174-Unit Office-to-Residential Conversion, Surrey

The challenge

The client was converting and extending an existing office building into 174 self-contained apartments. Information was spread across architectural, structural and MEP consultants, dozens of subcontractors and a fire strategy, in hundreds of separate files and folders.

They needed a single building manual that residents' managing agents could actually use, presented in the developer's own brand rather than a generic template.

What we produced

• A complete building manual covering O&M information, cleaning and maintenance, and certification
• A CDM 2015 health and safety file
• An asset register for the building's plant and equipment
• A project directory and manufacturers' directory
• A structured as-built drawing register
• A branded manual designed by our graphic design team to the developer's brand guidelines
• Secure online access through our client portal, with revision control

How we did it

We reviewed every file in the project's information set, more than 850 documents, and organised the content into seven areas: project directory, scope of works, manufacturers, cleaning and maintenance, health and safety, as-built drawings, and certification and testing.

Along the way we flagged issues for the project team to close out before handover. For example, one set of structural calculations was still awaiting final approval from the reviewing engineer, and one schedule contained data that didn't match the building. Both were raised rather than carried into the manual.

The result

The client received a single, branded, revision-controlled building manual, delivered 4 weeks after receiving the bulk of the information, with every outstanding item clearly logged.