(Video) Excel London and Focus Washrooms: Planning for the Future
With more than 100 washrooms across the Excel London estate, many reaching the point where refurbishment is required, upgrading the facilities was never going to be about delivering a single washroom project.
Excel London needed to consider how a wider programme of commercial washroom refurbishment could be planned, designed and delivered around the demands of a live venue.
That was the starting point for the partnership with Focus Washrooms.
Following the completion of the first project, Excel London's Facility Director and Senior Project Manager explain why the partnership was established, how the first refurbishment was approached and what the outcome means for the projects that follow.
Why Excel London was looking for a washroom refurbishment partner
The scale of the estate was one of the main reasons Excel London began looking at a longer-term approach.
With more than 100 washrooms and many approaching the end of their existing lifecycle, the facilities team started creating a plan for how those spaces could be refurbished over time.
Rather than simply appointing a contractor to complete individual projects as they arose, Excel London went to the market looking for a partnership.
The requirement was for a specialist that could bring insight and expertise to the wider refurbishment journey, while understanding one of the biggest constraints facing the venue: projects needed to be completed without adversely affecting day-to-day operations.
Another factor that helped differentiate Focus Washrooms was our close working relationship with our key supplier.
For a long-term refurbishment programme, certainty around product availability, specifications and lead times is important. Having an established relationship throughout the supply chain means that if issues do arise, they can be identified and dealt with quickly, helping to reduce the risk of delays affecting planned works.
For Excel London, this provided an additional level of confidence that the partnership could support not only the design and installation of individual washrooms, but the wider refurbishment programme over the longer term.
The partnership was therefore about more than the physical installation of new facilities.
It needed to support Excel London in planning the programme, developing the design approach and carrying knowledge from one project into the next.
Moving beyond like-for-like washroom replacement
Another important part of the brief was that Excel London did not want simply to recreate its existing washrooms using newer products.
As its Facility Director explains, the objective was to bring new designs, new thinking and changing requirements into the facilities as they were refurbished.
That meant involving Focus Washrooms' pre-construction and design teams early in the first project.
Together, the teams were able to look at the washroom as a complete space and consider areas including accessibility, baby changing provision, energy-saving measures and technologies such as sensor taps and eco hand dryers during the planning and design stages.
This approach is particularly valuable when the first refurbishment forms part of a much larger programme.
Rather than making decisions solely for one room, the project can begin to establish an approach that can be reviewed, developed and carried into future washroom refurbishments across the estate.
How the first washroom refurbishment was delivered
The first project also had to demonstrate that refurbishment could work within the operational demands of Excel London.
Delivering construction work inside a live venue brings a different set of challenges to working within an empty building. Events continue to take place, stakeholders continue to use the venue and disruption has to be carefully controlled.
Excel London's Senior Project Manager explains that the first project was planned, delivered and executed successfully with minimal disruption to events taking place within the venue and to stakeholders using the site on a daily basis.
Achieving this required collaboration from the early stages of the project.
By working with Focus Washrooms' pre-construction and design teams before work began on site, decisions around the layout, specification and individual facilities could be considered as part of the wider delivery plan.
The completed project transformed an ageing facility into a modern, accessible and up-to-date washroom designed to meet the expectations of a major international venue.
Importantly, however, the value of the first project was not limited to the finished room.
Learning from the first project
Excel London has described the first refurbishment as a successful project and has highlighted the value of being able to learn from its delivery.
Following completion, the parties held a lessons-learned process involving the wider project team and consultants.
The intention is to take those findings into the second project, then the third and continue refining the approach throughout the partnership.
This is one of the advantages of approaching commercial washroom refurbishment as a longer-term programme rather than treating every room as an isolated project.
Decisions around design, specification, product selection, project planning and delivery can be reviewed after each completed facility and used to inform the next.
For Excel London, that creates a refurbishment process that can become increasingly informed as the programme progresses.
Planning refurbishment around a live venue
The operational demands of Excel London extend well beyond the first project.
The venue has a busy event calendar, including periods where it is operating at capacity. Refurbishment works therefore need to be programmed around those periods rather than disrupting them.
Having an established refurbishment partner gives the teams the ability to look significantly further ahead.
Excel London's Facility Director explains that projects can be considered 12 to 18 months in advance and, in some cases, as far as 24 months ahead. This allows suitable refurbishment windows to be identified around the venue's wider event programme.
That forward planning provides greater certainty for both sides.
It allows Excel London to understand when future facilities can be taken out of operation, while giving Focus Washrooms greater visibility of the upcoming programme and the opportunity to plan design, specification, procurement and delivery accordingly.
The result is a more coordinated approach to commercial washroom refurbishment: understanding which facilities require attention, identifying when the work can happen and using experience from completed projects to inform those that follow.
From the first project to a long-term refurbishment programme
The first completed washroom at Excel London provides both a finished facility and a foundation for the wider partnership.
It has demonstrated how Focus Washrooms and Excel London can work together across planning, design, pre-construction, procurement and project delivery while operating within the constraints of a busy live venue.
It has also created an opportunity to establish what works, identify where further improvements can be made and apply those lessons to the next stage of the programme.
For estates and facilities teams responsible for multiple washrooms, this type of long-term approach provides an alternative to dealing with each refurbishment reactively.
Projects can instead form part of a coordinated programme, planned around the needs of the estate and refined as more work is completed.
Planning a commercial washroom refurbishment programme?
Focus Washrooms delivers complete commercial washroom refurbishments, managing projects from early planning and design through to procurement, installation and handover.
If you are considering the refurbishment of multiple washrooms or need to deliver a project within a live operational environment, speak to Focus Washrooms about your requirements.