Data Centre, St helens

This is facility remained live throughout the installation works

The original 210m2 of raised access floor was installed in the 1970’s.

The support structure is a substantial grid system comprising of hollow steel sections welded and bolted together.

The standard floor panel size at this time was the old imperial measure of 24 inches x 24 inches and the supporting grid was installed to accommodate these dimensions. No fixed panel locators existed at the cruciform junctions of the support system causing the floor panels to move creating a serious safety issue. The existing floor panels were faced with a fibre bonded carpet that had delaminated in places causing trip hazards.

The Solution

A positive panel location system was achieved by using a standard PVC pedestal cap slightly modified and fixed to the supporting grid cruciform with a heavy duty contact adhesive.

Bespoke edge -banded floor panels were manufactured to 24 inches x 24 inches, the exact size as the original. The new panels were installed with a heavy contract static dissipative vinyl.

Due to the nature of the facility, work was successfully completed in 5 phases over a period of four weeks.

Before

In progress

After