The work on the Parkside Community College, part of Parkside Federation which runs two campuses in Cambridge, was carried out on behalf of the main contractor, Morgan Sindall; and involved two of the company's finishers undertaking both Stone Care techniques and the making good of scratches to powder coated metal frame windows.
The new facility built by Morgan Sindall provides four additional classrooms and a new entrance area at the college, within what could be described as a high tech style envelope.
The stone Finisher was tasked with repairing a number of reconstituted sandstone window cills where they had been chipped when scaffolding was removed. The damaged areas were treated with a bonding agent and then filled back flush with the original profile, while the use of selected aggregates and pigments gave an exact colour match.
Good colour perception and the ability to blend various pigments by eye are essential requirements for someone becoming a fully trained finisher; and Plastic Surgeon's other operative on the contract used this skill to mix sufficient paint to repair the scratched window frames.
Once the affected areas had been brought up with two part fillers, and carefully smoothed back, the finisher sprayed in the repairs to completely conceal the striations and create a surface which will remain as resistant to weathering as the factory applied coating.
The Contracts Manager on the Parkside scheme for Morgan Sindall, Mr Michael Elmer, comments:
On every project we undertake we strive to achieve as near optimum delivery as possible for the client – which means meeting or exceeding their expectation on a variety of criteria. These include delivery on time, on budget - and with zero defects being the ultimate aim.
This particular job at Parkside Community College achieved that and Plastic Surgeon was amongst the sub-contractors who helped us realize our goals. Although I had been aware of Plastic Surgeon being used by our company, this was my first experience of the specialist service. It seems a very efficient approach to accessing a one-stop shop for snagging or remedial work.
Parkside Federation Academies runs two relatively small secondary schools in Cambridge; Parkside Community College and Coleridge Community College, each offering places for some 600 boys and girls. It also operates a primary school located on its Coleridge campus, known as Ridgefield Primary School.
