Pool Life!

Citycare Property provide facilities expertise for nine Auckland swimming pools as part of the Auckland Council Facilities Maintenance contract. This means making sure that all facilities associated with pool operations are well maintained 24/7. Most of the time things go swimmingly well (see what we did there) and the team can manage and maintain facilities with minimum disruption for pool goers. But once a year each pool needs to be closed for a period of two weeks to enable scheduled maintenance activities that can’t be undertaken when the pool is filled with water.

Citycare Property’s Mike Fe'ao was Operations Manager for the Auckland Council contract until a recent move to a role in the Health and Safety team and he says that managing the work required during the two-week shutdown is a finely tuned exercise.

“Citycare Property takes a proactive approach to pool maintenance. Our work during a pool shut down is data driven. We look at the data collected across a range of requirements for the full year and from there we can determine some of the proactive work required. For example, if we have been called out to a faulty shower in the changing rooms several times during the year we know that there is probably a more major issue with that piece of equipment, and we will use the two weeks down time as the opportunity to schedule a replacement.  We have also changed things up a bit since taking on the contract. Some tasks were undertaken as a matter of course, even if they didn’t need doing, like replacing all shower heads. Our data showed that this approach wasn’t necessary and was costing additional money and taking up valuable resources. So, now we take a hard look at all the information we have gathered over the year, and we plan our activities around what that information is telling us about the facility. We work closely with Auckland Council staff to design a works package that includes both reactive works and renewals,” says Mike.

The team also uses this time when the pool is empty of water to complete more obvious maintenance like tile replacements inside the pool. The tiles need time for glue and grout to dry so there is a strong planning element involved to ensure time critical tasks are completed to schedule.

“You can’t start tiling two days out from the pool being refilled so we need to make sure that there is precision in planning tasks during the window of opportunity. We need to allow time for the pool to be refilled and gradually reheated. Getting the task schedule right is key to ensuring a smooth operation,” says Mike.

During pool shut down the team also looks at what needs a fresh coat of paint, joinery and ceiling tiles that need replacing, changing room plumbing and fit outs that require an update, drainage and structural elements among other things.

“Essentially we investigate everything associated with ensuring that the facilities within the centre are well maintained to provide the best possible experience for the users.”

The Citycare Property team is also responsible for coordinating a range of other sub-contractors who undertake activities during the downtime. As the lead contractor it’s our role to make sure the downtime is maximised for all maintenance including water systems such as filters and drains.

“We hold a prestart meeting on the Monday morning with all sub-contractors and we review all project works. There’s a great deal of work involved in the coordination phase, and we take the role extremely seriously. It’s up to us to make sure that pool downtime is minimised, and works are scheduled appropriately.”

The team likes to take an innovative solutions approach to their work and not just deliver a standard response to issues. An example of that is a recent addition to the on/off shower buttons.

“People were slamming the buttons hard and causing them to get jammed and we were being called out on a regular basis to fix them. The team came up with a cheap solution to stop the damage by adding a small metal plate cover over the button. We are always looking for how we can do things better. It's not always about technology – solutions can be cheap and effective. It’s often just about using our knowledge and experience to deliver a better result.”

Another example of this approach, and the benefits it brings to our customers, occurred when a line of ducting above a pool collapsed. Luckily it was 2.00am so the facility was empty but following a process review with the customer Citycare Property realised that a structural element review did not appear on anyone’s responsibilities.  This has now been added to our proactive maintenance, and we have since offered improvements such as the creation of access hatches to make ducting more accessible and we have sourced a lightweight fabric option for the ducting that can be washed every two years which saves money and the lighter weight reduces H & S risks, something the Citycare Property team takes extremely seriously.

“H & S is managed as an independent project with a project coordinator who has total control of the whole site. We had a recent example where a sub-contractor was taken off the site because they did not have the right PPE gear for removing tiles when silica dust was present. We don’t make allowances for breaches of H & S regulations at all. That’s part of the reason we are a trusted provider,” says Mike.

Citycare Property staggers the closure of the nine pools across the city. Those complexes that have outdoor pools generally open in December, so October/November are busy months for the team who also manage maintenance of the outdoor facilities.

Our Pool shut down coordinator, Matt Davey, initiated bringing scuba diving works in-house. Use of a specialist contractor to do dive works relating to underwater pool tile repairs were costly and highly dependent on availability.

“As a result, we now have two scuba divers on the team who are available to undertake minor pool repairs when the pools are full. This is working well, and we are looking at possibly training up more members of the team to take on this role. It’s really all in a day’s work for us,” says Mike.