- Client
- Savills
- Site
- The “Cheese Grater” and the “Walkie-Talkie” buildings in London
- Scope
- Passive fire protection surveying and follow-up remediations
Summary of the project
This project involves ongoing passive fire protection surveying services and follow up remediations of non-conformities in the fully occupied commercial offices of the Leadenhall Building (the “Cheese Grater”) and the Fenchurch Building (the “Walkie-Talkie”).
Working within this occupied commercial complex means liaising constantly with dozens of high-value stakeholders, requiring clear cooperation and communication.
Success at a glance
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Fully occupied offices required us to deliver rapid turnarounds through our local reactive teams
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We performed over 300 replacements and remediations over 2024
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Our specialist surveyors identified unique issues and worked with our remediation experts to resolve them
How we delivered it
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Phase 01
Pre-start phase
The prestigious nature of the buildings necessitated a structured and detailed planning stage. During the initial pre-start meetings, we worked with Savills to establish a plan for managing the many high-value stakeholders, through clear, consistent communication and responsive team management.
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Phase 02
Planning around access
During the planning stage, we had to take into account the high security requirements, and the potential delays these could have on our programming. Additionally, as the buildings are both fully occupied, our programming had to absorb any delays due to access issues. We worked closely with building managers to schedule our works around the day-to-day routines of the building users.
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Phase 03
Survey
The first phase, conducted throughout 2023, involved a full survey of all passive fire protection and fire doors of the Leadenhall Building (and later the Fenchurch Building).
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Phase 04
Installation
Following the survey, Savills appointed us to complete the required remediations. Due to our industry-leading project management software – used to track all our works across the London and South East region – as well as our reactive remediation teams, we were able to offer the rapid, reliable remediation of fire stopping and fire prevention issues.
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Phase 05
Handover phase
Our comprehensive records of all remediations and replacements maintained the Golden Thread throughout the project, ensuring the building owners and users to feel completely confident in the structure’s ongoing fire safety.
Lessons learned
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Collaboration is key
During surveys, our team identified a serious access issue: pipework physically blocked access to a riser cupboard, preventing adequate firestopping. As we were performing the remediations as well as the surveys, our surveyors were able to swiftly inform our remediations team of the issue, giving us time to discuss and design an engineering solution.
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Strong management facilitates success
The high-value and high-risk stakeholders involved in this project meant that we needed strong, robust management processes in order to keep all stakeholders satisfied. Our management team, headed by our Operations Manager, Nick Darnbrook, were highly responsive throughout the project, ensuring clear team direction and dedicated client support.
