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Air Conditioning All Project Categories

Air Conditioning and Ventilation Project in Trowbridge

Client: Baloos Soft Play
Value: £45k

We were recommended to Baloo’s to provide air conditioning and ventilation for their new project in Trowbridge. After having a good look around the building and listening to the requirements we arrived at some suggestions to the client. Baloo’s had already received several air conditioning quotations, but all were different and confusing. We were able to provide a quote which was clear, meet their budget as well as demonstrate that the other companies were not complying with Building Regulations which is very important.

Building Regulations

Cre8tive Interiors considers Building Regulations all the time in any refurbishment project and so understand them very well. A major consideration is Ventilation. Most air conditioning companies do not carry out this work as well as air conditioning so they do not understand how it is relevant to office and public places. Cre8tive Interiors also carries out the electrical work associated with the air conditioning and ventilation requirements, so there is no need for the customer to worry about additional trades to get everything to work. One order with us, and it works.

Equipment Locations

The outdoor units for the air conditioning system had to be located around the back of the building, out of the way. The indoor Ventilation units or VAM units, had to be located high up out of the way but also needed to be positioned in such a way that we could service the units properly. Each VAM unit has a side access panel to get to the fresh air filters.

Cre8tive Interiors air conditioning and ventilation
Potential location of outdoor air conditioning units

Vam Unit

The ventilation unit provides fresh air into a space by pulling air from the outside, as well as extracting stale air from inside the building to the outside through long duct work pipes. Both incoming and outgoing air pass through the ventilation unit which filters the air. The different air temperatures cross over each other and average out, the energy is ‘recovered’. The calculations of the size of the unit depends on the number of people inside the building, another calculation is the volumetric space. Each unit is sized and calculated to meet the current regulations. The units at Baloo’s for example can exchange 1000 m3 of air per hour, so they are quite big units. One on each floor.

Challenges with the Original Building Layout

  • The client did not want a suspended ceiling and wanted to keep the original beams and structural look of the building as much as possible. This presented a slight problem as the pipework would either have to go straight under the beams or go up and over them. In the end we decided that there was enough height to run straight underneath.
  • We advised that an ‘industrial look’ would be absolutely fine, and we would locate all of the pipework on cable trays.
  • The main VAM units would be located in one of the rooms at the back to facilitate servicing. The ground floor unit would be located in the lobby area around the side of the building, again making servicing as easy as possible.
  • Budget was also a challenge. We design the system for more units and air flow but installed in this first phase the minimum that would be required with a plan to review the performance and add additional units as required. The important things were to get the equipment in the time that they wanted, and to the budget they had.

The Solutions

  • We chose a new manufacturer to the UK which were cheaper actual units but offered a 10 year manufacturer’s warranty. As well as reducing the cost, it gave assurances to the client that the manufacturer is confident of their equipment enough to provide this length of warranty.
  • Many local air conditioning companies offer equipment that only has a 2 year warranty because they want to tie in the client with lots of repair bills. Our main business is refurbishment work, but we service the equipment as well.
Air conditioning and Ventilation project in Trowbridge for Baloo's
Air conditioning and Ventilation project in Trowbridge for Baloo’s

Initial site photos

As the main pipework is designed to be on view, it was very important to get everything level and square. Visually most people can tell if something is not quite straight, so the installers used lasers to check the alignment and levels.

Installation work

As the main pipework is designed to be on view, it was very important to get everything level and square. Visually most people can tell if something is not quite straight, so the installers used lasers to check the alignment and levels.

Final photographs

Below are some photos of nearly finished as well as some final photographs with the play equipment in place.

Summary on Air Conditioning and Ventilation Projects

  1. We can supply and install all makes but would prefer those manufacturers offering 5 years warranty or more such as Daikin, Fujitsu and Midea.
  2. We understand Building Regulation requirements on ventilation whereas many companies do not.
  3. We maintain all equipment supplied by us and offer a service and maintenance contract on all installations.

Contact

If you have any questions or need any help with air conditioning or ventilation projects please do not hesitate to get in touch 01380 73 88 44, or via email at [email protected]

Categories
All Project Categories Toilet Refurbishment

Toilet Refurbishment in Chippenham

Client: General Dynamic UK
Value: £22k

A toilet refurbishment can simply mean updating the sanitary ware or tiling the walls. or it can involve a great deal more. Our customer, General Dynamic UK, specialises in technical systems for the MOD and wanted to bring their toilets into the 21st century.

