Bespoke Dust Control Protects a Museum Collection During a Hangar Floor Replacement Project

Project Overview

The Imperial War Museum in Duxford is Britain’s largest aviation museum, housing nearly 200 aircrafts, vehicles, artillery and other military collections. To preserve the condition and keep the collection pieces in working order, the museum has a hangar dedicated to the maintenance of the aircrafts on display.

When a section of the floor in a live maintenance hangar needed replacing, OnSite Central were appointed as the trusted contractor to fix it.

Challenge

Due to the historic importance of the aircraft and vehicles in the maintenance hangar, it was vital that any works carried out did not disturb the integrity of the museum’s collection.

OnSite Central identified that, because the floor in the hangar was made from concrete, any jackhammering or cutting activities would produce large amounts of dust. If the dust was not captured and contained, there was a high risk of it settling on localised vehicles, impacting the workings of machinery inside the hangar and disrupting the flow of live maintenance works taking place.

If the dust produced became airborne, there was the added risk of contractor and museum workers inhaling hazardous dust. After identifying the risks, OnSite Central reached out to RVT for a specialist solution to their sensitive project.

Solution

By exercising the 3C’s® methodology (Capture, Contain, Control), the contractor was able to effectively manage the risks dust presented:

A DUSTEX^® B4 Vacuum was used to remove remaining debris.

A DUSTEX^® DustMaster^® Pro captured dust at the source.

A SOUNDEX^® Construction Enclosure was erected over the area of floor being replaced to contain the dust and reduce the noise of the works taking place.

A MONITEX^® Dust Monitor was installed outside of the enclosure to continuously monitor localised air quality and dust levels before, during and after the works.