Berkshire is straight down the M4 from Chiswick, so it's one of the easiest counties for us to reach. It's also one of the busiest for office and business park work, alongside a large rental market in Reading and Slough and plenty of schools and care homes.
Offices and business parks on the M4 corridor
Slough, Reading, Bracknell, Maidenhead and Newbury all have large office buildings and business parks, many of them home to tech firms and regional headquarters. These buildings tend to have more complex water systems than houses: cold water storage tanks on the roof or in a plant room, booster sets, calorifiers or plate heat exchangers, shower rooms and lots of washrooms.
Since hybrid working became normal, many of these buildings run at a fraction of their old occupancy on Mondays and Fridays, and some floors barely get used. Water that used to turn over every day now sits in long pipe runs and oversized tanks. That's the classic recipe for Legionella growth, and it's the issue we look at most closely in Berkshire offices. A risk assessment should reflect how the building is actually used now, not how it was designed. Our posts on dead legs and little-used outlets and reopening after a closure go into what to do about it.
Tanks that were sized for a full building are often too big now, and the water in them stays put for too long. Downsizing a tank or taking redundant ones out of service is a typical job for our remedial works team. Plant rooms and ceiling voids in modern offices can also run warm, pushing cold water above 20°C in summer. There's more in our article on keeping cold water cold.
Reading and Slough rentals
Reading has a large student population around the university, and the town's Victorian terraces in areas like Newtown, Katesgrove and around the Oxford Road are full of shared houses. Slough has a lot of rented housing too, from terraces to newer flats, and a high demand for rooms. HMOs bring more occupants and more showers, so the Legionella risk is usually higher than in a single-family let.
Licensing rules for shared houses vary from council to council in Berkshire, so check what yours requires. Wherever you are, a current Legionella risk assessment and a simple routine for flushing empty rooms and descaling showers makes licence applications and renewals much easier to deal with.
Schools and care homes
Berkshire is home to a number of well-known independent and boarding schools, along with the usual mix of state schools and academies. Boarding houses add showers that are used heavily during term and not at all in the holidays, and sports facilities add changing room showers that might sit idle for weeks. Care homes across the county need hot water kept hot enough to control Legionella, with TMVs fitted to prevent scalding. We can look after TMV servicing as well as the assessment.
Water supply in Berkshire
Reading and a large part of the county are on Thames Water, with Affinity Water and South East Water serving some areas, mostly in the east. As with most of the South East, the water is generally hard. Check your bill or your supplier's postcode checker to be sure.
For managed buildings, our Legionella maintenance visits cover monthly temperature checks, shower descaling and tank inspections, and we can arrange water sampling where the assessment calls for it.
Getting to you
Most of Berkshire is within easy reach of Chiswick on the M4, with Slough and Maidenhead especially quick. Reading and Newbury take a bit longer, and we plan around rush hour on the M4. Business parks usually have visitor parking, but please tell us if we need to book a space or sign in at reception.
Towns we cover in Berkshire
- Reading
- Slough
- Bracknell
- Maidenhead
- Windsor
- Eton
- Ascot
- Wokingham
- Newbury
- Thatcham
- Hungerford
- Earley
- Woodley
- Crowthorne
- Sandhurst
- Theale
- Datchet
Our Legionella FAQs cover the general questions. Or see all areas we cover.