The toilet refurbishment incorporated everything from a new ceiling and LED lighting down to new easier to clean anti-slip vinyl flooring.

We started off by measuring up the toilets and drawing it on CAD which made working out the quantity of tiles and the sizes of new cubicles much easier. Luckily the overall layout of the toilets was going to stay the same so there was no need for a plumber to re-route any pipework. We worked with the customer using colour swatches and mood boards to plan the new toilets. By identifying what was wrong with the existing toilets we were able to define what was going the make the biggest difference.

Toilet Refurbishment plans
Toilet Refurbishment plans

Existing Toilets

  • The existing tiles were very dated on both the walls and the floor with some very bland grey cubicles. 
  • The suspended ceiling comprised old fissured tiles with marks on the grid and damage to some tiles.
  • The gold lights looked very dated and with halogen bulbs were not very energy efficient.
  • The toilets and urinals were very basic.
  • The lighting above the mirror didn’t work and the bulkhead above and down the side of the mirror looked poor.
  • The shower was fairly recent with a good quality shower installed.
  • The pipework below the vanity unit leaked and the sinks just needed updating.

The solutions

  • LED lighting compared to halogen bulbs will always make a space much brighter and eliminate the nasty shadows on the walls.
  • Large format tiles add a modern touch whilst also being much easier to clean.
  • Anti-slip vinyl flooring is not only much safer, but much easier to clean with coved edges and no grout lines to worry about.
  • Modern dual flush toilets, urinal and sinks are much more aesthetically pleasing.
  • New cubicles and IPS panels in a modern colour combination have an instant effect making the space much more modern.

Toilet Refurbishment Construction Photographs

As soon as we got on site our fitters made quick work of removing the tiles, suspended ceiling and old sanitary ware. We used floor protection to ensure the mess didn’t spread into the hallways and offices when we were transporting the rubbish to the skip. Once the toilet was stripped back to basics we could install the IPS panelling and all the associated plumbing behind them. The coved edges of the new anti-slip flooring provided a level base to start tiling which made a dramatic difference in a short space of time. Large format tiles look great and because of their size they cover a large amount of area very quickly.

Once the flooring and tiles were installed the suspended ceiling, sanitary ware and cubicles were installed. The mirror was given a new minimalist frame to replace the wooden architrave.

Toilet Refurbishment Completion Photographs

Once the plumbing had been checked and all of the electrics re-connected the toilets were ready for use. We installed some lovely new stainless steel toilet roll holders and soap dispensers to keep with the modern look of the toilets. The customer was very pleased with the work we did as it caused minimal disruption and we left the toilet area looking clean and tidy.

Summary on Toilet Refurbishments

  1. Tiling and lighting have the biggest impacts on the overall look of a toilet.
  2. Mood boards and samples are a great way to visualise how a colour scheme will look.
  3. We use floor protection on our projects to ensure dust and dirt from the construction doesn’t spread into offices and hallways.
  4. We like to install LED lighting and dual flush cisterns where possible to promote energy efficiency and save water.

Questions on Toilet Refurbishments

Want more inspiration? Have a look at another job we did in Melksham. If you have any questions or you have a toilet that needs updating, please give us a call on 01380 738844

Categories
News

What is a Mezzanine Floor?

The photograph to the right shows a mezzanine floor we fitted for a customer in Devizes.

Mezzanine Floor: There are several definitions if you look up the word on google. The wikipedia definition is, “ an intermediate floor in a building which is partly open to the double-height ceiling floor below.”

Perhaps a more useful definition is a Mezzanine is a “second floor“. Although usually the mezzanine level of a building is a partial floor, located between the ground floor and first floor. Another meaning of mezzanine is the lowest of a row of balconies in a theatre or symphony hall.”

Mezzanine floor in Offices

How does this all relate to offices and warehouses? When someone talks about a mezzanine in an office, what does that mean? If the main building is quite high, then you can introduce another intermediate floor level to split up the height of the building and increase the usuable floor space. Often this means not having to move premises and using the height of the building to maximise either the storage capacity or increase office space.

