Case Study:High-Speed Abseiling Stone Repair Enhances London Property

One of our existing clients, a property management company, had a project in London, requiring specialist stone repair skills and colour matching stone whilst working at heights that involved abseiling and working from ropes.

The Project

Our specialist abseilers are highly experienced technicians and were able to complete a stone repair project within a strictly limited weekend window in the densely populated area of Westbourne Grove in West London. 

The challenges were several. First, a very tight time window, as we had to be clear of the site by the Monday morning.  Secondly, the height of the building over several floors required abseiling to reach all parts of the exterior to implement the required stone repairs.  And third, the stone needed to be colour matched which could not be confirmed fully in advance, so the team had to organise themselves to be able to work rapidly and flexibly on the spot.

The Site

Westbourne Grove is in a busy and highly fashionable part of west London, between Notting Hill and High Street Kensington, with a mix of expensive residential properties and commercial businesses. It’s an area that was rundown post war and in the last few decades has been transformed into a London property hotspot.

The Logistics

We were brought in to address specifically stone repairs, as part of an ongoing major repair project. Critical to the success of our weekend task was advance planning and site surveys, to brief the stone masonry team in detail and prepare all stone supplies. Usually, a project of this kind would require scaffolding, which is time consuming, expensive and disruptive. By working from ropes the team were able to work rapidly, covering large areas and reviewing all the stone while they were there as well as repairing the identified issues as required.

Stone Property Specialists

Our organisation and teams are fully accredited with specialist training and CDP is at the centre of people development. Safety is always an integrated priority and applies equally to all training for working at height, using any equipment from ropes to platforms. On average it takes 30 months to train as a stonemason and acquire all the specialist skills required to care for stone exteriors. Most of our stonemasons have been with us for years, allowing us to provide services delivered by people who are both highly skilled and experienced at working as a team.

Revitalising Stone Buildings

We have worked for this property management company before so they already knew how we would approach this project. There’s a fine line between sensitive repair and looking like new, and the latter is not always desirable on an older building. We achieved our goal which was to make it look like the defect had never been there.

Meeting Our Customers' Needs

We were able to prepare a specialist team to move in and operate while the weekday crew were not working. Our ability to complete the repair quickly eliminated any disruption to the ongoing works. We were also able to provide a report to the property management company on the exterior surface which our stonemasons reviewed at the same time.