Author: manager

Categories
All Project Categories Office Refurbishments Suspended Ceilings

Hall Refurbishment in Chippenham

Hall Refurbishment in Chippenham
New wood effect vinyl flooring

Client: Chippenham Rotary Hall
Value: £21.5k

Chippenham Rotary Club wanted a Hall Refurbishment to bring the dark and dated old hall into the 21st century and make it more appealing to those looking at hiring the space.

The first task was to survey the existing space and understand the requirements for the space.

Existing Hall Space

The existing space was very dated and there were a number of tasks  that we could easily identify that would make a big impact straight away. The dated carpets, the woodchip wallpaper and the poor lighting all needed replacing.

Our first step is to measure the space, have a meeting to discuss what the customer likes and dislikes and how the space will be used.

Next we go away and produce some plans and costs for the project. Once the basic cost is determined we can adjust the specification to suit the customers budget so we show all of the costings and juggle things around to get to a cost that everyone is happy with before we carry out any works.

Work in Progress

The Hall Refurbishment went really smoothly and every element made such a big difference.

The new suspended ceiling used a modern flat white tile which looks much cleaner than the old fissured tiles, we also cranked the ceiling to maximize the available height in the middle making the space much more light and airy.

The woodchip wallpaper was removed, all walls were re-plastered before being decorated in a neutral grey with an orange feature wall. All of the old dark wooden skirting boards and window sills were painted using good quality white gloss to compliment new lighter colour scheme.

The LED lighting with spots around the edges and LED panels in the centre fills the space with much more light and it is fully adjustable with dimmer controls for each section making it nice and easy to see the projector screen.

The new wood effect vinyl flooring looks great whilst being super hard wearing and ultra realistic with textured woodgrain and beveled planks.

The final element was to replace the double entrance doors into the hall with a modern light oak veneered door with extra large vision panels and stainless steel kick plates and pull handles.

Completed Photos

The finished hall looks clean, fresh and modern whilst also being much more practical with easy to clean flooring and much better lighting levels.

The new hall will appeal to more people running groups, training or events with such a versatile space.

Does your Hall or function room look dated?

Please give us a call or contact us and we would be more than happy to help you modernize your space and appeal to more customers.

01380 73 88 44

Categories
All Project Categories Partitioning

Glass Corner Office Partitioning in Calne

Glass Corner Office Partitioning in Calne
Single glazed glass partition with dry joints

Client: Fabrinet
Value: £7.5k

The customers’ main requirement was to segregate the large reception area and install a new glass corner office to provide a quick meeting space for visitors. The reception is just a small part of a very large building so the customer wanted to avoid having to take visitors all the way through the building to use the boardroom for smaller informal meetings.

The Existing reception has huge windows with an open staircase so the customer wanted to keep reception open plan and maximize the light so glass partitioning was the obvious choice.

Planning the work.

The project did not require any drawings, the space was so big there were no concerns about the new meeting room fitting. The customer already had a small meeting table and chairs so we simply made the room spacious enough to accommodate the existing furniture.  We do carry out space planning and 3d visuals if required. More information about this is on the following page click this link.

Quick installation

One of the things we love about glass partitioning is how quick they are to fit, this minimizes any disruption to the customer.

This glass corner office installation was completed over 3x visits:

  • The first visit was to install the tracks and confirm the final position of the door. At this stage all final measurements are taken for the glass to be manufactured to fit perfectly. This visit usually only takes a couple of hours.
  • The second visit is usually around a week later to install the glass. This visit also only takes a couple of hours.
  • The third and final visit is a couple of days later to fit the manifestations onto the glass. We loved the diminishing bands this customer chose as it keeps the space looking open plan whilst giving some obscured privacy within the meeting room.

Questions on glass partitioning

Please give us a call on 01380 738844 or complete our website contact form if you have any questions about Glass Partitioning.

Categories
All Project Categories Partitioning

Low cost Office Partitioning

Low cost Office Partitioning
From inside the larger room glazed

Client: Marketing Logistic
Value: £2.5k

Is there such a thing? ‘low cost office partitioning’ in Calne. To be perfectly honest office partitioning with glass and doors always costs more than you think. There is quite a bit involved with the construction as all of the parts arrive as full lengths of material, every single piece has to be cut to fit. The hand built nature of these types of partitions also means that they are fully configurable. So you can have the glass where you want it, you can position the doors and solid elements pretty much where you need them.

We have written quite a bit about these partitions, which are called demountable partitions elsewhere in the website. They do actually give quite a bit of flexibility in that the walls can be adjusted, so taken down and rebuilt into a different position re-using the materials without waste. This is different to a traditional plasterboard and stud wall. Once a stud is built that is it, to move it you have to destroy it. A stud wall also is difficult to put windows in, and doorframes, much easier and therefore quicker in a demountable system.