We define a mezzanine floor as an interdependently supported steel structure that forms a floor which can be used for storage or offices.

Safety in the event of a fire

There are some strict laws on the design and construction of these types of floors which are covered by Building Regulations. If you think about it, people will be potentially working above or below the steel structure and the Building Regulations are designed to protect people. Most mezzanine floors are made from stressed steel sections that are formed and cut to size. When heat is applied in a fire for example, the steel becomes soft, de-stressing the steel and the whole structure can collapse very quickly. The steel would not melt (unless really hot), but would bend and distort. We have several other blog posts in relation to fire performance:

Building Regulations.

Other articles or blog posts can be seen here, as well looking at the projects that we have carried out on the main project page.

  1. Is my existing mezzanine floor fire rated (it should be)
  2. Mezzanine floor protection.
  3. Why do I need Building Regulations
  4. Can I alter my existing Mezzanine Floor?
  5. How do I create more office space?

Projects

If you would like to have a look at some of our projects, please click the link to take you to the mezzanine floor page on this website. Below the main text will be some filtered projects with photographs of building.

Need to know more? Please contact us on 01380 7388 44 or email us at [email protected]

Categories
All Project Categories Suspended Ceilings

Suspended Ceiling in Devizes

Client: CMD Recruitment
Value: £1,350

CMD Recruitment in Devizes specialises in recruitment and wanted to install a suspended ceiling in the back office. The top part of the roof was really high, the ceiling had plasterboard fitted which made the room really noisy, it was not really suitable for the staff who were using the room for phone calls.

We started off by measuring up the space and working out the quantity of tiles that the ceiling grid required. The customer had fluorescent light fittings suspended from the ceiling on chains which needed to be removed and re-installed.

When talking to the customer we determined that the the reason for installing a suspended ceiling was to help keep the heat in during the winter as the high ceiling meant it was very cold. We recommended bagged insulation over the back of the suspended ceiling as this would help keep the heat in the room more efficiently. We also recommended installing LED panels as they would be much more energy efficient and they would have a much cleaner look as they are installed flush in the ceiling.

Existing Ceiling

New Ceiling Installation

The new  ceiling was installed very quickly and bagged insulation was fitted above. The electricians installed the new lights the next day. The office was left clean and tidy and much warmer.

Summary on Suspended Ceilings

We have some more news / blog posts on ceilings. Click this link for more details on some of the different types available.

  1. Great for thermal insulation.
  2. Brilliant for improving sound performance.
  3. Perfect for hiding services and flush mounting lights.
  4. Bagged insulation can increase both thermal and acoustic performance.

Questions on Different types of Ceilings?

Want to read more ? Why not have a look at another job we did in Chippenham.

If you have any other questions, or would like more information on Suspended Ceilings, please give us a call on 01380 738844.

Categories
All Project Categories Projects Suspended Ceilings Toilet Refurbishment

Fire Damage Restoration in Swindon

Client: Keningtons LLP
Value: £11k

It’s not often we are requested to undertake fire damage restoration, and we hope that this is because we take the matter of fire protection very seriously at Cre8tive Interiors. Fire protection is part of the Building Regulations which is something we need to be aware of in every project. We have worked on many projects that involve replacing fire doors (click here to see why we replaced the fire doors in Allied Computer Systems) or installing fire protection to a mezzanine floor (click here if you have a mezzanine floor).

We were contacted by Keningtons LLP after something caught fire in the bin of the ladies’ toilet within one of the offices they manage. Luckily it was put out quickly because it was contained in a small space, but the fire damage caused by such a small fire was frightening. Working with Keningtons LLP and the insurance company we were tasked with restoring the toilets to the original condition.  

Initial Visit

At the first visit we could see immediately that the fire had caused a great deal of damage despite only being a small fire and being extinguished quickly.

The fire started in a small bin in one of the toilets which had completely melted along with half of the toilet seat and the towel dispenser that was above it. The suspended ceiling had given way and collapsed and all of the insulation above was black from the smoke. The walls, floors, doors and even the appliances were coated in a thick layer of soot from the smoke. The fire damage wasn’t as extensive in the second toilet, where the door had obviously been closed, but there was still a lot of soot from the smoke. The smoke damage extended out into the hallways where it had coated the suspended ceiling and walls in layers of soot.

