Supporting Safer Social Housing
Introduction
Lewisham Homes is an enterprising, not-for-profit organisation, set up to improve housing in Lewisham. They manage 19,000 homes on behalf of Lewisham Council, build new homes and invest in the local community.
With this in mind, Hydro-X’s services and values were a key factor in helping Lewisham Homes strive towards their missions. Since the beginning of the project in 2017 we have developed a great relationship together.
Challenge
The main challenges Hydro-X Air were asked to initially complete at the beginning of the project were:
- Clean all internal bathroom & toilet communal ventilation systems to 43 social housing blocks, consisting of over 1500 dwellings.
- Supply and install fire damper valves within each dwellings bathroom and toilet.
- Service & maintain over 160 communal extract fan units, including replacements when required.
- Attend to any complaints made by residents in regards to the dwellings extraction system and rectify to ensure they are receiving adequate ventilation.
As the project progressed, Hydro-X Air were asked to also undertake further challenges such as:
- Clean all internal communal laundry ventilation systems to 30 social housing blocks.
- Service & maintain over 200 MVHR units to 5 social housing blocks, including replacements when required.
All ventilation cleaning works were to be completed under the current guidelines as follows:
- British Standards EN15780 (2013): Ventilation for Buildings – Ductwork – Cleanliness of Ventilation Systems
- B&ESA TR19 (2nd ed) 2013: Guide to Good Practice: Internal Cleanliness of Ventilation Systems
Solution
In order to ensure a high quality standard of work, Hydro-X Air formed a dedicated social housing ventilation team with many years’ experience. With this we had approved contact letters made which would be hand delivered to the dwellings. On top of this we supplied a dedicated phone line for residents to call to make suitable appointments when required. Any appointments made would be inserted into a live tracking system that the engineers could view to help plan their schedules. Engineers will always produce an image report. This includes detailed analysis of any works completed and/or further recommendations which is then transferred over to Lewisham homes’ contact on completion.
With any project, communication is key, so monthly meetings were arranged between the account manager and contact at Lewisham Homes. This was in order to keep them up to date with the latest developments on the project and to discuss any remedial requirements found to be rectified as soon as possible.
Value added
This project has proven that Lewisham Homes and Hydro-X’s dedication, drive and hard work has delivered the original missions set out. This was helping to ensure safer homes for the residents of social housing dwellings and the wider community within Lewisham by:
- Conducting continual internal ventilation cleaning works to the TR19 guideline standard. Removing dust and debris ensures that extract systems are running to their optimum performance, removing condensation from within the bathroom and toilets thus helping to prevent mould growth and also reduces the risk of fire spread through the communal ductwork system.
- Fire damper grilles were installed within the bathroom and toilets of dwellings which helps prevent any fire spread to other dwellings via the ductwork system in the event of a fire.
- Installing energy efficient extract fan units, massively reducing CO² omissions helping towards the community’s carbon footprint.
