Polygon creates climate for success at Braemar Lodge bridge

Braemar Lodge hotel is situated in the rural depths of Scotland’s Cairngorms National Park, close to the Queen’s residence in Balmoral. The property’s extensive grounds feature a steel road bridge that spans Clunie Water, a tributary of the River Dee. The bridge is subject to an essential maintenance schedule to protect against corrosion caused by adverse weather conditions. This involves its surface being prepared by blasting before being repainted. However, for the paint to cure correctly – and to pass critical quality-inspection tests – it must be applied within specific atmospheric conditions.

Process

Polygon was engaged by the paint contractor to manage the environmental conditions for the project in a sustainable, cost-effective way, ensuring humidity levels and ambient temperatures surrounding the surfaces would be at the optimal level for paint application. Because the work was being carried out in winter, atmospheric humidity levels were already suitably low. The cold, however, meant there was a risk of temperatures dropping below the dew point and for water vapour to condense onto the metal surface. This would impair the paint application process and potentially require the entire process to be repeated, incurring significant costs.

These elements were used to calculate the level of heating needed and, therefore, the number of heating units to be installed by Polygon’s technicians. Implemented ahead of schedule, the Polygon solution paved the way for the client to successfully carry out
the repainting work. All the while, Polygon provided data updates on humidity and temperature via a digital dashboard and was on-hand 24/7 if any technical support was needed. Furthermore, by employing only the necessary number of fuel heaters running
on fossil-free Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO), Polygon ensured that energy and carbon costs were kept to a minimum.

Outcome

As a specialist in climate control, Polygon was engaged to devise a heating solution that would sustain stable conditions within the bridge’s scaffold structure, which is envirowrapped to stop air leakage and avoid ingress during painting. This involved analysis of the dimensions of the volumetric area covering the bridge, the optimal temperature required, and localised weather forecast data from the Met Office.

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