Don’t neglect pipework for RAAC fearmongering

Schools instructed to find sustainability lead for 2025

Adam Finch, Director in our North East office shares his thoughts on why it’s crucial that school’s shouldn’t neglect pipework for RAAC fearmongering.

At the end of 2024, I suggested to colleagues and clients, that the age and often unknown condition of mechanical pipework presents a bigger risk to pre-1980s constructed school buildings than RAAC.

Why might you ask?

Well, there are several reasons. Firstly, every school has a heating system but not every school has RAAC. Given the age of construction, most schools have steel pipework and emitters, which have an expected life expectancy of circa 50-75 years. Therefore, we are at the point of these installations presenting defects which can (and do) result in school closure because they are approaching the end of their design life expectancy.

Secondly, if a school experiences a mechanical distribution pipework defect, typically due to a leak caused by way of corrosion of pipework beyond repair , there is no way of determining where the location of the leak is as the disturbance to ACMs is too great to undertake intrusive investigations. Not to mention the corrosion often being concealed within ducts which contain licensed notifiable asbestos.

More often than not, remedial works entail a comprehensive replacement of all pipework to incorporate electric emitters. A scheme of this scale and nature requires a full design of heat loss calculations to determine the size of the fan convectors and/or radiators and associated distribution pipework. Lead times for materials are typically a minimum of 6 weeks. Thus, a school with no heating, during winter periods, may end up closing for several months until the design and procurement exercise has been completed. That’s excluding the extra time for installation. This is a huge risk to schools, with closure having a major impact on pupil’s learning.

Eddisons have been involved in the design and procurement of failed mechanical pipework at 6 different sites in the past 18 months. That is no coincidence. In my opinion, it demonstrates that building services of a certain age, typically pre-1980s buildings, are approaching the end of their design life and need careful consideration by the DfE about how much funding is available for schemes of this nature, particularly in a reactive scenario. They aren’t cheap projects either!

Conversely, if a school is known to have RAAC, which is easily enough identified through visual and/or intrusive surveys, there are options available to the school which would at least provide structural stability until any remedial work is realised. The school can still operate as required and the risk of closure is mitigated.

Consideration also needs to be given about who pays for the remedial works. If a non-SCA funded Trust/school has little reserves, for a scheme that typically costs £2-300k for a primary school, who do they turn to for financial assistance? The RPA has seemingly suggested that pipework in certain circumstances is an insured peril, but the heat emitters aren’t. A school with new distribution pipework but original outdated emitters solves only 50% of the issues being experienced by the school. How does the Trust/school pay for the remainder of the project cost?

Experience over the past 18 months tells me that mechanical pipework defects, which may not be known until the heating system fails entirely as the defects aren’t usually visible during a normal non-invasive survey, are only going to become more and more common. This will present a real risk of school closures up and down the country for potentially lengthy periods of time.

It is widely recognised that investment in school buildings and infrastructure over the last 20 years or so has been significantly below that needed for school estates just to even stand still. The Government’s own 2020 estimate of the cost to bring schools up to an acceptable standard – based on their own CDC condition surveys – is a staggering £11.4 billion, with over £2billion relating to mechanical services alone. Given that CDC surveys will invariably assess mechanical distribution pipework as satisfactory based on their very limited visual inspection, those costs are vastly understated.

They also take no account of the very significant additional costs involved in schools adopting greener energy technologies, a key Government priority. These invariably entail significant upgrades to both distribution pipework and, importantly, heating emitters which must be capable of operating at much lower temperatures.

This is a hidden and largely unfunded crisis that schools with outdated heating distribution pipework and emitters are facing and which has the potential to seriously affect learning attainment levels and long-term life chances of pupils across the country. It deserves the same robust response from Government every bit as much as the RAAC crisis.

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