Trade off's

A demountable office partition looks good, in that it looks modern and is designed for offices, whereas a timber or metal stud wall does not. The issue with the demountable partition options come down to cost. Low cost office partitioning is possible by changing the specifications to a budget system. For example this project was built using a 50mm wide demountable partition system. The more common thickness of wall is 75mm wide, and 100mm wide is available as well. The wider systems are more expensive as they use more material but they perform better in terms of sound performance and in the case of the 75mm and 100mm system they can be fire rated. The 50mm wide system cannot.

So really there is a balance to be made with performance versus cost. The 50mm wide system looks good but will not perform as well as a 75mm wide system and is cheaper.

There are also options with glazing, single or double glazed, again with  the cost versus performance trade off to consider.

The Plan

Plan to create 2 offices

The customer really wanted two rooms created inside the small office, but we were concerned that it would be too small so checked the sizes out by producing a small drawing. We fitted a standard desk into the space as well so the customer could see whether this would work for them.

The drawing actually helps us anyway as we can work out how big the windows need to be, which affects the cost.

Project Photographs.

It was a bit tricky to take decent photographs as the space was so small. However please see them below.

Low cost partitioning projects

The first thing to mention is please contact us if you need something carried out to a small budget. There are many ways to build office walls. In this instance the customer wanted glass and a couple of doors so there is a cost incurred with the glazing and door frames. Less glass would have been cheaper, less walls would have been cheaper. It is hard to balance the right combination of what is required against any budget.

Please call us on 01380 73 88 44 or email us on [email protected]

Categories
All Project Categories Toilet Refurbishment

Office Toilet Refurbishment in Calne

Office Toilet Refurbishment in Calne
Ladies vanity unit finished.

Client: Fabrinet
Value: £77k

The office toilet refurbishment project for Fabrinet in Calne,  included toilet blocks on each floor as well as the disabled toilet off the reception area. Each had not been decorated or refurbished since the building was built around 20 years ago.

A requirement was also for speed, the work needed to be started between 7 and 10 days from sorting out the specification so we needed to be organised.

As well as replacing all of the vanity units and cubicle systems, all of the sanitary wear, taps and ancillaries were replaced. Also replaced were the suspended ceilings, lighting and flooring. Everything we usually do for an office refurbishment, so well within our skill set of what we can do. The first task as always, is to draw everything and work out the costs versus the finishes to get with the budget. Bearing in mind although the figure seems high, there were 4 big toilet blocks to do, as well as the small disabled toilet at the front of the building so quite a bit of work.

Office toilet refurbishment projects are not a great deal different to residential, only that things like cubicle partitions, vanity units and items like infra-red taps are more likely to be used. The flooring as well tends to be non-slip flooring as it is usually washed down each night by an army of office cleaners that also clean the office areas.

Preliminary work

We would normally produce sample boards and more drawings but we really did not have much time to do anything. We had to work out the costs very quickly and we provided some physical samples of tiles and brochures for the cubicles and we were starting, really quick..

Existing Toilets

Work in Progress photographs

We took over 700 photographs on this project over 6 weeks, below is just some of them. With 4 main toilet blocks and 3 disabled toilet rooms as well we had to run some of the rooms concurrently with work.

Completion photographs

We think that people forget how bad the old toilets were. The grey colour scheme was in keeping with Fabrinet corporate colours and they really needed to be done and we enjoyed carrying out the work.

Toilet Refurbishment Projects for Offices?

If you would like your office toilets refurbished, please do give us a call on 01380 73 88 44, or email us at [email protected] and we would be really interested to see whether we can help.

Categories
Air Conditioning All Project Categories

Domestic Air Conditioning Installation

Domestic Air Conditioning Installation
Finished installation

Client: Private
Value: £2.3k

A domestic air conditioning installation is perfectly possible for us at Cre8tive Interiors Ltd, and so when we were recommended to this customer we did not turn the work down.

We carry out exactly the same process that we would do for a commercial customer, so we visit the site and talk to the customer about what is required. We had a look at the outside position for the external condenser and looked at the pipe routes and electrical connections.

We also noticed that in the garage the customer had a running machine, so thought we would suggest a new type of wall mounted unit which would be much better for the customer to use.

