Why I built it
I found it incredibly confusing.
There had to be an easier way.
Kieran BuckleyCo-founder · School leader · Trained immunologistMy day job is working in a school. I sit heavily in the operational compliance space — fire safety, legionella safety — making sure the building is legally operational, and keeping it that way between visits from the auditors.
With legionella there is a lot to remember: moving parts, dates, when things should be flushed. I had been given guidance and training — and I am an immunologist. I do not consider myself a slow learner. I still found it incredibly confusing, and extremely difficult to remain compliant. So I decided there had to be an easier way.
The laptop under the sink
One idea bounced around at the time was carrying laptops from tap to tap. Imagine yourself with a laptop underneath a sink, with a thermometer and a stopwatch, trying to take a temperature. It was crazy. The easiest way was going to be a phone.
And there had to be a better way of knowing when to measure. Why was there no reminder system? All we had was “check this monthly, check this weekly” — and in a busy working week, those checks get missed.
What is at stake
I am an immunologist and I work with vulnerable children. If checks are missed repeatedly, it can cause an outbreak — and for people whose immune systems are compromised, Legionnaires’ disease can be fatal. If the conditions are right, about three weeks of stagnation is all it takes: the chlorine that protects the water fades away, and an unused outlet becomes the danger.
External taps are the classic. They live outside the building, they appear on no floor plan, and most people only use them in summer. Turn one on after a year of standing still and you are rolling the dice.
And once legionella is in a water system, you have to do a massive amount of work to get it out — and to prove that it is gone. The burden of proof is on you. The liability is stark: a significant penalty, and damage to a reputation that could stop a place functioning at all.
What we built
So, along with my partner Chandos Elletson, we built Legionella Ready. The evidence lives together in one place, not in a scrappy folder. The app guides you: how long to run a hot tap, a built-in stopwatch, reminders when a flush is due. It focuses you right down onto the water system and reports the health of your building in grey, green, amber and red — so you are not spending brain power working out what needs doing; the map tells you.
It replaces the paper logbook. Every record becomes a living thing that comes back to you when something is due, overdue, or out of use. Most of the harm comes down to a gap: someone leaves, and someone else has to pick it up three weeks later from a folder. Follow the system, label the water assets, and the next person opens the map and sees exactly where things stand.
It does not replace the risk assessment, written scheme or competent advice. It makes the existing compliance structure visible and usable every day.
The whole purpose is to make staying compliant so much easier — and to keep the building, its water, and the people who use it safe. That is why we built it.
If this sounds like your building, register your interest — and tell me what you need it to do. I read every one.
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