John Cadburys House

Pigeon Netting

Case Study No. 006
 
Client. Aston University
 
Overview. Our client asked us to install Pigeon netting above a service court yard
 
Industry. Education
 
Project Name. John Cadburys House
 
Project Location. Birmingham, England
 
 
Brief / Challenge.
Pigeons are roosting under the air conditioning units and service ducks in a sheltered court yard. The air conditioning units could not be serviced due to the health concerns from the pigeon droppings. The guttering and down pipes were clogged with pigeon droppings and as a result, brown contaminated rain water was running down the outside wall of a five-storey building.
 
Survey Finding.
The existing netting is old and ripped. There are several areas of the net missing with over a dozen rips caused by tree branches pushing their way through the net. The edges of the net were beyond repair and had to be replaced, the top of the net was salvageable with some minor holes that were repairable. The net is located in a court yard that is only accessible through a first-floor window. Due to the large openings in the side of the netting Pigeons are gaining access. The steel wire supporting the netting is broken in several areas and beyond repair. There were a dozen pigeons roosting under the AC units and electrical conducts on the day of our inspection with large patches of the car park area covered in droppings
 

The service we delivered. 
A scaffold had to be installed by Optimum scaffold. There were two scaffold towers installed; each tower was a cantilever design as it could only be fixed to one point on each side of the court yard. The instalment took four days to complete due to difficulties on site, restricted car parking and access. A permit to suspended the car parking bays at the front of the property had to be applied for. The scaffold had to be transported up one flight of stairs and through a window to access the court yard, the court yard was an irregular shape meaning the cantilever beams had to be cut to order. A new wire frame to support the bet was installed around the left and right sides of the current net. New netting was attached to the wire frame using hog rings. For want of a better description a hog ring is a large stapler that crimps the net to the wire. We installed 50mm stainless steel mesh into the gap that allows rain water to run off the roof and into the down pipes, this gap was large enough to allow pigeons to gain entry to the court yard. Minor repairs were then carried out on the top of the net.
Once the scaffold was removed the carpet covering the stairs and leading up to the access window was steam cleaned by Doug of Optimum scaffold and the window frame was repainted, a service supplied by Optimum that I am sure no other scaffold firm would supply