Plastic Surgeon repairs prevent landfill waste

The Plastic Surgeon

Snagging/ repair and restoration

Repair specialist Plastic Surgeon, has carried out snagging operations in Wales to save waste building components from going to landfill.

16 February 2010

Landfill charges have a significant negative effect on the bottom line for building companies across the UK.

76 tonnes of building components have been saved thanks to the work of Plastic Surgeon at the Ferrara Quay and South Quay developments, both in Swansea.

The two major projects being run by Carillion Construction have shown how savings can be made, reducing costs and cutting the company's carbon footprint.

Products saved from going to landfill include internal and external doors, windows, worksurfaces, wood laminate flooring, baths, basins, shower trays, and various types of tiling.

At Ferrara Quay the company has repaired more than 300 internal doors as well as a significant number of the wood veneered fire doors.

The repairs often involved more than one per door and generally involved carefully filling to restore the profile, before being rubbed down and the colour or wood effect restored by hand.

Plastic Surgeon then carried out filling and colour matching high gloss cupboard doors in the kitchen.

In many cases getting the sheen or reflectance right so that the area of the repair would not be distinguishable took longer than colour matching repairs to the granite worktops.

Scratches and other damage to the stainless steel splash-backs were polished out in a process similar to that which Finishers use for glass.

458 internal doors repaired across the two projects saw a total waste saving approaching 10 tonnes, while a heavier individual weight meant the 149 entrance doors actually exceeded this figure.

With natural granite being the densest material dealt with, the worktops added another 2.7 tonnes to the figures, while the 29 baths repaired prevented nearly another tonne of waste, as well as considerable bulk, filling the skips.

The 20 different categories of product or component saved which also included a fireplace and a large number of fascia panels on the apartments' balconies, has brought the tonnage for the job up to the current total of 76 tonnes.