Specialist and Rope access Cleaning Services
Newcastle Upon Tyne and Gateshead Quayside, in case you were not aware, has one of the largest, if not the largest, I seem to recall someone telling me once, inland nesting colonies of Kittiwakes in the world.
Kittiwakes generally arrive early April every year. They are quite a sight as they take up their former nesting sites from years of generations gone by. The colony disappears late August almost as quickly as it arrives. Our Rapid Response Street cleaning teams are kept busier than usual throughout this period keeping pavements cleaned and sanitised in certain nesting hotspots up to 3 and 4 times per week.
One of our longest established clients Baltic Centre for Contemporary Arts is a primary and very well-known nesting spot for these annual visitors.
Kittiwakes are protected and once they land on your building and establish a nesting site they cannot be disturbed or moved. This can lead to serious maintenance issues due to preventing access.
Generally, from 1st September our Rope Access Technicians are booked to carry out a full disinfectant for combating Avian Bird Flu. Once our Rope Access Technicians have applied our disinfectant solution to the exterior of the building, we begin the process of moving the redundant nests.
There is always a substantial amount of waste and nesting materials to be remove. All waste is double bagged and sealed in situ, removed from the building and disposed of in a sealed skip. The nesting materials must be pre-soaked with specialist disinfectant prior to being disturbed, double bagged and disposed of. Once the nesting materials has been removed, the building required a thorough clean down.
As always, we assess the cleaning requirements for the building.
Baltic external façade is made up mainly of dense engineered brick. We deploy our DOFF System to clean the external façade. DOFF is a specialist external cleaning system which delivers love volume, low pressure water to a surface (only 8 litres per minute) at temperatures up to 150c delivered at nozzle, capable of delivering a very sympathetic but highly effective clean.
Works are currently progressing well, during this period while the Kittiwakes are absent, we are also able to catch up with gutter cleaning and maintenance, window cleaning, full Rope Access visual and tactile external building survey delivered with comprehensive report and photographs of findings and remedial recommendations for repair.
The Kittiwakes of Newcastle and Gateshead generate a huge amount of interest from Ornithologist from all over the world, so, therefore the colonies welfare is paramount importance, Our Rope Access Technicians must approach the clean sympathetically.