The Sorting House, which began its life as a post office, offers a creative living environment in Manchester City Centre. It now houses 107 apartments and eight commercial units, offering a luxury, city-centre living experience with a unique social garden between apartments.
Seddon was appointed to undertake external repair, upgrade and decoration works, including windows, doors and frames.
Prior to commencement on site, the team recognised the importance of communication with the building’s tenants. All residents were notified once works were awarded, providing a copy of our residents' handbook to each. The Seddon booklet explains who we are, the works to be undertaken, programming and some health and safety awareness whilst works are being undertaken. This was then followed up by a personal visit from our site supervisor to arrange convenient times for windows, doors and frames to be painted.
Appointment times were agreed with all residents to ensure works could be successfully completed within the agreed programme whilst also minimising potential disruption.
Many surfaces were in very poor condition having missed previous cyclical maintenance and were consequently deteriorated back to bare timber. There were areas where timberwork had cracked, especially on beaded sections of the windows and various elements of rot were found.
Such areas we drilled out back to sound timber, followed by the application of the Repaircare system, whilst other area poor areas required various elements of preparation and filling, prior to the application of any coating works.On appointment a Dulux Weathershield Undercoat and Gloss system was specified, however it became apparent this solution was no suitable as due to the long cure time. As such, we proposed and agreed on the use of a Dulux Waterbased Opaque System, which is touch dry within an hour and also gives a more aesthetical look to the timber.
