Renovation of occupied buildings
Renewing a building's services while people live in it is an organisational problem first and a technical one second.
Why it is designed differently
In an empty building the phasing follows the technical solution. In an occupied building the technical solution follows the phasing. That changes everything: the routes chosen, the extent of temporary supplies, the order of works, sometimes the system itself.
An example: a riser can be replaced in a week if nobody is there. With the apartments occupied, the same objective means temporary feeds, access by appointment, and work that has to be finished by the evening — all of which belongs in the tender text and the price, not in an argument on site.
What we produce for it
A phasing plan per riser, a shutdown scenario per apartment, template letters to residents with dates and durations, and a tender in which those constraints are explicitly part of the scope. In our experience conflict almost never comes from the technology — it comes from an announced shutdown that was not respected.
Typical interventions
- Electrical risers
- Replacement of rising mains, floor and apartment boards, apartment by apartment, with temporary supply.
- Heat generation
- Plant replaced outside the heating season, or with a temporary boiler where the programme demands it.
- Plumbing stacks
- Replacement of water and drainage stacks — usually the most sensitive work, because it affects bathrooms.
- Retrofit ventilation
- Installing controlled ventilation in an existing building, with routes that do not cost habitable space.
Questions about occupied buildings
How long is each apartment without power?
Usually half a day for the apartment board, within a slot agreed in advance. Longer outages are avoided with temporary supplies.
Do residents have to be present?
For work inside the apartment yes, or access is arranged through the property manager. The programme is communicated several weeks ahead.
Can this be combined with an energy refurbishment?
Yes, and it usually pays: same scaffold, same disruption, two objectives met. We check the available subsidies within the same study.
A project that needs a technical opinion?
Tell us the building and the stage it is at. You will get an assessment and a fixed fee per phase, with no obligation.