Background
Our relationship with Hanover Housing Association began at the Scottish Housing Conference in 2000 and has developed from a window lubrication and site survey service at four housing schemes in 2001 to a full responsive maintenance programme taking in more than 120 schemes.
The Problem
Hanover HA manages a wide range of schemes ranging from single storey rural developments to four-storey urban buildings and in turn there is a mix of timber, PVC-U and aluminium windows in place in a range of different styles. Even though some of these windows are less than 5 years old, they can face problems including leaking gaskets, failed sealed units and broken hardware – none of which necessitate window replacement but all of which potentially cause discomfort and inconvenience to tenants.
Like many housing associations across the UK, Hanover had originally operated an ad-hoc window and door maintenance programme – calling out generalist building maintenance companies whenever tenants reported problems.
Mila Maintenance Solution
Mila Maintenance’s broad expertise means that we have been able to maintain windows at all of these schemes – whether that means using scaffolding or simply providing a reassuring friendly service when accessing properties from inside; and it have been able to draw upon our knowledge of the market to provide repairs in any type of profile system or to any type of hardware.
We demonstrated that a planned cyclical maintenance programme would be more cost effective and more appropriate for the needs of the association’s tenants and it has proved an overwhelming success.
All of the benefits which Mila Maintenance seeks to communicate about our service has been evident in our partnership with Hanover. Our primary aim has been to extend the serviceable life of the windows and doors in the association’s properties and this it has achieved through using our team of NVQ qualified maintenance engineers to identify and solve problems before they even become an issue for tenants or scheme managers.
Benefits to Client
Mila Window and Door Maintenance has delivered a 95% reduction in responsive window repairs for Hanover Housing Association over the past eight years.
As part of the Mila Hardware group, Mila Maintenance has access to a profile database, profile drawings and samples stretching back 30 years which means that our engineers can identify the right combination of frame and hardware from more than 500 possible combinations and can complete the repair successfully. If hardware is no longer available, then we recommends an appropriate alternative and can even arrange for a suitable replacement to be manufactured.