Solaglas Contracting South, were recently involved in a project to refurbish Hampton House Health Centre in Clifton.

The centre is the first of two community health facilities in the Bristol areas to benefit from the £270 million national NHS Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) initiative. Both Bristol Tranche 1 LIFT projects have been secured by contractor Mowlem, who in turn awarded Hampton House to Solaglas Contracting South, one of their preferred supply chain partners.

Before work could commence Solaglas had to satisfy the planning requirements for replacing the windows in Hampton House. This stated that the glazing must match as close as ''reasonably practicable'' to the section profile of the original windows. After initial discussions, the window system proposed by Solaglas to architects Narracott Oxford Mills fully met the criteria and approvals were given to proceed.

As an added challenge to the supply and installation project, Contracting South had to remove each of the 600 module units making up the original heavy, single glazed windows, which were in very poor condition. Various glazing treatments were chosen for the Georgian leaded replacement windows designed to sympathetically blend with the old building. To the pharmacy area, SGG Emalit enamelled glass provided an aesthetically pleasing solution to blanked off windows in the building. The remaining glazing was categorised into low, medium and high-risk solar control areas. In low risk areas clear 4mm SGG Planitherm was specified with a 12mm cavity, toughened where necessary. Medium risk areas used SGG Parsol green body tinted glass and in high-risk areas metallic oxide coated SGG Antelio was installed. Reporting on the work of the Bristol based team, Keith Goldsworthy, Senior Contracts Manager for Mowlem Building reported the project as "very well managed". Likewise Robert Griffin of Narracott Oxford Mills reported that Solaglas "were very professional" and he had "no hesitation in recommending them".

Despite initial reticence about removing the original frames as part of the overall refurbishment and modernisation of Hampton House, upon completion, the client, Bristol Infracare LIFT, was delighted with the new slender profile replacements which were finished in a sympathetically toned polyester powder coating.