Issue 40 winter 23 web - Flipbook - Page 62
ASWS addresses lead paint issues
during Dover Street contract
As an acknowledged specialist in dealing with the presence of lead paint, as well as the restoration of all
types of metal windows, Associated Steel Window Services (ASWS) has carried out a detailed contract
on behalf of Collins Construction during the refurbishment of 35 Dover Street in London.
The London-based company was selected to carry out the
painstaking work, which required multiple applications
of a non-toxic poultice strip, as the result of its previous
involvement with the main contractor on other high profile projects. ASWS’s team of highly trained operatives
was involved across four of the five storeys to the former
‘Empress Club’ and office building, striping and restoring
a total of 36 large steel windows and screens.
Director of ASWS, Kris Bennell, commented: “The
options for on-site paint removal are limited, but they do
include grit blasting which can be noisy, has to be tented,
and requires the provision of cleaning and changing
facilities allocated just to the operatives involved. The
second alternative is using hand-held chipping and scraping tools, which still generate significant vibration and
dust hazards; or there is the poultice chemical removal.”
The use of lead paint was banned 30 years ago on health
grounds, which means its presence is almost always
masked by later coats of modern gloss paint; but trying to
remove the build up by sanding or heat risks exposing
workers to inhaling the harmful heavy metal. ASWS
can offer other methods of paint removal, but chemical
stripping was the best option for Dover Street, to take the
frames back to bear metal for repairs to commence.
Kris continues, “At Dover Street we applied between five
and seven coats of the epoxy paste to the windows – some
of which were quite large – and this has to remain for 24
to 72 hours before being scraped off. Not only is the paint
retained within the ‘poultice’, but the lead is neutralised
and converted into a manageable form, which is bagged
and removed by an approved waste management company. The actual repairs involved replacing broken hinges