t2 Building Services was commissioned to design and build seven floors of mechanical services in a 24-week programme at TLE’s co-working space in Finchley, London. This iconic complex has been converted into an educational space and is designed to enhance the full learning experience.

To ensure the comfort of working staff along with the students in the building and account for a large increase to the headcount allowance per floor, we supplied and installed seven air handling units and associated ductwork. Three tea points, baristas and coffee points were installed on each floor to allow for easy access to refreshments.

This project included the relocation of 258 existing four-pipe FCUs. This required modifications to 80% of all secondary ductwork and 90% of supply and extract ductwork.

Our team supplied and installed 60 new WCs with dedicated risers. This also included toilet extractor fans for all new WCs, leak detection to all wet services, new boosted cold-water service and waste service, relocation of all building management system (BMS) outstations and motor control centre panels. We also installed a new future-use BACnet network – a type of building management communication cabling – to provide decreased downtime when the building BMS is upgraded.

We had two separate chilled water and low-temperature hot water risers serving either side of the floor plate. There were different inhibitors in the chilled and low-temperature water, which is very unusual. This meant we had to use separate pumps to flush the chilled and low-temperature water; requiring four pump sets to be installed per floor.

The water quality was the poorest our team has ever recorded on a project. The cleaner had to be introduced three times when it hit a saturation point after just two cleans. However, we swiftly identified the cause of the issues and introduced new valves on each end-of-line unit as well as a new daily valve exercise to alleviate any further issues.

The building management network was obsolete, making sourcing controllers and ancillaries difficult and this complicated the integration. The t2 Building Services’ team successfully analysed the existing services and identified how to integrate new equipment and systems into these.

Excellent planning and coordination were essential to the success of this project due to the short programme, multi-floor working and large floor plates. TLE’s residents now have comfortable and stylish building in which to work and educate.