Situated in Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire, the most westerly county in Wales, Pembrokeshire College is the county’s largest provider of post 16 education and training. So when 583 windows throughout college were identified as in need of repair, the cost implications and the long-term disruption to lessons, caused by piecemeal repair, presented the college with a major problem.
The trouble lay with the vertical aluminium sliding sash windows. The spiral balances had started to fail, causing the sashes to drop unexpectedly with a potentially perilous guillotine effect, putting staff and students in danger.
After investigating alternative solutions, MILA was approached by Pembrokeshire College to submit a tender. After a visit to the site, MILA put forward a list of recommendations that proposed an alternative approach to the problem. The defective sashes to some 583 windows would be refurbished, instead of replaced. This would include the renewal of spiral balances, fitch catches, gaskets and the application of a device to limit opening.
The total cost of carrying out this remarkable restoration? An equally remarkable £78,600, providing the College with a cost effective solution to their problem. MILA calculated that the whole job could be completed during college holidays, a much shorter time-scale than other options, virtually eliminating any disruption to staff and students. Not surprisingly, Pembrokeshire College were delighted to ask MILA to carry out the work, following a successful tender.
Throughout the project, MILA worked closely with the client, even designing and manufacturing a customised part to restrict the opening of the windows (students tended to interfere with the retro fitted restrictors causing them to break). The aluminium stop block was installed inside each window channel, and it did the job perfectly. To minimise disturbance, and to eliminate the expense of erecting external scaffolding, the entire refurbishment was carried out from inside the building.
On top of the planned renovation, MILA were asked to carry out repairs to a leaking atrium roof and to convert a series of manual winding gears to electric openers. Working in conjunction with a specialist scaffolding company these jobs were also carried out during the college holidays.
A satisfied Steve Jones from Pembrokeshire College commented, “MILA’s innovative approach was completed on time and on budget, and has provided the college with first-class refurbished windows without the huge expense and disturbance that other options would have involved”
And, when they’re not gazing out of them during lessons, the students of Pembroke College will benefit from the economic solution of the window refurbishment, that can now be put to academic use.