No rest for Topline

Turama House is a family run rest home in Royal Oak, Auckland, providing both short and long term care for the elderly in beautifully furnished rooms. The home can cater for various levels of care depending on the requirements of the individual resident.

The facility has a total beds of 27 beds including a self-contained flat. Both Turama House and nearby Catherine Lodge have been owned and operated by the same family for over 13 years and Topline has a trusted and long-term history of completing necessary works and maintenance at both sites. When the self-contained flat needed complete renovation, the family naturally turned to Topline, knowing that they would be sensitive to the feelings of the elderly residents while works were in progress.

A bigger job than expected

The brief was to remove the existing bathroom fittings and install new ones, but once work commenced, rotten boards were uncovered throughout the basement area, greatly increasing the scope of the job and requiring co-ordination between several different tradespeople. Alister Nesbit was the project manager for the revised works, co-ordinating the various plumbing and building trades, ordering the necessary products and materials, ensuring the various protocols were respected and scheduling the work to fit with other programmed maintenance tasks. New plumbing was used throughout for the shower, basin and toilet, linking to existing external pipework. Topline had already had considerable experience upgrading the showers at nearby Catherine Lodge, installing new vinyl linings using concrete cutters and drills for the remedial work.

Health and Safety issues

As this was a rest home, fittings adapted for the use of the elderly/disabled were installed incorporating hand rails, safety rails, non-slip products and other appropriate solutions. One of the main focusses of the build was to minimise the impact on residents. Alister Nesbit commented, “We were very concerned not to disrupt the peaceful lives of the elderly residents any more than absolutely necessary and we paid great attention to adhering to noise and dust management protocols so that they could continue with the quiet enjoyment of their beautiful facilities.”

The build was successfully completed within the estimated 8-10 week schedule and the finished bathroom was comfortable, dry, warm and, above all, safe for the next tenant.

“Our safety processes and policies are regularly evaluated and improved, ensuring best-practice safety techniques are strictly adhered to by all members of our team. We promote a positive safety culture amongst our staff so that they are aware of their responsibilities in safeguarding the health and safety of their clients, their colleagues and themselves.” Willie Downie