Allsopp Construction has been appointed Principal Contractor for an eight-week fire damage refurbishment programme at the University of Nottingham’s Chemistry Building, following a serious fire in the building’s plant room.
Thankfully, nobody was injured. The fire service responded quickly, extinguishing the fire in around 20 minutes and preventing it from spreading through the building. Even so, the fire and the water used to fight it left the building with significant damage.
As Principal Contractor, we are responsible for managing the refurbishment programme, coordinating specialist subcontractors, overseeing budgets and making sure all work is carried out safely. The first stage was to assess the extent of the fire and water damage, identify the repairs required and plan the sequence of works.
Protecting the building first
The priority was to isolate the affected areas, both electrically and mechanically. Power was isolated in the plant room and on the affected levels below, and the air handling units (AHUs) that circulate air around the building were switched off. This stopped soot-tainted air from being drawn through the rest of the building.
At the same time, work began on the roof, which the fire had burnt away, to make the building watertight. A scaffold was erected up the side of the building to give safe access.
Getting the Chemistry Building back in use after fire damage
Once the debris had been removed and the plant room cleaned, the AHUs were recommissioned with new filters. With ventilation restored to the laboratories, the fume cupboard extract systems were brought back into service, allowing students and technicians to return and continue their work.
Other rooms affected by water ingress have been dried out, with dryness certificates issued, so work is now concentrated on the worst-affected areas. Throughout, the aim has been to get the building ready for the return of students. It is now functioning as before, with the exception of the most heavily damaged areas and the plant room, which remains an excluded Allsopp construction site.
Working with specialist partners on the plant room refurbishment
A project like this relies on getting the right specialists in at the right time:
• MJW: first on site, removing debris from the affected area. Tests confirmed asbestos was not present, but we still used an asbestos removal specialist experienced in working in areas like this.
• Polygon: deep cleaned the inner plant room, where soot had circulated. With a number of AHU inlets located there, thorough vacuuming and cleaning was essential to stop soot reaching the wider building.
• Formost: shut down all AHUs to prevent contaminated air spreading, then checked and recommissioned each one for full use.
• Midland Filtration: replaced the filters in all AHUs, many of which had been soiled by soot.
• Calder Controls: supplied new low voltage and control cables to an AHU from the BMS panel, as the originals ran directly through the fire zone and had burnt out.
• Dalkia: tested all circuits in the affected area after water travelled down through the levels. Distribution boards were isolated immediately to prevent further damage, then retested and re-energised. In the plant room, Dalkia traced damaged cables and pulled in new supplies.
• Clymac: the University’s incumbent fire alarm contractor, who made the system live early on and is now planning the permanent reinstatement of the alarm in the fire-affected area.
• Palms: replaced damaged heating and domestic water pipework and valves in the plant room, which have been relagged and relabelled.
• MV Lifts: providing new lift doors, along with a new car loom and controller system in an adjacent control room.
What’s left to do
Remaining works include replacing the fire alarm and lighting in the plant room, completing the lift works, and making good affected areas, most notably ceiling and floor tiles damaged by water ingress.
As a principal contractor working with the University of Nottingham year-round, with a team on site at all times, we’re pleased to be supporting them through this project and getting the building back to full use.
If you have a project that you would like to discuss with us, contact: Martyn on 07971 899 646 or email info@allsoppconstruction.co.uk
Some images showing the fire damage.
New pipes, valves and containment in the Plant Room.