Most wall mounted units for offices direct the air using blades and in the commercial environment we always have issues with the direction of cold blast of air on people. The unit we chose was a new design from Midea which lets the air come out of the unit through thousands of perforated holes in a front grill, resulting in no cold blasts. The cooled and heated air also comes out of the unit from the sides. We felt that this was a much better unit for the customer as the air supply to the space would be much more comfortable than conventional units from Daikin, Fujitsu and some of the other makes that we can fit and maintain.

We also suggested a small fresh air system but the customer did not want to spend the money on this, just the air conditioning system.

Existing Space to be cooled

Installation Photos

Domestic air conditioning requirements?

As mentioned previously a domestic air conditioning installation is not something we would normally do. One of the things that was attractive to the customer is that we included within the costs the electrics and took away all of our rubbish as well as clearing everything up. We also carry out the maintenance every year and this unit came with a 5 year warranty. This particular unit also had a Bluetooth controller that could be connected to the internet and programmed remotely when not at home.

This unit was actually perfect for a domestic air conditioning installation.

If you would like any further information or a quote, please do not hesitate to contact us on 01380 73 88 44 or email us at [email protected]

Categories
All Project Categories Design Office Furniture Office Refurbishments

Office Design and Refurbishment

Office Design and Refurbishment
Completed Phase 1 side of the building

Client: Ari Fleet
Value: £92k

An Office Design and Refurbishment Project for Ari Fleet in Chippenham was not initially considered when we visited to discuss some sound problems in their offices. Their concern was that they knew something had to be done, and had prices for furniture and had an idea on what  they liked for carpets, but were not sure how the project could be all tied together, with a total budget, with a list of things that they wanted doing.

The other major problem was that the office space was occupied, so the ground floor area would need to have many people moved around in various phases. So Cre8tive were tasked to pull the whole project together.

The majority of the ground floor space consisted of around 100+ desks. We also had to assess what future capacity we could accommodate due to the future growth plans of the business. The desk layout was important to show this, so we carried some designs and plans.

We felt that an area was needed to encourage staff to meet outside the tea room in a less formal environment and so we allocated some space for this. Our original idea was to have a curved breakfast bar in the bottom corner of the building, joining the two sections of office space together. At this stage the customer thought this a bit too adventurous and they wanted to keep their meeting rooms.

Design and Planning work

Always the first task in a Design and Refurbishment project is to get the space working correctly without focusing at an early point on the product. Once the basic desk plans were agreed we then looked to examine different suppliers, and we selected a couple from Frem and another supplier. We then set up both types of desks from different suppliers in an office for the staff to try out. The staff actually selected the cheaper version which was a surprise. However the staff voted on the selection and Ari Fleet management went with their selection.

We then asked for the corporate colours, we also provided some colour options and carpet choices to show how all of the colours could go together. We were then able to provide budget costs for all of the options. The overall costs including decoration, and the choice of the cheaper furniture met their budget.

We then decided to split the work into three phases so the staff could be moved around the other office space available upstairs, giving time for Ari Fleets’ IT people to disconnect and reconnect desks in between the phases.

Initial Photographs

As you can see from the photographs below the existing screens were red, and the desks were 120 degree. Many years ago this design was quite innovative, but time moves on, particularly there is not the requirement for desk space now with flat screen technology. There is also much less paperwork on desks now, with everything being more electronic.

The carpet was also quite worn in places, although a decent quality when fitted the design is no longer made, so hard to patch and make good, so needed to be replaced. Naturally the carpet wears under desk positions with peoples feet and corridor routes, not much can be done about this.

Phase one side of the building

Quite a bit of work was required to prepare the area as you can see from the photographs. A large gang of furniture fitters was required to install of the furniture in a day allowing the customer time to carry out the wiring and gradually move people over from the other areas. Once we finished our work, we planned in 2 weeks to give the customer time to organise staff before we tackled the next phase. In fact the following area ended up almost running on directly from the previous phase, so much quicker than we thought.

Phase two side of the building

Phase three Breakout area

Completed photographs

Office Design and Refurbishment Projects

We really enjoyed this project. The o-operation that Ari management got from the staff was brilliant as they involved the staff in the process all along. This is always important on larger projects where you are affecting the way people work, if you can involve the staff then managing any change is much easier.

What was really rewarding is the comments from the customer at the end of the video clip. The refurbishment has changed the way the staff work for the better, there is more involvement and closer team working by using the new break out area.

If you would like any help on any project like this please give us a call on 01380 73 88 44 or email us at [email protected]

office design and refurbishment

 

office design and refurbishment

Categories
All Project Categories Partitioning

Room Division in Trowbridge

Room Division in Trowbridge
Conference room side of completed wall

Client: Trowbridge Town Council
Value: £11.5k

A conference room division into two smaller rooms was a requirement by Trowbridge Town Council and Cre8tive Interiors Ltd were asked to carry out the work.

