The Oval

English summers, the sound of leather on willow, the taste of crust less sandwiches and tea. Cricket an English intuition touched the heart and souls of all sports fans as the Australians landed to defend the ashes.

The new Vauxhall end stand at the Oval was well underway with Taylor Woodrow Construction, making massive in roads into an already tight program. It was time to choose the finishing team so the Taylor Woodrow Construction selectors needed to be sure that the right team was picked. Rossbro Limited have enjoyed many years of working closely with Taylor Woodrow Construction, and being one of their top suppliers from their supply chain, made the appointment of Rossbro Limited risk free. A £200K order was raised and the works began. Such a varied range of works required Rossbro Limited to select its best players and to include as many all rounders as possible.

There was approximately 4,000m2 of steelwork to be coated with high performance paint from WJ Leigh’s, 6,000m2 of walls, ceilings to receive Dulux vinyl matt and QD eggshell, 1,000m2 of portaflex, 1,000m2 of hygiene coatings from Altro , 2,500m2 of two pack epoxy floor paint from Coovar and over 3,500m2 of Textura wall covering. Rossbro Limited established in 1990 has always prided itself in delivering “QUALITYON TIME”.

New challenges were set at the Oval with the works being very congested, Handrails needed to be fitted after the decoration, carpet installed and furniture delivered. Out of sequence working was required and leaving the finish coats of paint right to the death. No time was allowed for re-painting damage or the general weeks of snagging that is common on most sites. With Taylor Woodrow Construction management and the pro-active collaboration of all trades the works were completed right first time. Concession areas and kitchens coated in specialist paints were completed way ahead of schedule ready for the fit out. The external works needed to be put to bed early so all the resources could concentrate on the internal finishes. Wall covering’s in excess of £27,000 pounds was installed with minimal fuss and damage. Staircases provided our biggest challenge as these could not be closed to site traffic, access equipment was needed and handrail contractors needed to fix their materials after we had completed. Our fully trained stickers worked very closely with the handrail team to insure an almost smooth installation of both products.

A typical staircase during construction and decoration was a very congested area, but the finish was never compromised and the quality remained very good

Rossbro Limited had to make sure that the whole labour force was totally productive all day every day, and placed on site a highly skilled decorator with management skills to run the full project. Wall covering responsibilities was given to a highly skilled foreman. We always needed to be in full control of what work was being done and completed on a day to day basis. The day would start with a full team briefing of that days targets and the TWC needs. This would be an informal meeting at the paint store to delegate that days works.

Although we were aware of the importance of completing the works on time none of us were aware of the significance of the works that summer. The brand new Vauxhall end stand added an extra capacity to the Oval of 12500. This was an extra 12500 voices cheering on England for the fifth and final test in the Ashes series. Imagine the impact on the sport if the works were incomplete or to a poor standard, it would have been a disaster. However the works were 100% complete and as we are all aware England won the Ashes for the first time since 1986.

Throughout the works both the Taylor Woodrow team and the Rossbro Team, main aim was to complete the job in time and to the customer’s satisfaction, and this was achieved. As a template on how a job should be run and managed this would stand up as one of the best, although very hard work for all involved I am sure that everyone agrees it was well worth it. As much part of the team was the suppliers, with a special mention to Debco Limited who delivered to site nearly 3 times a week all our Dulux paint, coovar paints and all our required sundries. Textura wall covering had to put up with late orders and lots of mind changing. Teamwork really works.