As we went through we took note of all the fire damaged areas that would need replacing.

  • The vinyl flooring was melted in places.
  • The toilet, soil pipe and boxing in was badly damaged.
  • The plastic towel dispenser was destroyed.
  • The walls were coated in a thick layer of soot.
  • The appliances were very badly soiled from the smoke.
  • The plastic grill in the door was melted and the doors and handles were all badly soiled.
  • The suspended ceiling was destroyed and badly soiled in other areas.
  • One light had completely melted, the others were badly soiled and the wiring needed replacing.
  • Both of the skylights were black with soot.
  • The extractor fans were badly damaged and the ducts were full of soot.
  • The insulation above the ceiling was black along with the fire barriers.
  • The walls and suspended ceiling in the hallway were all soiled from smoke.

Fire damage is absolutely devastating and extends much further than you would think. Smoke penetrates very small holes and spreads the soot everywhere which is difficult to get rid of.

View into the fire damaged toilets and storage area.

The first toilet where the fire broke out had the worst fire damage.

The first toilet where the fire broke out.

The suspended ceiling and skylight damaged by the fire.

The appliances in the storage area.

The second toilet was more smoke damaged than fire damaged.

The lighting and electrics had all been damaged by the fire.

The walls and ceiling in the hallway were damaged by the smoke.

The soot from the smoke covered the skylight even in the hallway.

Fire Damage Restoration in Progress

One of the main things we had to consider when restoring the fire damage was how to minimize the spread of soot. The office was on the third floor above a high street so the rubbish had to be transported a considerable distance just to remove it from the premises. We used plenty of floor protection to make a safe route to the closest exit at the front of the building; everything then had to be carried around a side alley to the skip at the rear. The flooring, ceiling, insulation and any badly fire damaged items were removed first using plastic rubble sacks. The toilets were then given a deep clean and a layer of paint first which stopped any more soot being spread.

Temporary site lighting until the electrics were replaced.

The old suspended ceiling was removed.

New electric cables and ducts were installed.

Pipework was repaired and boxing was rebuilt.

Re-decorating in such a cramped space with only site lighting was difficult.

Suspended ceiling with LED lights.

Suspended ceiling replaced in the hallway.

Suspended ceiling replaced in the toilets.

New LED lights installed in the toilets.

PIR occupancy sensors were installed in the toilets.

The carpet in the hallway was replaced.

New toilets and sinks were installed like-for-like.

Anti-slip vinyl flooring was installed throughout the toilets.

New toilets and sinks were installed like-for-like.

Extractor fans were replaced and installed.

Completed Project Photographs

The insurance company specified replacements that were like-for-like because this was a fire damage restoration project. We normally prefer to install modern dual-flush toilets and more efficient hand dryers. The tenants within the building asked us to install LED lights in the toilets and hallway separately for energy efficiency. We were happy to do this as it is much better for the environment and they paid the balance on this.

The toilets look brighter and cleaner than ever before. With all new sanitaryware and LED lighting and being freshly decorated we have not only restored the fire damage, but made the toilets better than before.

Finished view into the toilets.

The second toilet ready for use again.

New sink tap and pipework.

One of the toilets with new tiles.

New bin and door grille installed.

Summary on Fire Damage Restoration

  1. Using floor protection and common sense we can reduce the spread of soot into the office.
  2. We look past the obvious fire damage and figure the true extent of the damage.
  3. We work hard to find like-for-like replacements to match the original fixtures.
  4. When replacing items we can use this as an opportunity to upgrade for energy efficient options.
  5. Proper site lighting and equipment allows us to work in the space straight away and get it clean before the electricians replace the wiring.

Questions on Fire Damage Restoration or Fire Protection

If you are not sure about whether you have adequate fire protection then we will be more than happy to offer honest advice. The safety of your staff is very important to us, please give us a call on 01380 738844.

Categories
News

Project Management by Cre8tive Interiors

Saving time is one of the things that Cre8tive Interiors can do for a prospective client, there are however many things that go on inside an office. So physical things like partitions and ceilings, and the favourite one for our competitors is office furniture but all of the items are just things that can be purchased or not. The tricky bit is getting it all working together as well as getting the right specifications to meet what the client wants with balance between performance and cost. These are still very black and white things that can be quantified. What is difficult to measure is how much time is spent on trying to get something right and then organising it, which is what Cre8tive Interiors can do, carry out proper Project Management saving time.