Room division is not an uncommon requirement, but it is not always straightforward as there are many things to consider. However, the customer found the existing meeting room was far to large, and never got used to its’ full potential, and needed another office. So splitting off the end of the larger room made sense.

Challenges

There were several challenges that needed to be dealt with. The first was that the room to be divided had underfloor heating with a filament set under the carpet and floor. Underfloor heating is fine for residential uses but usually in offices spaces are dynamic, and walls need to be moved and relocated as the business changes. We usually use demountable partitions for this, the partitions can be re-used if the sizes and positions need to be changed. Most offices have demountable partitions.

The reason why this is a problem is that the screws used to fit the bottom support track into the floor must not puncture the underfloor heating elements. In this case we used shorter screws than usual and bonded the bottom track to the floor with high tensile strength adhesive. The wall itself is also fixed to the ceiling or roof.

Trowbridge Town Council wanted the access to the new room to come off the main corridor, so the main corridor wall would need electrics moving and a hole cut into it for the new frame and door to fit.

Other issues were that the customer had an existing door and doorframe to match but they could not tell what the thickness of the wall was 100%, so we had to take a bit of a gamble and assume the lining would fit.

Preparation work before work starts

All projects require these elements, but Trowbridge Town Council wanted to see them and checked them through before starting work which was fine of course. It was just nice to see a customer actually ask for them.

Initial site photographs

The photos below say it all really. The existing room was very long and large, so lent itself to be split off at the end. The ceiling was pretty high, so scaffolding and wide wall studs are required.

Construction Photographs

Getting all the materials to the area was actually quite a challenge as it all had to be brought through narrow corridors from the back of the building. No access via the front. The wall had to be fire rated as well, hence the pink fire line board. Sound performance needed to be good as well, so the wall had to have insulation inside the wall cavity. The wall also went right through the suspended ceiling into the roof, and then the suspended ceilings had to be reconfigured to drop inside. This prevents sound transference in the ceiling void above the suspended ceiling. We also provided 200mm insulation to go over the back of the suspended ceiling as well to further improve the sound performance of the new wall.

Completion Photographs

We do not have too many of these, as soon as we finish we clean up and are off site and leave the customer to do what they want with the space. They planned it with us so that the rooms were not booked out, we finished when we said we would but it was still a few weeks before furniture was fitted and of course we were gone by then.

Room Division requirements?

Room division is something we can do for offices, if you have any requirements please do not hesitate to contact us on 01380 73 88 44 or email us at [email protected]

Categories
All Project Categories Suspended Ceilings

Suspended Ceiling and LED Lighting in Devizes

Suspended Ceiling and LED Lighting in Devizes
New suspended ceiling and LED lights

Client: MG Books
Value: £6.5k

MG Books Ltd in Devizes wanted a suspended ceiling installed into their back office and contacted Cre8tive Interiors. The office area got very cold in the winter and they felt that a suspended ceiling would do the trick. When we visited site, we could see that the space would also benefit from some LED Lighting. If the existing fittings were to be re-used it would detract from the look of the ceiling, and LED panels would also give a much better lighting levels in the space.

The levels had to be calculated based on the ceiling height and the area. In many offices, other suppliers have just replaced the existing fittings with LED in the same place and this has resulted in the area being too bright and not very pleasant to work in.

If computers are used, the LED panels also have to be office compliant with a UGR rating of less that 19. UGR stands for Unified Glare Rating. Most LED panels are mass produced and use poor quality LED’s which can give an inconsistent light level in the panel and this makes it unsuitable for offices. Fine for everything else, just not offices.

Existing Space and work in progress.

The first task is to measure everything and draw it. We always do this so we can accurately work out the material costs without guessing it. Once we have drawn the new grid and determined the new ceiling height the information is sent over to the electricians to carry out a lighting design.

You will notice one of the photographs below shows a fire detector and red cable. This was connected to the building system so had to be repositioned onto the new ceiling once finished.

Work in Progress

Final Photographs

Suspended Ceiling requirements?

We chose a very clean white ceiling pattern. It is possible to have a more textured design, or one that uses a tegular edge design but we do not like these. The tegular edge attracts dust and we think makes the ceiling look fussy. The tegular design is also more expensive than flat square edge. Also included in the price was 200mm bagged insulation that we fitted over the back of the suspended ceiling. We also blacked out the windows from the outside so people could not see the void above the suspended ceiling through the windows from the outside.

Electrically we provided emergency lighting as well, and also removed all of the existing fittings. Also supplied was an NICEIC certificate, certifying the work.

