Contents
Plant room strip out in Bristol and across the West of England
Estates and facilities teams call us into Bristol plant rooms once the replacement plant is on order and nobody has settled how the old units get out. The work comes from health buildings, schools and colleges, harbourside offices, and industrial sites at Avonmouth and Severnside with their own energy centres. We break the old plant down and take it away, and set the new units on their bases.
Enquiries reach us from Bristol, Avonmouth, Filton, Patchway, Portishead, Keynsham and Yate, out to Bath and Weston-super-Mare. Photographs of the plant room and the way out are enough for a desktop survey, with the quote back the same working day. Night, weekend and shutdown shifts are available.
What a strip out covers
We take apart and carry out the boilers, calorifiers, chillers, condensers and AHUs, the tanks, pumps and pressurisation sets, the switchgear, transformers and generators, and the old pipework and steelwork, by whatever route the building offers. New units come in the same way and land level on their bases. The M&E contractor owns the programme and our days are booked inside it. The pipework, the electrical work and the commissioning are theirs.
What comes out of a Bristol plant room
| Plant | Where it sits | How it comes out |
|---|---|---|
| Tanks, pumps and pressure sets | Tank rooms and risers | Off the plinth on toe jacks, skated out |
| Boilers and calorifiers | Basement boiler houses | Burner and flue off, shell parted, rolled out |
| Chillers and condensers | Rooftop compounds | Lifted from a closed street, or reduced to modules |
| Air handling units | Roof housings and plant rooms | Split at the bolted joints into panels and coils |
| Generators, transformers and switchgear | Energy centres and switchrooms | Turned on skates under a low-headroom gantry |
| Redundant pipework and steelwork | Risers and ceiling voids | Cold cut to the flange and carried down |
More on 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 Bristol
Most of this work reaches us from six kinds of building.
Harbourside and city-centre offices
Rooftop chillers and basement boilers leave the mixed use blocks around the harbour and Temple Meads, the floors between still let. See our HVAC sector page.
Energy centres at Avonmouth and Severnside
Boiler houses and site utilities behind the estuary works take production down when they stop, so this plant changes inside a shutdown. See our industrial sector page.
Health buildings across the city
Heating and cooling cannot drop out of a hospital or health centre, so new units are proven before the old ones come down. See our healthcare and pharma page.
Engineering buildings on the north fringe
Filton, Patchway and Yate hold engineering units whose boiler and compressor plant sits in low, crowded rooms, changed while the floor works on. See our aerospace sector page.
Schools, colleges and teaching buildings
Boiler and air handling changes on the education estate go in the holidays, so the window is short and the end date firm. See our education sector page.
Data halls and switchrooms
Standby generators and cooling plant are swapped inside a window the facilities team fixes well ahead. See our data centre infrastructure page.
Access and planning for a Bristol plant room strip out
What we check before a price goes out:
- Split points. Plant separates at panel and flange joints, and the heaviest piece left is what we measure against the cost of a crane and closure on a steep Bristol street.
- Road space, vehicles and the charging zone. A lift from the highway takes a carriageway or a parking bay, and a level standing position is no given on the hill streets. The road closure, traffic management and lay-down go in with Bristol City Council, with vehicles checked against the central clean air zone.
- What the route stands on. A boiler on skates puts its weight through a few small pads. Harbourside ground is made up and older streets have vaults beneath, so each slab to the wagon is checked.
- The hours the building will give. Whoever manages the building agrees our hours, noise, routes and lift bookings with us, and the loud work goes into an evening.
- Lifting or carrying. These price very differently. A crane reaching the roof plant brings its hire and a closure, and still saves the crew days an internal carry runs up.
Before anything is lifted
Three sign-offs belonging to other trades land before our crew arrives. In a harbourside basement or an Avonmouth energy centre, the plant must be switched off, drained and locked off under the M&E contractor’s name, confirmed on paper before the first cut. Refrigerant is recovered by an F-gas certified engineer, and our dates sit behind that certificate. A refurbishment and demolition survey covers asbestos, with a licensed contractor clearing the space first.
All three dates are asked for at quoting stage, and the crane, the crew and any closure are booked behind the last of them. Where new plant reaches site before the room is empty, we settle at survey where it waits.
Postcodes and areas we cover
Every BS postcode, plus the districts either side of the city:
- Bristol: city centre, the harbourside, Temple Meads, Clifton, Redland, Bedminster and Fishponds
- North fringe: Filton, Patchway, Bradley Stoke, Downend and Yate
- Estuary side: Avonmouth, Severnside, Portbury and Portishead
- Out from the city: Keynsham, Nailsea, Clevedon, Thornbury, Bath and Weston-super-Mare
We strip out plant rooms right across the UK.
Why Bristol firms choose Synergy Lifting for plant room strip out
- Buildings that stay open. Offices, health buildings and teaching blocks around Bristol stay open while their plant rooms are emptied.
- Port and process sites are familiar ground. Our crews already work to the site rules, the permit systems and the outage dates that Avonmouth and Severnside run to.
- The crane driver and the rigging gang work for the same firm. The machine in the street, the crew inside, the wagons clearing the old plant and the new unit on its bases are one order.
- 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
Services that come into Bristol strip out jobs:
How a plant room strip out works
- Tell us which units are being replaced, where the room sits, and photograph the way out.
- At survey we settle the split points, the largest piece and how the plant leaves.
- Next comes a lift plan and RAMS that allow for Bristol’s hills and tight harbourside streets, with our days booked after isolation.
- The plant is broken down, walked out along a protected route and loaded onto our wagons.
- We land and level the replacement, and the M&E contractor connects it.
Common questions
Our Clifton plant room has vaults under the pavement. Will the route take a boiler?
In pieces it will. The survey checks each slab and vault cover on the way out, the load is spread over mats or plate, and the shell split to suit the arches.
Our harbourside building has one shared loading bay. Is that enough to work from?
Yes. The bay is booked out in slots, each piece sized to what the approach will take, and the wagon staged nearby so the quay stays clear.
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 Bristol
- Phone: 0117 205 0749
- Email: bristol@synergy-lifting.co.uk
Let us have a plant list, where the room is and whether anything replaces it. Photos of the room, the way out and how steep the street is outside let us price it the same day.
We also provide plant room strip out in Newport, Cardiff, Bournemouth and Swansea. See all the plant room strip out locations.