Hotel Indigo Bath

The Brief

To provide electrical services to convert a 300 years old Grade 1 listed building comprising of 12 townhouses in stunning Bath into a spectacular hotel while preserving the buildings definitive charm.

Our Approach

The initial project had run into difficulties which led to the appointment of a new General Contractor taking the reins of the scheme working closely with the designers, client and heritage to deliver their vision for the hotel.  Due to an excellent longstanding relationship and our professional delivery the newly appointed General Contractor approached us to help them re-work the electrical design which was 70% complete by our predecessor.

The Solution

With the previous scheme proving unsuccessful, the major challenge for our team was understanding how the installation had been wired and to what standard.  The site test carried out by our engineers determined the wiring was to 17th edition which had been super-ceded by the 18^th during the duration of the initial scheme.  400 test sheets, patience and sheer tenacity later the re-worked installation complied with the 18th edition!  This also applied to the emergency lighting which required a full upgrade.

The site represents a ‘heritage asset’ and it was imperative any works to the building met with the Conservation Trust's specification.  This meant that each of the 166 bedrooms is unique in both size and features so a ‘one size fit’s all’ approach did not apply to this project.  The bedrooms alone boast 2500 x sockets all located within different points in each room. Other areas included the many corridors, restaurant, lounges and staff areas.

A new garden extension was added to the hotel to house the garden rooms.  Alongside installing the power, lighting and data to feed this area, our teams also sourced and installed the external lighting which needed to meet the heritage trust’s criteria.  Heavy automatic power doors provide access to the garden rooms, our scope included installing the services to operate these.  

Aside from undertaking a previously unsuccessful scheme which was a challenge in itself, a tougher, bigger and unforeseeable one struck……Covid19. 

The site operated on a skeleton staff during this time with strict rules adhered to by all teams.  This enabled operations to continue in a safe environment for our engineers with a managed programme agreed and adhered to by all parties. The sheer determination and perseverance of all site teams was commendable to complete this project to such a high standard during such testing times.