The management of the UK’s education estate facilities has never been more important. Responding to this, partitioning expert Style has recently undertaken planned maintenance work, as part of a 3-year service agreement, in a cluster of Scottish schools, quickly rectifying small areas of wear and tear that could otherwise have led to larger repair costs in the long term.  

Style’s in-house trained team of technicians operates nationwide and is authorised and fully qualified to service and maintain, not only all Dorma Hüppe and Skyfold moveable walls, for which we are sole UK distributor, but also almost all other systems too,

During a routine service visit to one of the Scottish schools, Style’s technical team noticed that the partitioning wall’s pass door had dropped slightly, putting pressure on the operating mechanism and negatively impacting acoustic integrity.  Although the wall was still fully operational, and the slight misalignment had gone unnoticed by school staff, it would have certainly led to far greater, and more costly problems, if it had been left unresolved.

Having spotted the issue as part of a detailed audit, Style’s technicians were able to resolve it quickly and efficiently whilst on site, preventing further damage. 

“Planned maintenance is a crucial part of managing moveable wall assets,” said Angela McGowan, Style Scotland’s sales and service manager.  

“A nominal investment in scheduled visits to carry out health and safety, operational and acoustic checks can save thousands of pounds in repairs in the long run. In some cases, moveable walls can last in excess of 25 years, if properly maintained.

“It’s for this reason we are seeing demand for service contracts grow dramatically from within the education sector which relies heavily on flexible space, particularly in areas where social distancing measures may be required.”

Satisfying PUWER health and safety obligations, a comprehensive service by one of Style’s technicians includes the following: checking all seals are intact and fully operational; cleaning and lubricating track and fixings; alignment of panels and tracking system; as well as a full check of any electrical components including motor and key switches, push buttons, panel contacts and controls.