Wathall’s a 6th generation funeral director, established 1858 serves Derby and surrounding areas, approached Mortuary Solutions with plans of bringing their mortuary facilities back up to date with a full refurbishment.
Wathall’s had seen a Mortuary Solutions project on their travels having visited one of our happy clients, Sellars of Leicester who had a large project completed by us in 2017. Impressed by the quality of the equipment and the fact Sellars sang our praises having had many years use of our high quality equipment.
Our new clients building, originally built in the late 1800’s and originally housed stables, this was of course not designed or intended for a modern mortuary, that it is now. The space spread out over 4 areas with differing floor levels, none of it square with narrowing walls, nibs, columns and awkward shapes set up a challenge for our team. Challenge accepted! Mortuary Solutions attended and surveyed, we were soon able to suggest and present several designs, drawn to scale in CAD, to maximise and exceed our clients capacity expectations. We also set out ideas of areas for preparation/dress/coffining and a hygienic treatment room all in a very limited space, as per the client’s wishes.
As part of our services, Mortuary Solutions introduced the client to experienced mortuary specialist builders, free of any commissions or referrals and soon after a mortuary expert in building consultation and planning was brought onboard. We have competitors that employ subcontractor builders, however we as a family business with family values prefer to offer and pass our experts direct and free of charge. We choose not to subcontract (unless requested by the client) services and inflate their costs to fill our own pockets. The customer receives a better direct service with open channels of communication across all services at all stages by experts in their own field, not a jack of all trades. Importantly they get the best value direct and a group of dedicated professionals working together to deliver a top service to our clients.
You will find following images starting from initial strip out, installation through to completion. We are very proud of our work and we hope our client is proud of their new high quality facilities we have all come together to achieve.
Paul Dowdy, Operations Manager has the following to say about the project:
The project brief was to have high quality equipment to achieve maximum storage capacity within the original footprint of the building, with the addition of separate areas for storage, preparation and an embalming suite. Our previous facilities had been in use for 30 years and so a full refurbishment was needed. After speaking to and visiting various Funeral Director’s around the country, we were recommended to Mortuary Solutions on multiple occasions. Chris was very helpful and his advice and knowledge helped to create a design that worked perfectly within the constraints of the narrow building to achieve everything we asked for. Chris’ recommendation for the build/design team was perfect given their experience in this field and all parties worked very well together to provide us with an amazing facility which we are immensely proud of and will be in use for the next 30 years and beyond. I would not hesitate to recommend Mortuary Solutions and would certainly use them again in the future.
Before:
Design plan, initial interior rip out and external court yard area.
During:
Mainly focusing on the cabinet builds. We use steel plinths with levelling. Stainless steel cabinet floors, highest quality construction panels in the market! Image inside fridge shows a concealment panel wall, punched by the CNC for air circulation to offer dignity from being able to see storage sensitive pediatric deceased.
Mortuary walls all clad with hygienic plastic, differing floor levels over all four areas raised level and screed and include drainage points.
Finished results:
Coved hygienic altro floor finish up fridge plinths and walls, all cabinet doors and side walls plus circulation areas protected with checker plate protection from trolley/stretcher impact. Stainless steel floor and wall cupboards. Hygienic treatment room with room ventilation, combination embalming sinks and sluice.
Premium cooling plant equipment with condensers hung high level externally in the courtyard safe out of reach from reversing vehicles.
