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One of our many contracting partners called to ask if we could provide some suggestions for a bird problem to one of their clients in Croydon – they have had constant issues for years and just needed to know if there was a solution that would actually work for them, so I booked a survey and went to have a look.

The building in question was a huge office block, and the problem was 15 storeys up on the rooftop. They had tried all sorts of things and unfortunately had spent lots of money on just about everything but by not using a specialist company like Rapid ESL they did not get the correct advice and definitely not the right products.

Having seen the total mess they had got in, it was relatively simple to come up with a solution. Basically, the building has a metal walkway platform which follows the building edge which sits on top of air handling ducting.

It also has a window cleaning cradle and track which runs around the edge as well which adds a different dynamic to edge protection – the clearance between the cradle and edge is very small so any spiking which had been used was soon knocked off, falling 15 floors to the path below!

The birds were initially landing on the edge, then hopping across the rails and under the walkway – a perfect nesting place.

The client’s pest controller had tried everything including trying to net the void with no success.

Our solution was very simple, Avishock on the building edge – it is low profile and highly effective so birds would not go near it after a very short while, then sealing off the area under the walkway with weld mesh – providing a total solution to stop nesting.

Part of this overall project was to re-surface the floor and replace the lagging on the ducting – all done by our partner, but timing was critical to ensure the birds did not foul the new ducting covers or floor area.

We prepared the proposal and the client was mildly surprised at how reasonable the costs were, considering he spent more each year on ineffective pest control, so the order was raised and the planning began.

Logistics on jobs are often an issue and this was no exception – getting 100 sheets of mesh up 15 floors in a small service lift was a bit time consuming and also working in pretty tough conditions exposed to all weathers at extreme height also has to be carefully thought through – the things you cannot control like the weather really make such a difference on these projects.