Case Study

Copenhagen Primary School

London

TRC is currently working on window restoration projects for four schools across the borough of Islington with a combined value of over £1.2M. These schools are Ambler Primary School, Yerbury Primary School, Grafton Primary School and Copenhagen Primary School, the latter of which this case study focuses on.

Services provided

TRC is currently working on window restoration projects for four schools across the borough of Islington with a combined value of over £1.2M. These schools are Ambler Primary School, Yerbury Primary School, Grafton Primary School and Copenhagen Primary School, the latter of which this case study focuses on.

Services provided

Metal scaffolding covers the front of a brick building under a clear blue sky.

The project

Situated in Islington just north of Kings Cross station, Copenhagen Primary School is home to just over 150 pupils. As a community school it is financed by public money and managed by the local authority.

The Department for Education has invested £11.3B since 2015 to enable schools to refurbish their buildings (including £1.8B in 2021-22 alone). TRC were therefore contracted by Islington Council to restore and refurbish 60-70 heritage timber sash windows in this beautiful period building.

Slightly larger than the average school, Copenhagen Primary School is housed in a spacious four storey Victorian building which is grade II listed.

Improving sustainability is an important goal for Islington council. With this in mind, TRC have focused on making the school windows usable and energy efficient, making them more economical and sustainable in order to support the council’s ‘Vision 2030’ ambition to build a net zero carbon Islington by 2030.

A person in safety gear uses pliers on a window frame, repairing it, with construction debris and a wall in the background.

The restoration process

Our sash window restoration process on this project has adhered to the following steps:

Remove

Firstly, we prise out as much decayed and damaged wood from windows, frames and sills as we can while keeping as much of the original wood as possible.

Replace

Where needed, TRC’s specialist carpenters replace sections of timber with new joinery work to closely match the design of the original windows.

Fill

All remaining timber is then treated with multi-stage (two-stage) epoxy resin repair.

Smooth/Shape

This resin can be smoothed out and sculpted to match any shape. Usually this involves matching the shape of the original timber to seamlessly blend the resin that has been used to restore.

Finish

Finally, the heritage windows are then stained or painted as required.