For the communities across South Auckland, Citycare Property is a highly visible addition to the landscape — maintaining more than 1700 hectares of open spaces across the region. However, Citycare Property’s Full Facilities Maintenance contract for Auckland Council means that we also carry out a lot of ‘behind the scenes’ work on some of our most important social infrastructure assets, including the annual maintenance of the eight swimming pool facilities from Manurewa to Waiuku.
A team of Citycare Property electricians, HVAC technicians, carpenters and plumbers conduct an annual programme of scheduled pool shutdowns so they can carry out any repairs and complete any other building maintenance tasks.
Prior to shutting down a facility, the Citycare Property team meets with the council and centre management to look at previous work orders to see what repairs, if any, have already been carried out before discussing any issues that need addressing, whether there's anything needing to be upgraded and whether it can be done in the timeframe of the shutdown.
Citycare Property recently carried out a shutdown at Papatoetoe Centennial Pool and Leisure Centre as part of an annual maintenance programme.
Expertise in action
A recent shutdown carried out by the team was at the Papatoetoe Centennial Pool and Leisure Centre, a facility comprising an outdoor pool, three smaller indoor pools — including a toddler’s pool — a spa, sauna and gymnasium.
The schedule of works this time around included:
- A full HVAC refurbishment
- Replacing any cracked or broken tiles both inside the pools and on the pool concourse
- Cleaning of the traps and drains and replacement of filters in all the drinking fountains
- Refurbishing of the seating in the sauna
- Touch-up painting to the changing rooms and facilities
- Ensuring all the electrical components, front of house especially, were safe, which meant testing all the plugs and RCDs, checking all the lights and fittings, and checking the sauna elements
Part of the programme involved a full HVAC refurbishment including the cleaning and repainting of all HVAC plant, along with the removal, cleaning, and replacing where necessary, of all air filters.
“From the HVAC side of things, that included the removal and cleaning, and replacing where necessary, of all air filters, as well as cleaning and repainting with anti-corrosive paint all HVAC plant. There was also the cleaning and servicing all wall-mounted air-conditioning units throughout the facility,” says Structures Serviceperson, Matt Davey.
Given the schedule of works and the tight timeframe in which to complete the tasks — in this instance, just nine working days due to the one-off Queen Elizabeth Remembrance Day public holiday — the team has to pre-plan the most efficient way of servicing the building and its components, while ensuring minimal disruption to the public.
“Typically, when there’s tiling to be done, any expansion joints require a five-to-seven-day cure time before refilling a pool, which means the expansion joints are normally the last to be done; so you would do your tiling and grouting then your expansion joints and then let it cure. However, with this restricted programme and the need to handover the facility in a timely fashion, it required a bit of management to ensure the schedule ran smoothly and that all trades got their fair share of the time allotted — something we’ve become quite adept at over the years,” says Matt.
The three interior pools were refreshed and any cracked or broken tiles were replaced.
Enhancing the wellbeing of our communities
Another factor impacting the schedule is the draining and refilling of the pools. The team works closely with the contractor to ensure draining of the pool can be carried out the night before the team is due to start, allowing the team to eke out as much time in the schedule as possible.
The onus is then on the team to ensure their works are completed within enough time to allow the pools to be refilled and brought back up to temperature without creating an issue with thermal shock of the structure — once an emptied pool has cooled down, if it’s reheated too quickly, it causes problems.
At certain facilities, also, the team needs to negotiate only a partial closure as other amenities, such as gymnasiums — and in some instances other pools — remain open. In these instances, the health and safety of centre staff and visitors is critical, with the team ensuring safe entry/exit pathways are always open, while restricting public access to work sites.
A Citycare Property electrician ensures all the electrical components — plugs, RCDs, lights, fittings and sauna elements, were checked and safe for operation.
At Papatoetoe Centennial Pool and Leisure Centre, despite the tighter than usual timeframe, the team completed the works on schedule and began the handover of the facility on time to allow the centre to open for the first day of the school holidays.