Jones Weatherproofing worked with Bouygues Energies & Services to weatherproof building penetrations at the VIRTUS Data Centres LONDON14 facility at the Stockley Park Campus.
This large-scale development required a high level of flexibility and project coordination from the Jones Weatherproofing team, including coordinating our schedules to accommodate other site operations and managing access complications. Despite these challenges, the team successfully weatherproofed more than 175 service penetrations, ensuring long-term and reliable protection against moisture ingress and wind uplift.
Weatherproofing building penetrations and overcoming access complications
One of the biggest challenges of the LONDON14 project was access. Although scaffolding had been installed in some places, access was mainly via floor-level gridwalks. The positioning and complexity of the multi-level penetrations required additional access equipment, allowing the Jones Weatherproofing team to work safely across the entire face of the building.
Although we had initially planned to use mobile elevating work platforms (MEWPs) to carry out the weatherproofing and meet health and safety requirements, we discovered that the gridwalks had an unusually low weight restriction. This meant that our standard access equipment could not be used without risking damage or causing delays.
Courtney Foxwell, contracts manager at Jones Weatherproofing, explains: “We had to work quickly to source new access equipment that would meet the weight restrictions, while still providing safe and reliable access for our team.” As well as sourcing new equipment, Courtney also worked closely with Bougues and other trades to ensure the changes didn’t affect progress of the overall project: “We had to reschedule our own workforce and we maintained constant email and phone communication with the client, the team leader and other contractors to ensure our change of schedule didn’t negatively impact project timelines,” she adds.
Weatherproofing complex building penetrations
Being a large data centre, the Stockley Park project was also complex, with over 175 building penetrations, including mechanical and electrical systems, cable trays and services that are critical to the facility’s performance.
The Jones Weatherproofing team worked methodically to ensure every building penetration was weatherproofed to a high standard. We were also called back to site to assist with temporary cables while the building was awaiting its full power supply.
John Robson, project manager at Bouygues Energies & Services, praised our service and results: “The Jones Weatherproofing team are great contractors. They’re easy to work with, and it was smooth running to get the building penetrations weatherproofed. The team has been brilliant.”
Safeguarding data infrastructure with reliable weatherproofing
The VIRTUS Data Centre Campus at Stockley Park is a flagship development for the region, providing over 112.5MW of IT load across multiple bespoke-designed facilities, including LONDON14.
Throughout the project, Jones Weatherproofing demonstrated its core values of trust, quality, innovation and support. By quickly sourcing alternative access equipment, efficiently rescheduling works and maintaining clear communication, the team ensured the weatherproofing was carried out within timeframes and to a high standard. The result will help to safeguard the critical infrastructure housed within the LONDON14 data centre for many years.
Matthew Jones, commercial director at Jones Weatherproofing, added: “We’re proud to have worked on this project – it demonstrates the strength of our team and the versatility of our weatherproofing services.”
Jones Weatherproofing provides trusted and compliant weatherproofing for a wide range of projects, including data centres, hospitals, industrial facilities, airports, offices, schools and residential properties.
To learn more about weatherproofing building penetrations on your project, please contact us.
