A STEP in the right direction - FSH Leaps Into Action

When the team at STEP nursery broke up for the Bank Holiday weekend little did they know that their working lives were about to be turned upside down.

STEP Nursery is a purpose built center, based on Manchester Road in Stocksbridge, Sheffield which offers a range of services for families with young children. The Nursery supports families with children under five, specializing around those expecting a baby. They offer access to childcare and early learning, health and family support, help with finding jobs and training, drop-in sessions and groups with up to 52 child placements available daily.

With a workload like that to deal with the last thing the full time team of eleven staff needed was a major flood. Unfortunately that is exactly what the Manager, Karen Hibberd, walked into following the Bank Holiday break. A component had failed on one of the top floor Belfast sinks resulting in a full bore leak which ran unabated for over 72 hours. The scene when Karen arrived was one of complete devastation with ceilings brought down, floors flooded and walls saturated.

The work would require brand new flooring throughout the three floors, full redecoration, the removal and refitting of 4 WC suites, 2 full kitchens to be stripped and replaced and a drying room full reinstatement.

FSH sprang into action firstly isolating the leak and agreeing a contingency plan with the school so that they could continue to operate, albeit under difficult conditions. Within hours it was agreed that a brand new temporary entrance area would enable the school to continue to use the East Wing. Strategically placed temporary doorways ensured that the affected areas were soon isolated and FSH sent in the specialist teams to strip out and install a bespoke “Injection Drying” system which ensured that the building could be dried without taking up the entire underfloor central heating system.

Once the building had dried and the schedules agreed FSH pulled in all available resources to ensure that within 5 working days the entire Ground Floor was back up and running enabling the school to offer its full services whilst FSH moved onto the staff areas on the First Floor.

A further concerted team effort including working weekends ensured that within a further 10 working days the entire facility was back up and running.