Project Brief
Client
Latis Scientific
Project Type
Turnkey laboratory design and build
Value
£ 2,300,000
Key Areas
Laboratories
Sample preparation rooms
Sample reception area
Corridors
Plant room
Cold room
Office and Administration areas
Toilet
Facilities
Latis Scientific Laboratory Construction, Dartford
Latis Scientific delivers specialist testing, analytical and technical consultancy services across regulated environments, including air and effluent testing, water testing and analytical support for the healthcare sector. Its UKAS accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025:2017 makes a controlled, purpose-designed laboratory essential to its operations.
Latis appointed InterFocus to transform a newly acquired industrial building near Dartford into a purpose-built laboratory testing facility with a dedicated sample reception area.
This was a comprehensive conversion rather than a conventional refurbishment. InterFocus stripped the building back to an empty shell, then introduced new structural elements, specialist services and internal environments. It coordinated the wider design-and-build package, bringing together the structural works, building infrastructure and internal fit-out needed to prepare the facility for laboratory operations and the subsequent accreditation process.
Client Requirements
The project combined substantial structural alterations with a complex, highly serviced internal fit-out. InterFocus brought new power and data infrastructure into the building and sequenced the mezzanine, plant room, lift systems, access stairs and concrete floor slabs carefully. The laboratory layout also had to accommodate specialist gases, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), electrical systems, efficient sample movement and dedicated preparation areas.
A further challenge was coordinating the specialist laboratory installation. A separate contractor based in Spain delivered this package, having joined the project before InterFocus became involved. InterFocus integrated it with the wider construction programme, external utility works and Building Control requirements, while maintaining progress towards the agreed handover date.
Phased Delivery Approach
As main contractor, InterFocus provided a single point of coordination. It managed the overall programme, prepared the construction phase plan and liaised with Building Control, the utility provider and other external organisations. This brought the structural works, incoming services, building systems, internal fit-out and the separately appointed laboratory contractor into one delivery strategy.
Weekly planning meetings maintained momentum, resolved interfaces early and set a clear sequence for forthcoming activities. This discipline mattered where workstreams depended on each other, for example linking the new substation and incoming connections to the electrical installation and aligning plant and services with the laboratory layout.
Main Scope of Works
Enabling and Structural Works
- Coordinated the installation of a new substation by the energy provider.
- Stripped out the entire building back to an empty shell ready for redevelopment.
- Completed trenching for new power and data connections to the building.
- Installed a new mezzanine floor and structural steelwork.
- Applied fire protection to the structural steel beams and completed fire-stopping works throughout the building.
- Created a new plant room on the mezzanine floor.
- Installed new concrete slabs on the first and second floors.
- Installed a lift shaft, lift and dumbwaiter for sample transport.
- Constructed new access stairwells at the front and rear of the building.
Laboratory and Building Fit-Out
- Constructed new walls to form laboratory areas, sample preparation rooms and corridors.
- Installed a new cold room and associated plant.
- Created office and administration areas with glazed partitioning.
- Installed new toilet facilities and partitions.
- Coordinated the specialist laboratory installation by the separately appointed contractor, including access requirements, building services and room layouts.
Mechanical and Electrical Services
InterFocus designed and installed the facility-wide mechanical and electrical infrastructure, including HVAC plant, specialist gas services and electrical systems. It coordinated the installation with the new plant room and laboratory layout so that every operational, preparation, circulation and support area had the services it needed.
Project Outcome
The project transformed a former industrial building into a purpose-built testing facility for Latis Scientific.
The completed facility brought together specialist laboratories, sample preparation areas and a dedicated sample reception area, plus offices, welfare facilities and the building services needed to support its operations.
InterFocus coordinated the structural alterations, building infrastructure and internal fit-out, working alongside the separately appointed laboratory contractor to manage interfaces across the programme. It handed the facility over in readiness for Latis’s ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation process.
The project demonstrates InterFocus’s capability to deliver complex laboratory conversions, coordinate specialist contractors and manage significant structural and building-services requirements within a defined programme.