Before Cleaning
Last week we were called upon to deal with a severe pigeon problem in some old railway arches in Wandsworth, London. Basically, the arches are undergoing renovations to convert them into retail units, but to do this the old archway beams need to be inspected and replaced as necessary. In order to survey these, scaffolding had to be erected to carry equipement and a team of people to carry out the inspection.
This particular archway was so badly contaminated with pigeon droppings, the scaffolders refused to work any higher than a basic platform (and quite rightly too)- hence our involvement.
We were called to do an urgent survey and assess the situation, so attended site within hours. On inspection, we were greeted with a hideous sight – many years of accumulated pigeon poo – at some points there was over 6 inches of compressed poo – carcasses and decaying waste. This was one of the worst cases I have seen in some time, however our moto is the filthier the better!
Before Cleaning
Following my report and quotation, we started work the next day. Holding up the scaffolding work was causing major issues on the project schedules so being able to respond to our clients needs helps them out of a bad situation was just what was needed.
Safety is paramount for this type of job, so making sure all personell on site are fully briefed and equipped to tackle the task at hand and also understanding the environment they are working in is a key factor in doing jobs like this. When on sites like this, communication between team members is also critical, we always work in pairs under dark cramped situations so if a problem occurs we can deal with it quickly.
The other problem was working at height inside what can only be described as a cave. Conditions are cramped, dark, uncomfortable and you are in full PPE for the duration of the job, making normal banter impossible.
Anyway, things went well – its all in the planning – and we removed over 1/2 a tonne of bird faeces from this one area, cleaned all the beams, pipework and ledges with a specialist bird cleaning fluid which kills all pathogens contained in bird faeces.
After Cleaning
The next phase of this project was then to prevent further issues whilst the renovations were underway, so we provided and installed a semi permanent bird netting solution to stop pigeons re-entering the arches. The site manager wanted a gateway left to allow easy access for workers, so the top section of the netting was a normal installation, and the bottom of the netting was made easy to remove and replace as required.
Bird Netting Completed
The great news is the scaffolders moved back in and completed their installation, the site manager was delighted that the project was getting back on track and now the arches are safe and clean for building work to commence – the only losers in this operation were the pigeons!
So if you have a pigeon problem and need an appropriate solution to the problem, contact Rapid Environmental Services Now for a survey and advice.
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