A client may know a builder or a painter or electrician, but do they work well together? Are they insured? Are they ‘bonafide’ subcontractors? Do they want payment in cash? ( We do not deal in cash). Will they be available when required? Can the client arrange practical activities that depend on each other in order for things to work? Project coordination is one thing, the time it takes to get it all right is another.

Project plan

Saving Time on Projects - Project Management

What Cre8tive Interiors can do is to give the client time with effective Project Management, we deal with all of the sub contractors, payments, coordination of a project which allow the client to concentrate on their business making money, and we can concentrate on what we know saving the client time and therefore money. As we are carrying out projects every week, it is easier for us to organise suppliers as we give them quite a bit of work. As we tend to use the same fitters and sub contractors they all know each other on site and know the standards and qualities of what is required from us at all times.

Legalities of Proper Project Management

With larger projects the activities obviously get a bit more complicated, and if you are organising any construction activity then there are also some legal obligations as well. For example in the eyes of the law you are the ’employer’ of the sub contractors and you are therefore responsible for the Health and Safety of the people doing the work. Although you might want to get a relation, or a friend to do some painting or anything else, if they have an accident then as an employer the client is in serious trouble with the law as there are strict rules to protect sub contractors and contractors to work in a safe environment. All of this paperwork takes time, so many people do not bother, or if they employ Cre8tive Interiors then Cre8tive Interiors does this type of work and carries out proper Project Management on the project.

Detailed Knowledge

All building, alteration and refurbishment work is governed by the Construction Design and Management Regulations (CDM for short). Cre8tive Interiors are a professional company that assesses risks and produces method statements and risk assessments for the work. If the work takes longer than 30 days then the person organising the work has to by law, notify the Heath and Safety Executive with a document called an F10. This is a registration of the project. All subcontractors need to have the right insurance, with the correct liability insurance to carry out the work. A client organising the work themselves also need to have the right insurance to cover any building work. The insurance would stipulate that the client can only use ‘boni-fide’ contractors, each with their own insurance. If work is being carried out by a client on their own, the work area probably will not have the correct type of ‘all risks’ cover. Cre8tive Interiors for example when a project is started, has ‘ownership’ of the work area and so things like any damage that may happen, or anything stolen on site is covered by Cre8tive Interiors insurance policy. Please have a quick look at our CDM page by clicking this link.

Insurance

If the work is very simple then the client could organise things themselves, but it does depend on whether the client has the right experience and knowledge to make the right decisions, as well as enough time. Cre8tive Interiors has been carrying out office refurbishment and fit out projects for over 20 years, so get over problems and issues on site often without the client ever knowing and this is just purely down to experience in this field. The client may be experienced in something completely different to refurbishment work, and be very good at it, and very knowledgeable, and makes lots of money in that particular field. Is it not better that the client focuses on their own business and let Cre8tive Interiors carry out the work, which will be better organised, legal, completed to the right standard, on time and in budget.

If a client employs Cre8tive Interiors then they will comply with the law, as Cre8tive Interiors can carry out all of the legal obligations required as well as organisation of the work saving time and money on any project.

What next?

If you would like Cre8tive to save you some time on your office project and want Cre8tive to project manage your project please give us a call on 01380 738844 or email us.

Categories
News

What is storage wall?

What is storage wall is a question we do get asked when we suggest installing it. As you can see from the initial picture above, it is a partition wall built from floor to ceiling, but has shelves in it. The system combines the functional requirement of a partition wall to be a room divider and the function of the full height cupboard. If you add the cost of a partition wall, to the cost of a full height cupboard then storage wall will be cheaper, and it also looks better as well.

The traditional places for storage wall are in meeting rooms and boardrooms, some of the projects that we have posted on this website have storage wall in them. Please have a look at some of the projects on our Storage Wall page for a better description and as this will give you a better idea of what can be done. On that page are also some projects with photographs so you can see what the systems look like.