Any questions or requirements please give us a call on 01380 738844 or email us at [email protected]

Categories
News

How can I make my office Covid Secure?

How can I make my office Covid Secure?
Glass Covid19 sneeze screen

How do I make my office Covid Secure? We have been asked this question many times over the last few months, in our view the guidance changes over time and we are sure that there will be other recommendations in the future. In particular when vaccines become available there will be different procedures that will need to be followed.

In the short term , the safest situation for staff is to not actually be in the office at all and to work from home. This is not always possible though.

There are layers of protection for staff which we can list later and of course a Covid Risk Assessment should always be made.

Although for some people working from home can work out fine, for many, the social interaction, management and the feeling of working as part of a team is missing. Humans are social animals. Many people look forward to going to work, once you walk away from the home environment and go to an office or work place, the mindset is changed. You can forget about home life for the moment, and if there are stresses and strains at home people can get away from this. The reverse is also true of course.

Practicalities of working from home.

There are practical issues that need to be overcome which are split into more than one area, so you have IT of course, how do you communicate with the office seamlessly, access information, network systems, software and phones? All can be overcome but not as perfect as being in the office.

Office furniture actually is designed to ensure that staff are as comfortable as possible and there are other legal requirements that offices have to stick such as the Visual Display Regulations, the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, Building Regulations to name but a few.

Working off a laptop in the spare room, sitting on a bed or sofa is not ideal.

For some, where people can work from a separate room, an ‘office’ then working from home practically is possible. Maybe the future is for people to be more part time at home with the advantages of working from home and perhaps going into the office once or twice a week to meet the ‘team’, catch up on training and buy into the culture of the Company. If people do not have the correct office furniture or proper seating the employer could be liable for work place posture issues amongst others.

Practical things that can be done at work

Advice is changing all of the time, social distancing can be quite hard to achieve so you need to look at the physical distances of where people sit and how they work and interact with each other. The first thing is to ensure that the staff follow your company risk assessment and procedures, things like taking responsibility for themselves if they are unwell and not coming into work, getting tested etc.

Cre8tive Interiors can provide:

  • Sneeze screens to fit onto desk top screens, either in acrylic or glass.
  • Partition screens, so full height glass walls.
  • Reception desk screens, made to measure.
  • UVC lamps to fit inside fresh air air handling units which kills 99.99% of all bacteria.
  • An examination of the office design, perhaps a redesign creating more break out areas, providing more space for staff, creating a more open environment as some staff may be working from home.

How can Cre8tive Interiors help

The best thing to do if you are not sure what to do is to pick up the phone or email and we will see whether we can help.

Categories
Air Conditioning News

Why have Ventilation in offices?

Why have Ventilation in offices?
VAM unit installed

Why have ventilation in offices? We have been asked this a few times and there are actually several reasons. The question is more important at the moment with the current Covid 19 pandemic as people are worried about being inside enclosed spaces without ventilation.

Although this issue has been brought to many peoples attention, fresh air in offices is actually a legal requirement in order to comply with Building Regulations.

 

Refurbishment Projects

When we carry out refurbishment projects that affect fire escape routes, general fire protection separation in offices and warehouses we have to submit plans to Building Control to get approval. Part of the things they look for is in Part F which relates to ventilation and there is a required to supply a certain rate of air in litres per person. We therefore have to calculate the correct size unit for the number of people.

What about Windows?

Most offices have windows. In theory you could argue that as the office has windows it has fresh air ventilation so does not need any mechanical method of delivering it. How many people have the window open though? Particularly in winter when there is a howling gale outside as well as raining horizontally. People are just not going to open them. The best way to ensure that you have fresh air is to have a proper VAM unit installed.

CO2 levels

Although we can focus on C02, as well as being easily measured with a meter, there is an actual impact on people in terms of their performance if the C02 levels are too high. C02 is carbon dioxide and is a by product of combustion. Humans produce it when they breath.

Carbon dioxide levels and potential health problems are indicated below:

  • 250-350 ppm: background (normal) outdoor air level.
  • 350-1,000 ppm: typical level found in occupied spaces with good air exchange.
  • 1,000-2,000 ppm: levels associated with complaints of drowsiness and poor air

The effect on office staff when C02 levels are above 1000 ppm cannot be under-estimated. If your office feels stuffy and there is a general lethargy in the mid afternoon where everyone needs more coffee and less is produced, there is probably not enough fresh air in the space.

Opening a window is good, and will create a difference but this is not always possible. In order to get the correct flow rates, and ensure that  the air is filtered then a VAM unit needs to be fitted.

Relevant Projects

Contact Us