Expert water hygiene services for safety and efficiency
Good water hygiene starts with system design, construction and precommision cleaning and continues throughout the lifetime of the system. Regular maintenance is essential to remain compliant and ensure systems are effective, efficient and free from contamination
GMS Services offers a full range of water hygiene services covering new and existing hot and cold-water systems in commercial and domestic settings, including:
Legionella Risk Assessment
A Legionella Risk Assessment is the starting point of good water hygiene, providing a strategy for ongoing management and maintenance procedures to ensure safe and efficient water systems. At GMS Services Ltd, we pride ourselves on the quality of our reports and surveys, which are of high quality, informative, easy to understand presented well.
All our surveyors are qualified and trained to City & Guilds or Level 3 Technical Certificate standards and have a vast knowledge of water systems and the risks they may pose.
Log Book Audit
Log Book Auditing should be carried out regularly by the site responsible person to ensure that routine maintenance is being carried out on time and accurately. GMS Services Ltd can provide independent auditing of log books and produce reports based on the findings.
This provides the responsible person with peace of mind and highlights any shortfall which may go unnoticed.
Water Temperature Monitoring
Water Temperature Monitoring is an essential part of Legionella Control Management. Regular testing of water system temperatures is a good way of ensuring that thermal control is being achieved in accordance with the government guidance document HSG274.
Shower Head Descaling & Disinfecting
Routine shower maintenance is considered good practice to ensure that shower heads and hoses are free from scale build up. Scale can become a form of nutrition to legionella and other waterborne bacteria.
Quarterly shower head and hose descaling is a suitable way of controlling this build up and ensuring that showering is safer.
Annual Water Heater Inspection
Water Heaters / Calorifiers / Hot Water Storage Vessels. Whatever you call them, they all pretty much relate to a vessel that contains large amounts of stored hot water which will be distributed throughout the property to the various hot water outlets. It is an essential part of maintenance to carry out thorough inspections of these systems.
Flushing / purging of the drain valve and internal inspections (if practical) should be carried out at least annually to check the condition of the water within the vessel and in particular at the base.
The temperature should also be noted to ensure that stratification is not present. The element / heat source should be descaled if scale build up is present.
Cold Water Storage Tank Inspections
Regular inspection of cold water storage tanks is an effective way of managing potential contamination of water systems from stored water sources. This is particularly important if the cold water tank is supplying drinking water outlets. Drinking water storage tanks should be kept clean at all times as mentioned in BSEN 806-5.
Cold Water Storage Tanks that don’t supply water for drinking can still pose a risk to the other systems they supply if they are not managed and inspected adequately and installed and maintained to be fit for purpose.
Thermostatic Mixing Valve Maintenance
TMV maintenance is an essential part of water safety in the workplace. TMVs (Thermostatic Mixing Valves or Taps) are used in many applications such as handwashing, bathing, showering and for any other hot water supplies in which a risk of scalding has been identified. If TMVs are not serviced and maintained to the manufacturers specification, then this can result in poor operation and could result in the users of the water outlet being scalded.
TMVs can also become an area for potential Legionella Proliferation. Through experience, it has been noted that a TMV fed outlet is far more likely to result in a positive Legionella sample than a directly supplied hot water outlet. This is due to the lower temperature they operate at.
The mixed supply pipe from the valve to the outlet should be kept to an absolute minimum and point of use mixing would be the preferred method. Therefore, TMVs should only be installed where it is an absolute necessity. Regular use and flushing of mixed outlets and regular servicing and maintenance should help prevent colonisation of mixed outlets and the supply pipes.
Expansion Vessel Maintenance
The presence of expansion vessels is becoming more and more common on domestic water systems in the workplace. This is due to Cold Water Storage Tanks being removed where practical and direct mains water supplies being preferred.
Expansion vessels will usually cause a dead leg to the water system so it is essential that they are flushed thoroughly at regular intervals in accordance with the guidance in HSG274.
Can’t see what you’re looking for? Our friendly and professional team has a wealth of experience providing practical and technical solutions to keep water systems safe and clean.
Give us a call on 01257 424459 or leave us a message with your requirements and we’ll get back to you.
