly fungal growth on the surface finishes of plaster and adjacent visible joinery.
As a consequence of this, Whitechapel Art Plaster Co Ltd were called in to carry out an inspection. It was decided that there may be problems beneath the plaster work concerning moisture contents of substrates and subsequent degradation of structural timbers. The professional surveyors from Whitechapel Art Plaster Co Ltd opened up and inspected these areas and prepared a report for the client with conclusions and priced recommendations for remediation.
As Whitechapel have equipment and operatives on the site, the works can commence straight away should this be required, as an assessment of access, safe working, materials and programme have already been put in place as part of the process of responsive maintenance, report writing and specification.
A library stairwell, out of hours
The second job was where a repeat client, following an architectural and engineers specification, had applied some insulated board to the internal surfaces of a concrete ring beam on a Cheshire town library stairwell. Cold concrete had been attracting condensation and subsequent mould growth.
The boards needed to be beaded, taped with scrim, and finished with a setting coat of plaster before decoration by others; all of which needed to be completed out of hours because of opening times, and at short notice because long lead times were not an option on this job.
We received an inspection request on Monday afternoon at the start of the week, attended site early the next morning to inspect and assess the work, and had completed the work and cleaned up by Thursday. A good effort in efficiency and quality between client, main contractor, and us as sub-contractor carrying out the required responsive maintenance.
A damaged cornice at a Cheshire school
The third and final responsive maintenance job of the week was at a school in a Cheshire historical town, where a plaster cornice in a wall to ceiling intersection had been damaged during building work and now needed to be matched and replaced.
We were told this work needed to be completed as soon as was reasonably practicable, so we obtained a profile of the plain plaster balanced cove cornice the same day, priced the work that afternoon, received an acceptance and order the next day, and told the client that all being well it would go into production in the workshop as a fibrous plaster cornice and be fitted on site the following week.
In summary
Responsive maintenance is an important part of the work Whitechapel Art Plaster Co Ltd deliver. Because we try to make sure we have competent operatives, crafts people and surveyors available to deal with the requirements of responsive maintenance, along with an efficient and helpful office and associated administration, we try to make sure things run as they should: sequentially.
We aim to deliver service, and an efficient accurate response, along with efficacy in terms of fitness for purpose of working methods and materials, and an appropriate quality of finish, ready to receive decoration.