ProtectIT is our proven system for protecting live IT environments during refurbishment or retrofit – enclosure, HEPA-filtered pressure control and validated air-quality reporting.
During refurbishment or retrofit, one of the greatest — and most underestimated — threats to your data centre or server room is construction dust. These microscopic particles are abrasive, conductive and highly damaging to fans, circuit boards and power supplies.
Refurbishment work produces vast quantities of fine particulate contamination. Contractors rarely understand how sub-micron particles behave; even careful isolation lets dust bypass makeshift barriers and spread through positive-pressure airflow into data halls.
Plaster dust is particularly dangerous. Its critical relative humidity is lower than the environment in most data centres, so it absorbs moisture from the air, becomes damp, and drives corrosion (sulphur and copper creep), ionic migration and permanent electronic damage.
- Silica-based dust from concrete, mortar and sandstone.
- Low-toxicity plaster and plasterboard dusts — as fine as 0.3 μm.
- Sub-micron particles travelling freely through HVAC and ventilation.
- Plaster dust absorbing moisture, driving corrosion and ionic migration on PCBs.
STEP 01
Enclose the zone
Specialist containment isolates either the live IT equipment or the construction work area.
STEP 02
HEPA-filtered pressure
0.3μm air scrubbers create positive pressure over IT (keeping dust out) or negative pressure over works (trapping dust in).
STEP 03
Prove & certify
Real-time air-quality and temperature monitoring keeps the environment stable and safe throughout the project.
STEP 04
Reassemble & reinstall
Air particulate readings in both zones prove the system worked. Post-works clean and ISO 14644-1:2015 Class 8 certification hand the room back audit-ready.
Trained and experienced on complex systems including Quantum Scalar Tape Libraries. Heavily contaminated equipment can be safely cleaned and restored without voiding manufacturer warranties.
Proven across the UK
ProtectIT has safeguarded large enterprise data halls, high-density server rooms and sensitive communications/control rooms — including a large tape library at a UK university, kept fully operational while a comms-room wall was removed. To date, no contamination of the protected IT equipment has occurred.
Managed containment
We can supply a contamination-control manager on-site — running airlock doors, providing HEPA-filtered vacuums for contractors, monitoring particulate levels, maintaining pressures and air scrubbers, and holding temperature. After the works we clean, take proving air-particulate readings against ISO 14644-1 Class 8 (3,520,000 particles at 0.5μm), then remove the enclosure and hand the room back.