As the summer holidays start the tourism boom for holiday makers and coastal towns, so too does it bring one of the busiest times for local construction company Lindum Group.

With Nottingham’s schools empty of students and teachers, it provided the ideal time to carry out some important repair and refurbishment work without disruption to the students’ education.

The schools across the area have a yearly maintenance budget, which they can draw from to carry out important wear and tear works. The projects vary, from repairing or replacing a roof that has come to the end of its lifespan, alterations to layouts, or ramp installations to improve accessibility.

Lindum’s Building and Maintenance Service worked on 12 projects across schools in the Nottingham area, to a value of £1.9 million. All of the projects, which were procured through SCAPE’s Regional Construction framework, had to be completed within the school’s slightly shorter five week holiday period.

Steven Duckering, Lindum BMS Framework Manager, said: “The summer holidays are always a busy time for us, as our workload tends to go through the roof. We have worked on 12 projects, all at the same time, to a super condensed five week deadline that cannot move for obvious reasons.

“One of the best examples of this was the roof replacement work we carried out at Rosehill School, a special education needs school in Nottingham. The site had very tight restrictions due to the needs of the students and so we had to be off site before they came back.

“We were able to get the scaffolding up, replaced two leaking roofs, and bring all the scaffolding down again within four weeks, avoiding distressing the students with a sudden change in their routine.”

Early engagement with the council began as far back as November, where initial discussions on feasibility and planning were held. Monthly meetings were then held since March to discuss project details with the council and schools. This increased to every other week for the last six weeks before the break.

Steven continued: “Part of what makes this programme of works possible is the use of the framework, allowing us to engage with Nottingham City Council early and plan the schedule well in advance of work starting. It has also allowed us to engage with our supply chain early to guarantee we can get people on site when we need them.

“The early engagement at Rosehill School allowed us to express concerns about completing work on a sky garden as part of the works within their time frame, eventually leading to us planning in more time in the October half term.”

The essential repairs have also made the schools more environmentally friendly, particularly on the roofing projects. As part of the summer schedule, Lindum worked at Crabtree Primary School to replace the roof lights and felt roof that had fallen into disrepair. During this time, the insulation was also upgraded to four times its thickness, from 30mm to 160mm.

In doing this, the building’s U-value was increased, meaning it was far more thermally efficient and so saves the school money on heating bills and reduces the carbon output of the building.