Macaulay Court

Overview

Macaulay court, a 5 story privately owned residential block consisting of 49 flats situated in Clapham SW4. Macaulay Court was Built circa 1920’s and had slipped into a state of disrepair and needed some love.

Tendered for in 2019, the project had slipped off CTC’s radar until we received notification that we had been successful in our bid mid-2020 and the Directors and Management Company wanted us to start immediately. We confirmed that our tender price stood firm the contract was signed and work begun.

The first task was to carryout a R&D survey to confirm the full extent of asbestos content within the building, it was discovered that asbestos containing material was found in the artex wall coverings, in some floor finishes and the lift ceiling panels. We appointed a specialist contractor to safely remove the asbestos so that work could continue.

A fire risk assessment was complete and on doing so we identified that the building was non complaint. It was important to maintain the buildings heritage and keep as many of the existing features as possible. The communal doors were made of solid oak doors and with a little upgrade could be deemed acceptable by building control and the fire brigade.

We removed all the boxing in and discovered that the pipes serving the flats were made of lead, at the end of their lifespan ‘sagging’ from clip to clip. We were instructed to remove the old pipework and upgrade to new. During pipe replacement we added lever valves serving each flat to assist in future maintenance.

The electrics did not comply with current regulations and had to be replaced. We worked with a new lighting design, adding emergency lighting, and introducing PIR switching with all cables hidden in the fabric of the walls.

We investigated the integrity of existing internal render. That to was at the end of its lifespan and we ended up rendering and skimming more than 2000m2.

CTC completed all the work you would expect to find within a full refurbishment of this nature and as the principal contractor we were overwhelmed to witness the result in the knowledge that ‘we done that’. There are so many nice old features that we restored: the Aldous & Campbell lift, parquet flooring, solid oak doors and winding oak handrails to name a few.

This project was completed throughout the Covid 19 pandemic and although we were continually tested and had to adapt and use unconventional techniques, we developed safe working methods that enabled us to work alongside the leaseholders and maintain our programmed deadline. To the delight of the property directors, management team and contract administrator this project was completed 1 week ahead of schedule.