The aim of the project was to prevent pigeons from gaining access to the plant area of the roof and also to prevent birds from roosting and nesting under the canopy.
The plant area was situated in a ‘well’ area on the roof. A series of brackets were made to support both the net and a wire, which was attached to the leading edge of the roof ‘well’. A further wire was also installed which ran through the brackets at a mid way point. Areas of 30×15 metres and 10×7 metres were covered in total, by the use of 10×15 metre sections of pigeon netting. Heavy duty net fixings were used as the net was going to be very exposed to the elements. The whole area was cleaned and a large amount of pigeon guano was removed from the roof and taken out through the building.
The canopy area ran on 3 sides of the building and pigeons had been roosting and nesting on the decorative steel work. The nets fitted at either end were 50 metres long and these were cut down into 3 sections for ease of installation. All of this work was carried out from a cherry picker, which reached out over various obstacles including a swimming pool.
The netting was completed over a 10 day period and pigeons had to be removed from under the net each morning whilst work was in progress. The netting at the front of the building was completed in the same way with the addition of anti-roosting spikes on the upright post to prevent roosting.
