Care Home In The South Of England

Replacing Old Covers

The project was to replace previous radiator covers that had no access for cleaning and maintenance. This caused significant dust and bacteria build-up, which, if left unattended, could have caused numerous health issues for those living in the facility.

Previous radiators were worn out, rusty, and had exposed pipework – an added concern which could have caused severe burns if an individual were to come into contact with it.

The Challenges

The key challenges were:

• Poor access for cleaning and maintenance, causing dust build up
• Exposed areas of pipework, creating a burn risk
• Poorly designed radiators, causing potential for injury (by either residents falling against the radiator, or by coming into contact with the hot surface of the radiator)
• Not aesthetically pleasing (whilst not safety related, this will have an impact in the overall look and feel of the care home)
• Old rusting covers which posed an infection control risk
  
  

Is Dust Harmful?

Dust is known to be harmful to health as it contains small particles of debris and dead skin. The small size of dust means it can be inhaled and present a potential immune reaction.

These reactions can be minor or major depending on the individuals. This will particularly be more dangerous to more vulnerable individuals at the care home due to their weakened immune systems.

Dust can also serve as a ‘fomite’, possibly containing viruses and potential infections that can be passed on.

Therefore, dust traps at this care home cause challenges for infection control due to not being able to properly remove them.

Exposed Piping

Prior radiators at this care home had exposed piping, this can reach up to a staggering 80°C. This provides potential dangers to the vulnerable individuals at the care home and doesn’t align with safe surface heating guidelines.

An individual could have seriously scalded themselves on the high heat temperature of the piping.

The Solutions

A retro design was installed with a bespoke solution with Contour’s Deepclean radiator covers.

The DeepClean LST radiator guard is built using a patented, quick-release hinged door. This allows the front of the casing to be laid flat on the floor to provide easy access to clean the radiator.

These features allow for cleaning and maintenance to be optimised, something the care home was not able to do with previous radiators.

As standard, most of Contour’s LST Radiators come with BioCote® protection. This unique powder coating can help combat a range of dangerous bacteria such as MRSA and E.coli, reducing the spread of infection in the care home.

Open-Ended Shoulders (OES)

To reduce dust traps, the Deepclean LST radiators were installed with open-ended shoulders. This meant that the radiators were sealed to ensure dust traps were minimised to protect service users from dust-related issues.

Pipe Boxing

Pipe boxing was fitted to hide the exposed pipework. Contour’s pipe boxing is fully encapsulated in a 8mm thick preformed plywood making it highly effective at avoiding burns and scalds, encapsulating the pipework in an attractive casing that blended into the existing décor.

Results

This care home transformed its previous heating to a safer heating solution. Access for cleaning and maintenance will enable the care home to keep infection rates and dust traps down.

The care homes pipe boxing meant that service users were now protected from scalding themselves on exposed piping.

As a common practice with all of our installations, the Contour team disposed previous radiators in a skip and got rid of them responsibly.

To find out how Contour can help with your healthcare project, arrange a survey or speak to one of our heating experts today.