Ipswich Stadium Stairwell Renovation

Project overview

The work covered three stairwells in one of the stands at a football stadium in Ipswich, Suffolk. The brief was to clean and redecorate the blockwork walls and refinish the handrails, grilles and structural beams serving the stairs. The programme ran from August to September, with the stairwells kept in usable condition throughout.

The challenge

The blockwork walls carried ingrained dirt and staining built up over time. Perforated grilles and a steel edge trim had active surface corrosion breaking through the existing coating, and structural beams showed failed coatings with localised rust. All work had to be carried out on scaffold within stairwells that needed to stay accessible.

Site constraints

• live stadium site with stairwells needing to remain accessible
• mixed substrates across blockwork, steel grilles, handrails and structural beams
• corrosion on grilles and steel edge trim requiring treatment before coating
• working at height on scaffold within confined stair areas
• structural beams needing intumescent protection reinstated before finishing

Our approach

Scaffold was used to reach walls, handrails, grilles and beams across all three stairwells. Work moved through cleaning and preparation before repairs to corroded metalwork, then on to priming and finishing coats, with each stairwell brought through the same sequence in turn. The stairwells remained accessible as the work progressed.

Preparation and delivery

Blockwork walls were hand washed to remove ingrained dirt and staining. Corroded grilles and the steel edge trim were scraped back to bare metal and treated, and structural beams with failed coatings and localised rust were prepped back to clean metal with intumescent coating reinstated before any finishing coats went on.

System

Walls were recoated in white masonry paint with a grey band added to the bases to match the adjoining concourse finish. Handrails and grilles were coated in Temadur 50, with rails finished in RAL 5010 and grilles in RAL 7016. Structural beams were primed with Temacoat RM40 and finished in Temadur 50, in RAL 9010 or RAL 5010.

Before and after

Project gallery

Result

The three stairwells were left clean, freshly decorated and fully accessible, with corrosion on grilles, edge trims and structural beams fully addressed before finishing. Walls, handrails, grilles and beams were all recoated within the August to September programme.

Related services

• Industrial Coatings
• Building Maintenance