24hr Emergency Disaster Response

School in Romford - Emergency Call Out

Large Scale Flooding on Open Evening for School – The Ideal Group responds to Emergency Call out.

Case Study for Mawney Foundation School

On the evening of Thursday 3rd November 2011 The Mawney Foundation School based in Romford, Essex was enjoying a school open evening when disaster struck.

The School which provides schooling for over 290 children aged between 4 and 11 was damaged by a major flood.

After a tremendous down pour of rain the local river flooded and a surge of flood water worked its way through to the school gates and breached the main entrance hallway into the classrooms. This resulted in around two inches of water flowing throughout the whole school affecting around twelve classrooms, the corridors, and the main school hall.

School site manager Paul Adams called The Ideal Group and asked for assistance. The Ideal Group received the telephone call for help at 7pm that Thursday evening and sent a project manager early the following morning to inspect the damage. The plan was to return the school to its original state as soon as possible. The school had to close on the Friday because of the flooding, and in order to minimise the disruption to the pupils education the aim was to re-open again the following Monday. The Ideal Group therefore knew that the drying out needed to be completed very quickly, and had only 72 hours to successfully achieve this deadline.

Business situation

The Ideal Group responded quickly and understood that the main aim was to keep the school open to allow the pupils to continue their essential Key stage 1 and 2 curriculum education. It was decided that in order to achieve this, a rapid drying solution was necessary, and The Ideal Group’s Rapid Dryer units were swiftly despatched to the school early the next day.

The target was for the drying to be completed the following Monday morning before 8am. This meant that the drying equipment needed to be safely decommissioned and removed before any of the school children and their teachers arrived for school.

Technical situation

On arrival on site The Ideal Group carried out a comprehensive site survey to assess the extent of the flood damage. Moisture readings were taken in the floors and walls to ascertain how much moisture had soaked into the fabric of the building in each classroom, corridor, and the school hall. It was identified that water had penetrated the wooden parquet floor below vinyl floor covering in all areas. It was also established in some areas that carpet saturated with contaminated water was beyond saving. This was therefore lifted and safely disposed of. After discussion and agreement with the school, the Ideal Group technicians also removed the vinyl floor coverings to safeguard the wooden parquet and to allow efficient drying to take place. Since moisture levels were very high and the drying time was limited, senior project manager Javid Ibrahim from The Ideal Group designed a drying regime that incorporated a rapid heat drying process. Since the school had to be closed following the flood, and would be unoccupied over the weekend, the school building was ideally suited to being dried using this innovative rapid drying method.

Solution

The drying progress was monitored over the weekend and further moisture readings were taken. In the early hours of the following Monday morning the school had dried sufficiently for the drying equipment to be turned off and decommissioned. The Ideal Group then provided a final report for Paul Adams and the school was safely handed back. Paul Adams said “The team from The Ideal Group worked very hard, and took a tremendous weight off my shoulders during the incident. The swift response by The Ideal Group led to the school returning to normality far sooner than we had expected.”

Benefits

Until The Ideal Group had arrived, provided advice and assistance, Paul Adams and the head teacher Craig Brown had anticipated far greater disruption to the school. However, a rapid response, professional flood damage restoration cleaning and drying action from The Ideal Group allowed the school to re-open again after only four days. In fact pupils only lost one school day. To the relief of the Head Teacher The Mawney Foundation School children’s education commenced again straight after the weekend the following Monday morning.

Working with the Ideal Group

After a major escape of water or flood wouldn’t it be nice if a company took care of absolutely everything, from dealing with insurers, to carrying out all work on your property? That’s where The Ideal Group comes in.

The Ideal Group can send an incident surveyor to your property within 24 hours of your call and assess what needs to be done. We can contact insurers and agree costs to clear up the mess, make the electricity safe, and agree the cost of getting a professional building surveyor to draw up a reinstatement specification to your satisfaction. If required we can carry out decontamination, odour removal and bring your property back up to scratch including carrying out all necessary building repair work.