When carrying out an initial inspection, servicing and maintenance visit covering all fire safety systems and measures for 24 apartment blocks in London, the client made use aware of an issue with one block’s natural smoke shaft.

Apparently, the original dome fitted to the shaft blew off in a storm!

A replacement louvre vent (which is the correct vent to have in this case) had been sat in a storeroom for several months on site awaiting installation.

We contacted the manufacturers Xtralite to confirm the vents specification who were exceptionally helpful. Due to the time that had passed in supplying the vent and the potential damage and weathering to the shaft we agreed that it would be best for an installation team from Xtralite to be assisted by RES engineers.

The replacement louvre vent was successfully lifted into place by a local crane hire company and installation was carried out.

While the crane was on site, during our initial inspection, servicing and maintenance visit our engineers had reported damage to the block’s stairwells AOV dome so this was replaced at the same time as the smoke shafts louvre vent.

With the crane, Xtralite and RES engineers already on site, the damaged dome was very economical to replace.

We again came across this issue during our initial inspection, servicing, and maintenance visit. Straight away it was obvious looking at the buckled window that it should never have been installed.

The reason behind it was that the roof opening for a dome (which you expect to find at the top of a stairwell core) was just the other side of the stairwell cores wall so it must have been put in the wrong place from construction as the lobby to the apartments had an AOV the same as all 8 floors below.

We contacted Xtralites sales and design team who proposed a louvre window as being the best replacement option.

The installation was not without issue as on removing the original windows frame there were not the fixing supports that you would normally expect to find. Xtralite were able to manufacture made to measure brackets for the louvre windows installation.

This caused a short delay but in planning ahead with a local scaffolding company meant we were able to keep the scaffold in place for the duration of the works.

The louvre window was installed by Xtralites installation team assisted by RES engineers who then carried out the cabling works and commissioned the AOV window, fully testing the blocks AOV system.

• Design and installation
• Repair and/or upgrading of existing systems
• Regular checks
• Servicing and maintenance