Royal Botanical Gardens
Small WorksBackground
The Victoria Plaza café located within the Kew gardens complex had different types of roof coverings that were approaching the end of their serviceable life. The asphalt roof had begun to allow ingress, with the other lead covered roof failing in widespread areas.
Scope Of Service
Core sampling, moisture mapping, survey & proposals for the roofing works, then continuing onto design, supply & installation of a felt overly system to existing asphalt roof with all associated works & overlay existing lead roof system with a new Zinc Vieo system whilst the building is fully operational.
| Location | Kew |
| Project Duration | 7 Weeks |
| Client | Engie Services Ltd |
TSL were invited to attend site and offer proposals for the renewal of the Victoria Plaza Café after undertaking some other smaller works within the complex. It was understood that the building was to remain live throughout the contract. Failing of both roofing systems were noted historically and previous remedial works were ineffective.
Due to the nature of this it was important to ascertain if the roof was required to be completely refurbished or another less disruptive, more risk-averse method could be proposed. To establish this, core samples, moisture mapping and condition surveys were carried out on all the roof areas.
From the results, we concluded that the best and least disruptive option was to overlay the existing lead roofs with a Zinc Vieo system and overlay the existing asphalt system with a bitumen felt whilst thermally upgrading it to bring it in line with current building control regulations for commercial premises.
TSL designed and implemented a logistical and phasing programme to ensure that the works were undertaken whilst the building and complex remained live. The most challenging part was to ensure that site setup, material loading and scaffold erection did not disrupt any of the pedestrians and staff using the complex, this meant that strict out of hours working and programming had to be executed rigorously within the client’s timetable constraints.
In addition, there was an unusual period of inclement weather which resulted in a lot of down time and hazardous conditions. With snow being the main cause of this, the ongoing works had to be protected so that any additional freezing did not damage the new or existing works and cause further leaks.
All and any issues that arose were resolved promptly and efficiently by our onsite management team, ensuring all aspects of the programmes were met regardless. We have now undertaken several other schemes on behalf of this client due to the outstanding success of this project.
