​The UK, Ireland and the surrounding seas experience between 200,000 and 300,000 lightning strikes every year. While these displays might look impressive from a distance, they can cause devastating damage to buildings and the surrounding areas. Lightning strikes can cause structural damage to a building itself, as well as injuries to employees, damaged equipment and system failures.
 
Lightning protection is essential for many commercial and historical buildings and it gives peace of mind that your structure will be protected. If you want to know more about lightning protection and how it works, read on for our handy guide.

Types of lightning protection

The most common type of lightning protection is a lightning conductor, usually in the form of a metal rod. These are mounted onto the outside of a building to help protect it from lightning strikes and are made from a highly conductive material like copper or aluminium.
 
As well as the external lightning rod, a lightning protection system also requires a connection to the earth. This comes in the form of a ground rod, with a wire connecting it to the external lighting rod. Some types of lightning protection systems include numerous conductors connected by a mesh cage. These systems are usually used for highly exposed buildings or those housing sensitive equipment, such as computer rooms.

How do they work?

Lightning conductors protect a building by intercepting the lightning strike. This means that if lightning hits a building, it will hit the highly conductive metal rod first. The strike is then conducted through a wire into the ground rod, where it can be safely discharged into the earth.
 
The presence of a lightning rod can also prevent a charged cloud from releasing a bolt of lightning in the first place, or if it does, the impact will be much less severe.
 
If you’re in need of high quality lightning protection systems, get in touch with the experts at Rodells. With over 120 years in the business, we’ve got a wealth of experience when it comes to designing, installing and maintaining lightning protection systems. We work with buildings of all shapes and sizes, as well as historical and ecclasiastical buildings, so give us a call today or contact us via our website. 

When you have a business to run, the chances are, one of the last things on your mind is going to be the general building maintenance. Not only is this pretty dull to think about, but perhaps things rarely go wrong in your building, so it isn’t even worth worrying about, right?
 
Not only can ignoring office maintenance violate your building’s lease, but it can also take your business out of action altogether. Considerations regarding electrical safety, structural problems and several other risks to employee safety may cause more than a few businesses to shut down - temporarily as well as permanently.
 
Most office maintenance issues are easily preventable and repairable if dealt with properly. By following basic processes, business owners can ensure they protect themselves against future ramifications as well as poor maintenance habits.
 
With this in mind, here in this blog, we are going to take a look at some of the crucial things you need to carry out in terms of post-winter facilities management for your businesses premises to ensure everything runs smoothly and will be ticking over into the spring.

Where to Begin?

A lot of maintenance tasks are simple and innocuous and develop gradually over a significant amount of time. In this instance, you probably won’t notice the issues until it’s already a major problem. For example, cracks in the building’s structure or rust on its pipework might not be noticed until they develop into larger issues.
 
With this in mind, how do you spot these early signs? You go looking for them. Don’t wait for maintenance problems to present themselves - go and seek them out. Have a procedure regularly that checks for problems across the business premises, including structure, roofing, plumbing and electrics.

Don’t Ignore Anything That Requires Repairs

Similar to an illness, issues that impact your building are often much easier to handle if detected early on. Permitting them to reach a stage where they begin to affect your business operation is not a very wise move. If you have any potential maintenance issues, it is advised that you carry out the needed repairs immediately. It can be very tempting to save money and have a wait-and-see attitude, but this is very risky behaviour that could come back to bite you in a big way.

Invest wisely

Costs of prevention are often never as much as costs of reaction. Replacing an old pipe or section of roofing might not be a fee you want to deal with right now, but it’s very much going to be cheaper than replacing a rusted pipe and paying for the cleanup and repairs caused by water damage when the pipe bursts or the roofing comes off. If it is discovered that you knew about a potential hazard and didn’t act on this, you may also face a few legal repercussions later down the line.
 
Avoid DIY Office Maintenance

Home repairs are a very common practice done by millions of Brits every year. So, it is often in the mindset of a business owner to think about undertaking basic repairs themselves. This is not advised. DIY will take away hours of your time that would be better spent working on your business as a whole.
Business owners are frequently busy and falling behind on work, considering this, making a dent in personal or family time is not worth the price of cheaper office maintenance.
 
Moreover, the argument against doing your DIY goes further than this point. A botched DIY task is a lot much more common than you may imagine. In a home environment, the result of a badly finished - or unfinished project is much more than a nuisance. Moreover, the same cannot be said for office DIY.

Modernise

The old way isn’t always the best. By this we mean, outdated office elements are much more likely to experience issues, as time and usage cause structural integrity to deteriorate. Concerning office elements, we are referring to almost everything; from your heating, plumbing and electricals, to insulation, roofing and ceiling panels.

Quick Building Maintenance Checklist:Here is our concise list of additional things to consider in terms of office post-winter maintenance checks:

Commercial Boiler  

Your boiler is a crucial asset to your business. It is the main thing that keeps your workplace at a comfortable temperature for both your employees and customers. Book your boiler in for a service to make sure it is well maintained and operating efficiently.

Windows and Frames  

When winter comes it often brings plenty of downpours too. Lengthy rainfall can lead to leaking window frames or existing cracks in glazing getting worse. Whilst carrying out building maintenance checks, you need to inspect the condition of your windows and window frames.

Grounds Maintenance  

Throughout winter, paths and paved areas can become a slip hazard as they can get a buildup of leaves, moss as well as mud. To stop slippery paths forming, we advise a hot pressure wash to remove all the leaves, moss and mud. It’s important you still look after your grounds maintenance to stop any trips or slips occurring.

Winter Gritting  

You’ll want to consider a winter gritting program for when temperatures fall to or below zero degrees Celsius. Be sure you have rock salt to grit everything from roads, car parks to footpaths and entrances to prevent individuals from slipping over in icy conditions.

 Guttering  

When it rains check that your building’s gutters are properly catching all the rainwater flowing from the roof. Pay attention to the joints and hoppers as well as making the drains are clear of debris.

Plumbing  

Prepping your pipework for winter will help lower the risk of a plumbing emergency and avoid or minimise damage, distress and additional expense.

Roofing  

Throughout the winter months, we frequently experience powerful storms and strong winds which can damage a building’s roof. It’s essential to make sure your roof doesn’t have any dislodged, weak and unsafe roof tiles. Make sure all loose roof tiles are either repairs or replaced as this is a health and safety risk for your business’ employees and potential customers.

Building Fabric  
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The harsh winter conditions can trigger damage to your business’ building. Proper building maintenance is important to ensure your premises and environment continues to be a safe, comfortable and clean place to work.
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Rodells - Well Known and Respected SpecialistsHere at Rodells, we are committed to providing a quality service to anyone who uses us. Rodells is a well-known Scaffolding and Specialist works company that has been trading since 1898. We continue to always provide a professional and proactive service that meets and exceeds the growing standards in the construction industry.
 
We are committed to lowering our environmental impact, investing and supporting the local communities and to meeting all up to date regulations. Many of our projects require great innovation and skill from our talented workforce. This is shown in the professional design, implementation and execution of the projects. To find out more about the range of services we provide, please feel free to contact us today, we’d be delighted to help with any enquiries you may have.