Flooded Cineworld building was surveyed, remediated and restored.

Cineworld Finsbury Park

Commercial building flooded

The Cineworld building in Finsbury Park had a major flood with trapped water from the main roof that made its way into the basement areas of the building through the mechanical risers causing significant damage to the fabric of the building.

Survey to understand the problem

NJC Services were approached to assess the damage. After inspecting the auditoriums and ancillary areas, including damp testing, it was decided that destructive investigation works were needed. A contractor was employed to open up holes in a few locations to better understand the extent of the damage and the direction of the water ingress. It was discovered that water had travelled between the concrete slab and was trapped.

Mitigation activities

In addition, the contractor conducted work intending to mitigate and/or reduce the costs of the reinstatement works. This involved removing severely damaged parts of the walls and opening up areas to allow ventilation and some level of drying.

At the same time it was decided to employ a specialist drying company who were able to both advise and perform drying activities over many weeks using their specialist equipment. Not only that, other specialists were involved to advise on mould, health and safety, acoustics and costings.

Client Options

NJC Services documented the damage and provided 3 options for reinstatement:

1. Start again, involving removing everything
2. Remove the worst affected elements
3. Minimal removal and repair.

The Client decided on option 2 as this dealt with the majority of the damage, kept costs to a sensible level and also limited closure time of the business.

Insurance Claim

Having agreed on the preferred approach, NJC Services specified what was needed to be repaired, materials needed to be used, and the levels of compliance required for elements of the structure. Advice on the acoustics were provided by an external consultant.

It was agreed that a like-for-like replacement was preferable, with no change to the original design, as the design was previously approved.

NJC Services met and negotiated with the insurance loss adjusters and their advisors accordingly on the proposed works.

Remediation Work

Having agreed with both the insurance loss adjuster and client, it was agreed that NJC Services would procure the services of a single contractor at a negotiated price. This particular contractor was a cinema specialist and was already doing other work for Cineworld.

We set up the contract, employed the contractor and then negotiated and agreed on minor variations to the specification as the work progressed. Some additional challenges emerged in areas, such as deciding on how high and which of the 3 layers of plasterboard should be removed to ensure the least amount of replacement work, whilst also ensuring the damaged boards were removed.

NJC Services monitored all work against the specifications. This involved managing the accounting, including payments for labour and materials and confirming each payment released against the specification and work delivered.

Finally, we had the acoustic test done before handing the site back over to the client and the performance of materials was even better!