An award-winning central London data centre required the fit out of an additional floor to bring another data hall online, all whilst the building was occupied. Due to our experience in this environment, Gratte Brothers Limited was appointed as the M&E services contractor.
The premises, a 91,000sqft 1970s concrete shell, had been skillfully engineered from its previous incarnation as a carpet warehouse.
Gratte Brothers was appointed Principal Contractor to undertake a range of services including the specialised installation of HAC (Hot Aisle Containment), to guarantee the optimum Server operating conditions, alongside more commonplace M&E works: electrical distribution, BMS, lighting and smoke detector installation, water treatment, plant movement and in-row cooling. Gratte Brothers also undertook the CCTV and builders work packages including a raised floor.
This project exhibited numerous challenges, not least the 16-week programme required by the client. This particular challenge required lateral thinking by the site team who had to construct a temporary floor to install the exposed ceiling services and floor distribution panels in order to meet the deadline.
Being a Live Data Centre, dust was a critical control measure and Gratte Brothers engineered sealed enclosures around all access and delivery routes to prevent contamination. The building was occupied at all times by the client workforce which meant restrictions on noise and vibration. Sequences of operations and hours of work needed to be flexible to ensure the project was delivered on time.
