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The Gardens

The Gardens are a series of 32 residential properties in South East London. Consisting of 3 & 4 story homes converted in to multiple high spec domestic dwellings.

PFS Group, working on behalf of Grainger PLC, were tasked with upgrading the fire alarm systems at 25 of these properties in 2021.

The project started with our team of estimators surveying the properties to gain all the information required for these upgrade works. While these properties are very similar in design, our estimation team did not take the chance in not surveying these to ensure that we quoted for all works that were required.

While reviewing options for these upgrades it became apparent that a wireless system option for each of the properties to offer a solution that would provide low impact on the ascetics and minimal disruption to the residents, an important concern for our client.

Each building had a wireless signal survey carried out to aid design the of the infrastructure throughout ensuring that adequate signal levels were maintained. Our estimation team provided full system design to comply with BS5839-6 with the use of EMS Firecell control panels and field devices.

The office team worked closely with site management to ensure the programming of the works was as efficient as possible, minimising disruption to residents.

The wireless system prevented us from experiencing issues relating to the wiring of the devices and meant the entire project was completed within the client time frame. One by one as each system was installed, programmed and commissioned handover was achieved and certification, full asset data and graphical zone plans were provided to Grainger PLC.

As part of our contract with Grainger PLC, PFS Group continue to provide support and maintenance for the properties at The Gardens.

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135 Bishopsgate

In 2020 PFS Group successfully completed a CDP CAT A base build project for Gratte Brothers in conjunction with the main contractor Sir Robert McAlpine and their client, British Land.

 The 135 Bishopsgate project had a contract value of approximately £1.5 million over a period of 14 months for the design, installation and commission of the fire detection, PAVA and EVCS systems. The project formed part of British Land’s redevelopment of the Broadgate site in Central London which is being completed in phases.

The schemes target was to re-instate the building to CAT A status after all tenants were vacated as part of work completely replace M&E services within the building.

PFS Group were responsible for the design of the system as part of this we partnered with Honeywell Gent to deliver the best all round performance required by such a large project. There were many challenges along the way encompassing all the 3rd party services to be monitored and actioned by the fire systems on site and the numerous M&E contractors involved with a heavy coordination element.

One particularly challenging aspect of the design was the requirement of a cascading alert and evacuation message throughout the site in line with the client’s fire strategy and limitations of footfall on stairwells. This impacted heavily on the numbers of fire panels required and needed a lot of hard work from our commissioning teams and senior programmer who all rose to the challenge and drove the project to a successful completion.

The systems installed consisted of Honeywell Gent life safety systems with a back bone network of fourteen Vigilon panels with Squad devices. The PAVA systems are a fibre network of five custom made Honeywell PAVA racks with fire microphones and PA microphones as required. The speaker systems utilised on the project were also produced by Honeywell.

The project has a front-end GUI graphics system and numerous gas and water extinguishing systems throughout the building including flame detection in the HV and Life safety generator rooms.

There are a number of lightwells and atriums within the building which are protected by Honeywell Gent aspiration detection systems. For the EVCS solution we partnered with Vox Ignis to provide a combined system of fire telephones, refuge points and DDA WC alarms all monitoring back to a central point.

Overall, this project was a great success for the PFS Group team and we are proud to still maintain the systems we installed at this property many years later.