Courtlands Estate, Richmond

Site:
Courtlands Estate, Richmond

Reaction:
“SMS has a good understanding of our heating system. Their regime of regular & thorough maintenance has helped us to provide a reliable service to residents, with downtime kept to a minimum, which is very important. We also value their advice & guidance when it comes to considering future works; we consider pro-active maintenance very important, & their recommendations about this & plant replacement are always given careful consideration.”

Ken Hassan – Company Secretary, & latterly Estate Manager
Courtlands Estate
May 2019

238 thermostats can’t be wrong: A decade of heating maintenance support for Courtlands Estate, Richmond

Managing the varying heating requirements of an average family can be hard enough, but imagine the headache involved when the heating for 238 properties is supplied via a communal, gas-fired, heating system. This is the scenario facing the management team of Courtlands Estate in Richmond, Surrey. This is a large, private estate comprising 11 residential buildings. Of these, half were built in the 1930s & retain much of their distinctive style, with the remainder being constructed in the 1960s. The majority of the flats are in private ownership on long-term leases whilst a few are retained & managed by the Courtlands Estate company.

Ken Hassan, Company Secretary, & latterly Estate Manager, explained more; “The estate has a communal, gas-fired, heating system which is housed in four boiler rooms & which serves all of the buildings, via a 6″ district heating main. There are 15 commercial-size boilers, more than two dozen pumps of various sizes, & miles of over ground & underground pipework. The responsibility of the estate team is to maintain reliable communal services for heating & hot water, whilst dealing with the concomitant issues of repairs & maintenance that arise with plant of our complexity & size.”

In 2009, the maintenance contract for the heating system was put out to tender & the successful provider was Southern Maintenance Solutions (UK) Ltd, (SMS). Over the intervening years, SMS has provided comprehensive maintenance & servicing which can be split into three categories:
a) the provision of reliable regular servicing of the major items of heating plant e.g. boilers, pumps & burners.
b) periodic major contract work including the replacement of ten old boilers.
c) dealing with service issues, both minor issues & those that are more urgent – e.g. a plant outage, where a prompt service response, seven days a week, is imperative.

Martyn Neves, Operations Manager at SMS, explained more about some of the specific issues the company has faced in the last decade. “A site like Courtlands Estate has two main requirements. The first is when there is a problem with the heating & our main challenge then is often finding the source of the problem. The solution is often relatively straightforward but locating & repairing a fault, say in the pipework, can be difficult, especially if we require access to several separate flats in order to deal with it. Secondly, as plant & equipment ages, regular & thorough servicing is important to make sure that it is kept in good condition throughout its working life.”

Work on a site of this size & nature is required throughout the year, with the core element being a programme of scheduled quarterly maintenance. “We don’t anticipate refurbishing any of the other boiler houses in the next few years, but this year we have a programme of replacing several old, belt driven pumps with new inverter driven pumps, which are more efficient & should be more economical to run. We will also be replacing the gas booster sets in the main boiler plant room together with upgrading one of the two burners, again increasing efficiency & saving costs,” explained Martyn Neves. “Otherwise we will be carrying out our routine maintenance of all plant rooms, together with water treatment & servicing of the BMS. We’ll also be continuously renewing radiator valves as & when required.”

Ken Hassan said: “Over the years of working with SMS, they have established a good understanding of our heating system. Their regime of regular & thorough maintenance has helped us to provide a reliable service to residents, with downtime kept to a minimum, which is very important. We also value their advice & guidance when it comes to considering future works; we consider pro-active maintenance very important, & their recommendations about this & plant replacement are always given careful consideration.”

Each of the leaseholders on the estate holds a share in the freehold company that owns & manages the site. The elected Board of Directors appoint the staff who run the affairs of the estate from the on-site office. “The shareholders want the most cost-effective servicing of the estate’s heating plant while having the confidence that when the weather turns cold, each & every one of the residents will be as comfortable as possible in their own homes. SMS has been able to help the estate meet these objectives & our satisfaction with the service they have provided remains very high,” concluded Ken Hassan.

Background

Southern Maintenance Solutions UK Ltd was founded 30 years ago & since then has established itself as one of the leading providers of commercial heating, cooling & air handling installation & maintenance services in South East England. It has had particular success in both the private & state education sectors, but also has long standing maintenance agreements with a range of commercial property managers for premises including various places of worship, modern gym facilities & office/manufacturing buildings.

In addition to its core activities, engineers at the company are also qualified to handle the installation & maintenance of a range of complimentary systems including electrical systems, water treatment, commercial kitchens & commercial pipework installation. The company recognises the need to invest in its staff & currently has three apprentices working towards industry recognised qualifications.