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Plant room strip out in Preston and across Lancashire
In Preston the calls come from hospital and university estates teams, city-centre landlords, and engineering and food firms with energy centres south of the Ribble and beside the M6. We take old boilers, chillers and air handling units apart where they stand, clear them out and land the replacements on their bases. A few larger employers here vet every contractor in advance, so our crew details go across at quoting stage.
We cover Preston, Fulwood, Penwortham, Leyland, Chorley, Longridge and Kirkham. Send photos and we will quote from them the same day, and we work nights, weekends and shutdowns where the building needs it.
What a strip out covers
We start when the M&E contractor has made the old plant safe. Our crew breaks it down and takes it out along the agreed route, with the tanks, pumps and dead pipework around it. The new plant follows and is set level on its bases. Pipework, electrical connections and commissioning stay with the M&E contractor, whose programme we work to.
What comes out of a Preston plant room
| Plant | Where it sits | How it comes out |
|---|---|---|
| Air handling units and roof extract fans | Plant floors above the top storey | Parted at the casing joints into coil and fan sections |
| Cast iron sectional boilers | Boiler houses below street level | Unbolted section by section to suit the stair |
| Packaged air-cooled chillers | Flat roofs and fenced compounds | Picked off in one lift, or stripped of fans and coils first |
| Calorifiers, buffer vessels and cold water tanks | Tank rooms on the lowest level | Cold cut where the shell is wider than the door, then skated out |
| Generators, transformers and LV switchboards | Switchrooms and standby plant rooms | Jacked off their mounts, switchboards split into shipping sections |
The heaviest unit in the room rarely decides the method. The one with the most awkward way out does, and that can be a pump set at the end of a basement corridor. See the plant room strip out service page.
Contact us
Get In Touch
Please leave a few details and a member of our plant room strip out team will be in touch to discuss your requirements in more detail.
Where we work in and around Preston
Preston work comes from the estates and the city’s public and commercial buildings.
Energy centres at Farington and Moss Side
Boilers, compressors and cooling plant come out of the energy centres that serve engineering and manufacturing plants here. Production stops while they are out, so we work in the shutdown. See our automotive and aerospace pages.
Refrigeration in chilled food and storage buildings
Refrigeration packs, condensers and steam boilers leave food plants and cold stores along the M6 and M65, routed clear of the hygiene areas. See our food and beverages page.
Hospital and health buildings in the city
Chillers and air handling units are changed in buildings treating patients around the clock, so new plant runs before the old is disconnected. See our healthcare and pharma page.
Campus and college plant rooms
Lab extract, boilers and air handling plant leave teaching buildings between terms, when corridors and goods lifts are clear of students. See our education page.
Red Scar, Walton Summit and Cuerden
Rooftop units, compressors and boiler plant come out of engineering, fabrication and precision units here while the floor below keeps producing. See our industrial sector page.
Winckley Square and the city-centre offices
Cellar boilers and roof cooling in the Georgian and Victorian offices around the square come out after hours, with tenants back at their desks next morning. See our HVAC sector page.
Access and planning for a Preston plant room strip out
The survey walks from plant room to wagon and settles five points:
- Split sizes. Casing joints, flanges and boiler sections set the smallest pieces on offer, and the heaviest of those tells us whether to book a crane.
- A road closure, and space to land the old plant. Most traffic management and road closure applications go to Lancashire County Council as highway authority, and a lay-down on city land needs Preston City Council’s agreement too.
- Wards and offices that stay open. We set our hours, noise limits, the goods lift booking and a boarded route with the building manager.
- Floors between the plant room and the door. A loaded skate bears on very little floor, so slabs, ducts and cellars under the route are checked and plated where needed.
- Roof lift or internal route. Going over the roof is paid for in a closure and crane time, and going through the building in labour and hours on the stairs. Towards the Fylde, drained mossland in places means crane mats are sized before the choice is made.
Before anything is lifted
Nothing is cut in a Winckley Square cellar or at Farington until the plant is isolated, drained down, locked off and signed over in writing by your M&E contractor. The refrigerant is recovered by an F-gas certified engineer. Any asbestos the refurbishment survey finds is cleared by a licensed contractor.
Each gets its own date in the programme at quoting stage. On a Preston job inside a production shutdown, we confirm all three with the site before the stop, so our crew arrives to plant ready to cut.
Postcodes and areas we cover
We cover every PR postcode, city and county:
- Preston: city centre, Deepdale, Ribbleton, Fulwood, Ingol, Ashton and Cottam
- South of the Ribble: Penwortham, Walton-le-Dale, Lostock Hall, Bamber Bridge, Farington, Leyland and Buckshaw
- The Fylde: Kirkham, Wesham, Freckleton and Lytham
- North and east: Broughton, Grimsargh, Longridge, Garstang and Clitheroe
- Wider area: Chorley, Blackburn, Accrington, Southport and Lancaster
We strip out plant rooms right across the UK.
Why Preston firms choose Synergy Lifting for plant room strip out
- Old plant leaves on our wagons. The cellar or roof is left clear for the new units.
- We work the hours Preston sites give us. That might be a shutdown weekend at a works south of the Ribble or a night in a city-centre office.
- One order from the roof to the plinth. Our crane lifts roof plant off, our riggers bring basement plant out, and the same crew sets the new unit down.
- Qualified and accredited. CPCS and NPORS operators, lifts planned to BS 7121, equipment inspected under LOLER and PUWER, SSIP approved, Constructionline Gold Member, certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, and members of the Construction Plant-hire Association.
More than plant room strip out
Other work we pair with Preston strip outs:
How a plant room strip out works
- List what is coming out and its floor, and photograph each door and stair to a city-centre street or estate yard.
- We come and look, and agree the way out and the split points with you.
- The method statement, lift plan and risk assessment follow, dated after the isolations.
- Our crew strips the plant down, carries it out on the boarded route and puts it on our wagons.
- The replacement is set on its bases and handed over for connection.
Common questions
Our building is south of the Ribble. Who do we apply to for the road closure?
Lancashire County Council is the highway authority for Preston and South Ribble alike, so the closure goes through them either side of the river. We apply and fit the lift to the slot granted.
The only way out of our city-centre basement is a stair. Will the boiler still come out?
Yes. A sectional boiler comes apart into pieces a stair will take, each raised on a hoist rigged over the stairwell. Tanks are cold cut to size in the room.
Can the building stay open while the plant comes out?
Usually, yes. Most of this work happens in buildings that keep running, so the route is protected, the hours are agreed with the building manager, and the heavy moves go at night or over a weekend where that suits everyone. On a heating or cooling system the building cannot lose, the new plant goes in and is proven before the old plant comes out.
Who isolates and drains the plant before you start?
Your M&E contractor, with the isolation, drain down and lock-off signed off in writing before we cut anything. Refrigerant recovery belongs to an F-gas certified engineer and asbestos to a licensed contractor, so we plan our dates around both. We agree at quoting stage who is covering what.
Get a quote for a plant room strip out in Preston
- Phone: 01253 928 180
- Email: preston@synergy-lifting.co.uk
What is the plant, where is it, and is anything going back in? Send that with a few photos taken along the way out.
We also provide plant room strip out in Blackpool, Wigan, Warrington and Manchester. See all the plant room strip out locations.