  • We can introduce a pass door through the wall.
  • Glazing can be included
  • One of the most popular features is the construction of an Audio / Visual bay within the wall. This is ideal for either showing a screen, or hiding it, and including all of the presentation and sound systems within the wall. When not in use it is all put away.
  • We can build a back panel to the wall so that it finishes off the back of the cupboard in a matching wood finish
  • The internals are imensly flexible, pull out frames, lateral filing, plain shelves, or even a coat rack and hangers is possible.
  • Finishing the front of the doors we can also apply a digital image so that the doors look hidden.

If you would like to know more please give us a call on 0138 738844, or email us at [email protected]

Categories
News

Made in Britain

This may seem a topical post at the moment with the current news on Brexit, it is however relevant to us at Cre8tive Interiors. We note with interest what is going on, as we only use UK suppliers and have done for the last 20 years, whatever happens will not affect our projects. Made in Britain products are important to us.

Our background in Engineering and Manufacturing has meant we are very much supportive of British Manufacturing, over the last 20 years we have always thought of where product is made. We have experience of a competitor of ours that won a project against us using an imported office furniture product a few years ago. It was for around 30 workstations where the supplier was overseas and they had a manufacturing problem in supply. There were some technical issues with some of the parts of the desk frame not going together properly. Due to the distance and language problems it took 6 weeks to get replacement parts which put the contractor out of business. Just this last year we have also been made aware of one of our suppliers having problems with parts coming from within the EU. In our view there is always a potential supply issue using overseas manufactured product. Parts may be cheaper but risky to use in our view. All the product we supply is made in the UK, in the unlikely event of something going wrong we can get things sorted quickly. Sometimes problems do happen, we did have an issue last year with an install but it was resolved the same day, so the customer was not actually affected at all and was none the wiser.

We do not know what will happen with trade, the potential barriers with customs, or duties to any imported item at this time so we do not think this makes much sense in using overseas suppliers just for those reasons alone.

Combined with the uncertainties of Brexit, exchange rate, import duties and the length of the supply chain we will definitively not be changing our made in the UK policy on manufactured goods supplied to our customers. It was never going to change anyway, Brexit or not.

Categories
All Project Categories Partitioning Projects

Office Fit Out Chippenham

Client: John Guest Limited
Value: £15k

John Guest Ltd planned to open a new office in Chippenham and contacted Cre8tive Interiors to carry out an office fit out service. They needed the space designed, costed and carried out. The potential office was in good condition; it had new carpets, air conditioning and lighting and therefore was a blank canvas for Cre8tive.

The first task was to survey the existing space and understand the requirements for the new office. There was a short list and the shape of the room meant there were some logical positions for things. We also knew the building very well as we have previously fitted a kitchen for Volutio many years ago. We then stripped it out and fitted out some partitions and offices for Deltenna limited. We then stripped this out for them when they left and carried out the dilapidation work for them also in this same office space. There were some problems in locating the supplies but because we knew the building well we completed this easily.

We also knew there were issues with the hot and cold water tanks in the roof so we advised John Guest. An office fit out can include many things. The scope of work for this project included:

  1. Complete office fit out.
  2. CDM work: we were designated Principle Contractor for the work, so carried out Risk Assessments and Method statements for the work.
  3. Drawing and layout work detailing the specifications.
  4. New kitchen
  5. New office partitioning
  6. Construction of Server room with air conditioning
  7. Construction of two offices and a meeting room.
  8. Moving of electrical power boxes, additional electrics and data cabling.
  9. Completion in 3 weeks.

Existing Office Space

We did not have any pictures of the area before we actually started, the ones above are on the first day on the start of work. As you can see there are some cables and pipes for the air conditioning.

Office fit out Construction Photographs.

Although we have been fitting offices for the last 20 years or so, we get so much enjoyment in seeing the transformation from a blank space through to the final completion. The progression is always interesting, seeing the pile of bits laying neatly on the floor, stacked in order for the demountable partitions to seeing the forming the walls to the end result.

Seeing everyone busy and working together and keeping the space tidy, and having a bit of fun on site as well all makes the time go really quickly.

Final Photographs

We used demountable partitioning on this project. By using demountable office partitioning we created some additional office space for the customer and it also gives the flexibility to the customer to alter the walls with very little cost in the future. There are some other advantages listed below;

Summary on Demountable Partitioning?

