Business

Peter Pye


PETER PYE, Flooring Consultant, 

I was employed by the Department of the Environment (DoE), Building Research Establishment, near Watford for 41 years.

Most of that time was spent dealing with various aspects concerned with floors and flooring. During the early years this involved carrying out strategic research on a wide range of flooring problems such as abrasion resistance, durability, moisture measurement, development of resin floorings and many more.

Latter years were spent in the Advisory Service providing advice to Buildings Regulations Division on safety issues such as slipperiness of flooring and radon in buildings and representing the DoE on numerous British Standards Committees concerned with flooring. In addition, about 50% of ones time was spent providing a fee earning consultancy service to industry.
his service provided advice on new construction at the design stage but more time was spent on trouble shooting floors after they had shown defects and problems in use. Numerous commissions were undertaken in hospitals, factories, shopping malls, airports and railway stations.
I retired from my post as Principal Consultant in the Advisory Service in September 1997. Retirement lasted one weekend and one day before industry found me and had me crawling over the floors of a large hangar at an RAF station. Since then the phone has not stopped ringing. Commissions undertaken in the last 12 months have included trouble shooting floors at the new Canary Wharf Underground Station, shopping malls in Dublin and Glasgow, concourses at Heathrow and Shannon Airports, a large hospital in Manchester and factories in Birmingham, Gloucester and Leeds and a school in Jersey. Unfortunately many disputes are now settled by litigation. This has entailed attendance at court to give expert evidence at Birmingham, Brighton and Edinburgh. On a more personal note, Mary and I bought Badger Cottage in 1985 and used it as a weekend retreat. In the early 1990's, the attached cottage was bought. Many weekends were spent knocking the two cottages into one with the help of K D J Slade and Sons to do all the heavy work. Always intending to retire to the area, we finally arrived permanently in early 1998. Mary types all my reports and attends to all the book-keeping. She accompanies me to sites when an extra pair of hands are needed. She looks quite elegant in her hard hat.
Badger Cottage, 
High Street.

 


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This page revised 01 May 2009