CLEANING
STOKE CITY FC GROUNDS IN PREMIER CONDITION
Premier league football club Stoke City is regularly home to over 28,000 fans.
The Potters are the second oldest professional football club in the world and the stadium also includes a second football-pitch sized training academy in Stoke- on-Trent, Staffordshire.
With a reputation to uphold both on and off the pitch, the team needs to keep its house in order, which is why for the last two years they have enlisted the help of Industrial Cleaning specialists Cleanex Contract Service Limited, part of AM Services Group, to keep the Bet 365 stadium in premier condition. Based next to a large industrial incinerator on the edge of the A50 – the direct route in and out of Stoke-on-Trent – the Stadium is subject to constant airborne pollution and contaminates from the environment that settle onto the landmark. This has created the need for regular industrial cleaning to keep it in fan-worthy condition.
The job included the difficult task of high-level jet washing to the exterior of the stadium, including all of its cladding; the cleaning of two bronze statues of former players, Stanley Matthews and Gordon Banks, the main reception and internal and external cleaning of the vinyl dome at its training academy, which stands over 10 metres high.
Due to the delicate nature of the statues, it was vital that the correct pressure was used in to clear the build of moss and algae on the stone bases and special attention was paid to the chemicals selected to
24 | TOMORROW’S FM
the heights required to do the job. A petrol- powered vehicle housed the jet washing units mounted onto trailers alongside containers holding 1,000 litres of water. High pressure jet washers were used to blast the cladding clean and licensed stand pipes for water, fed the jet washers used to
ensure there would be no damage or adverse reaction with the bronze.
The essential exterior works, despite being at high level, posed no major challenge for the experts who are well versed in complex power washing techniques and experienced in working at height. However, due to the location of parts of the job, there were a number of logistics to manage.
Public safety was a key consideration, due the size and scale of the machinery being used, ranging from 7-15 tonnes. To combat this, clear 'exclusion zones' were set up around the machines. To ensure safe completion of the job with minimum disruption or impact to the public, it was also necessary to manage and temporarily stop the flow of the traffic around the stadium; re-routing pedestrians for their own safety.
High level access equipment in the form of 125ft cherry pickers was selected to enable the team to reach
clean the exterior of the stadium and training academy in just a week.
Chris Condliff, Operations Director at Cleanex said; “This is the second time we have completed large and detailed works for Stoke City and we have now established a very strong relationship with the team at the ground. It was fantastic to see the job fulfilled, especially due to its complex and somewhat dangerous nature; with heights involved. The added challenges of working around the ground workers and negotiating access for all of our heavy machinery were just part of the job. We found a solution that worked for everyone and this included some additional work outside of hours but it was necessary to get the job done professionally and to the best of our ability. We completed the works over three weeks due to the sheer size and scale of the grounds and were very pleased with the end results.”
www.cleanexcontractservices.com
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