  1. Using Demountable Partitioning is very tax efficient as they are seen as movable items and so can be treated differently in writing down allowances in the accounts. Please click the link for more information on demountable partitioning.
  2. We can also lease Demountable Partitioning as they are movable, this spreads the costs of having the work done as Demountable Partitions always cost more than customers think.
  3. Leasing of demountable partitioning is very tax efficient and Cre8tive can provide illustrations, please contact us for further information.
  4. Most landlords insist on Demountable Partitions being used for offices as it is much easier to take them out should the tenant renting the space leave for any reason. The benefit is that is saves making a huge amount of mess and destruction that would be need with a conventional stud and plasterboard constructed wall.

Questions on additional offices?

If you are not sure about anything as well as taking about all kinds of partitioning including Demountable we love to talk about projects and sort out problems and issues with space, please give us a call on 01380 738844

Categories
News

Is my existing Mezzanine floor fire rated?

Is my existing Mezzanine Floor Fire rated? We come across this question quite a bit, and to the untrained eye it can be difficult to tell. Only an expert like Cre8tive Interiors can really delve into the detail. What should happen of course, is once a mezzanine floor has been installed, the company installing must provide a Building Regulation approval document to demonstrate the structure has been inspected, from initial design through to construction. The design of the floor depends on the function required and the areas involved.

Office or Storage?

Small floors that are purely used for storage, dependant on the floor area and means of escape may not need fire protection. If the design has been checked prior to construction, there are certain things like the composition of the floor slab, that need to be considered in the initial design. Depending on the height of the floor, the spans of the beams and what the floor is going to be used for depends on the amount of loading that travels down the pillars. Often assumption have to be made, and the bottom of the posts can have large floor plates in order to spread the loading onto the base floor that the mezzanine structure is going to sit on. So it is not usually an issue.

Fire Protection

Another consideration if whether offices, or people are going to be working on the raised floor area. If offices are built, then there is an extra level of fire protection needed, which is usually where suppliers fall down. Many ceiling fitters for example, will just fix a cheap basic ceiling and no-one will know the difference. However ceiling tiles and grid may not necessarily be fire rated, so in effect you do not have any fire protection for the underside of the floor. You may think so what? As mentioned in our previous posts, the problem with a steel floor is that in the event of a fire, the whole structure bends and softens. The steel will not melt, but the steel beams are stressed formed, rolled sections, so the heat anneals the steel releasing the stresses that are creating in formation of the shapes, so in effect go soft. What happens is that the whole structure twiists and if people are working on it, they have no chance of getting out, and this softening can happen really quickly.

Getting back to the main question, well how do you know? Most people will not. Fore example you be provided a test certificate on a ceiling tile, which may say it has been tested for 60 minutes, and you may get another test report for a different grid also showing 60 minutes, but unless they have been tested together, and in the situation needed, so under a steel mezzanine. then the certification is useless.

Suspended Ceilings - are they important?

On a new mezzanine floor the supplier should provide a test report for the tile and grid, tested to 60 minutes if office are required above, under a steel mezzanine floor. To our knowledge so far there are only a couple of combinations that comply. Just looking at the grid and tile to see is pretty hard if there is no identification on it, however various website are available online to look at the profiles and sections of ceiling grid in order to determine this. The same with the tile, you can look online, and then if you do not have the certification you can contact the support desks from the major suppliers of components.

Unfortunately the distributors of tile and grid still get it wrong, only this week we contacted a supplier, and they gave us the wrong information. Only the manufactures can supply the correct details.

As well as the suspended ceiling, there are other aspects to look at as well. The floor loading, edge protections, escape routes and protection of office / warehouse all have rules. Other things that need to be considered include heating and ventilation, all legal requirements with Building Regulations.

Other links and articles about Mezzanine Floors

Other articles or blog posts can be seen here, as well looking at the projects that we have carried out on the main project page.

  1. Mezzanine floor protection.
  2. Why do I need Building Regulations
  3. Can I alter my existing Mezzanine Floor?
  4. How do I create more office space?

If you would like to have a look at some of our projects, please click the link to take you to the mezzanine floor page on this website. Below the main text will be some filtered projects with photographs of building.

Need to know more? Please contact us on 01380 7388 44 or email us at [email protected]

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