The team here at Norwich Glass Company are proud to work on a wide range of projects and jobs for both residential and commercial clients. We are always ready to embrace a challenge, which this particular case brought in spades. Our expert glaziers and highly experienced admin team worked together throughout this job, resulting in a seamless project that met tight deadlines and efficiently tackled difficult site circumstances.
This project was a real team effort, with everyone pitching in at different stages to get the job done. It’s the kind of work we love doing, and we’re excited to share it with you. Take a look at how we tackled this commercial glass replacement project from start to finish.
The client
Derwent Facilities Management.
What the client wanted
The Derwent team required 3 panes of glass to be replaced on the top floor of their All Saints Green student accommodation building, around 18 to 20 metres off the ground. This tall building can be found in the centre of Norwich, bordering the city’s busy bus station, the central hub for transport.
What we did
- Boarding up service
- Replacement survey
- Glass sourcing
- Glass replacement
Our team of glaziers boarded up the broken panes in the common room to keep the property safe and protect the students and staff. Once everything was secure, they surveyed the panes, sourced the right type of glass to match the originals, and replaced them. Now, the common room is back to looking as good as new.
Challenges and solutions
- Busy location
- Time of year
- Difficult position
- Specific glass size and type
This job posed challenges we don’t typically face but were ready to tackle.
The All Saints Green student accommodation building stands directly next to the bus station, one of its walls acting as a border for the station. Because of this, we had to prepare to work in a very busy area.
Paired with the busy location was the time of year: December. The location alone provided us with a need to get the job done quickly and efficiently, and the promise of large crowds and extra buses for Christmas shoppers around our job site put even more pressure on meeting the tight deadline.
Another challenge was the difficult position of the glass replacement. The All Saints Green building stands eight stories tall at around 20 metres. The three panes that failed and needed replacing were on the top floor, requiring us to seek outside assistance with scaffolding and a suitable crane.
We were faced with another delay in the form of glass manufacturing time. The size and type of glass needed was specific to the building, so we had to wait for it to be custom-made. In the meantime, we worked closely with the other contractors and the bus station to organise dates for the crane to be in use, ensuring everything was ready as soon as the glass arrived.
Our friends at Ideal Scaffolding provided the scaffolding, but due to the structure of the building, they were unable to complete a standard survey without conducting additional research. This proved a problem for the deadline, as it would be too late if we waited for the survey’s completion. Without the full scaffolding, we wouldn’t be able to carry out the work until one month later.
Due to the size and weight of the units, we hired a crane to lift the replacement panes to the top of the building. Issues with securing the scaffolding into the building meant we had to crane the glass up to the flat roof and leave them there until the scaffolding was complete. Because of the time of year and the bus station needing to close stops for our work, we had to do the job this way otherwise it would have been put off for a further few months. The bus station does not allow stop closures during December, so we needed to get the job moving.
To get the boarding up wood to the top floor, we were able to take the building’s stairs as the wooden pieces are smaller than the windows and are fitted to the inside. The client wanted to keep the frames intact, so we fitted batons inside the frames to hold the boards securely. This meant we didn’t need to fix the wood directly to the frames, preserving their original condition.
The client also requested that the broken glass be removed carefully for analysis to determine the cause of the failure. Without the crane on-site on the day of removal, transporting the glass panes down in one piece wasn’t possible. To solve this issue, we cut around the areas of damage – this allowed us to get the glass to the ground in smaller pieces in bins using the building’s lift.
Length of project
- 1 day to board up the broken windows
- 1 day to lift the glass onto the roof
- 2 days to remove the broken panes and install the replacements
External contractors
We had help from Ideal Scaffolding and RJ Crane Hire for this job.