PROBLEM: The museum under went a £25 million revamp. BAMM and Exeter City council required many areas to be netted to prevent gulls and pigeons from nesting around sensitive environmental control plant areas. There were net height restrictions in several areas due to planning restrictions and no drilling was allowed in certain areas. We submitted our surveys and drawn up plans and after several meetings, were awarded the bird proofing project.
SOLUTION: All the brackets and support poles were specially designed and fabricated for this project.. Talanised wood was chosen as the material to build the gates for all the access areas, aluminium could have been another option but this would have been costly. The gates will be treated every three years with linseed oil.
In rear plant area there was a net height restriction, netting would be too high over the gantry for planning permission. To prevent bird entry via the ladder access points, gates were incorporated into the netting design. Birds might still land on the gantry but would not have entry to the plant area below.
The lagging covering roof pipe work was being damaged by gulls, contractors fitted a top layer of protective rubber but when the gulls started pecking at this as well, we were requested to prevent this happening. We had these galvanised angled net supports with welded footplates made, no holes were allowed in the stainless steel parapet wall capping. The supports are held in place by the barrel strained wire. Net access points were positioned at each shut off valve point. Drilling into the protective rubber covering was prohibited. These fabricated brackets were held in place by the barrel strained wire, the wire was tensioned enough to attach the net to.