Category: Office Refurbishments

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Low cost Partition Dividing Wall to an Existing Office.

Low cost Partition Dividing Wall to an Existing Office.
Dividing wall Demountable Partition

Client: Alarms and Electrical Ltd
Value: £1.3k

We do not turn away any project, even if it is a small one. This project was local to us, the new partition had to be a low cost demountable partition the same style as what they already have. The customer wanted to divide the room more for a visual separation so that the office functions could be split up. There was a wall there originally many years ago, but they took it out, and now they wanted it back in again.

Demountable Partition

The beauty of using demountable partitioning is that it is easy to put and remove, as none of the floors, ceiling and walls really get damaged and there is not a great deal of mess.

The important thing with this project was to make sure that the wall was the correct thickness, (50mm as opposed to 75mm), and to work out how to build it as economically as possible.

The 50mm composite panels are actually very heavy, around 40 kg. Unless you are used to carrying them, they can easily be damaged by nicking or scuffing the corners. The other problem with just a day to do the work is that the delivery has to be the previous day, as with only 1 day to build the wall, the fitter cannot spend half the day waiting for the delivery to turn up.

In this case, the customer said they would decorate the panels, this saves a days labour and the labour cost is actually quite expensive.

In order to fit the panels, they have to be cut, as well as the head channel to fit on the suspended ceiling, upright support posts between the panels, and the wall abutments at the edges.

As you can see from the photos, the panel also had to be cut around the perimeter trunking for a nice neat job.

 

Before and after Photos

We are happy to look at small projects, we will try and help as much as we can, please do not hesitate to contact us on 01380 73 88 44, or email us at [email protected]

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All Project Categories Office Refurbishments Partitioning Projects

Fitting of Glass Walls under a Vaulted roof

Fitting of Glass Walls under a Vaulted roof
Glass walls and office furniture

Client: RTS
Value: £33k

Although the main title to this project post relates to the Vaulted roof design of the space, half the value of the project was for office furniture. A mixture of desks, soft seating, chairs and stools all designed with a selection of vibrant colours. The desks had dark charcoal worktops and white desks frames which looked pretty cool.

The customer was already in one building and wanted to expand into this one. They wanted a meeting room at one end by the main entrance like their existing space, that was built using an engineered timber system which would have cost an absolute fortune to build. We chose a different method, much more modern as well.

They also needed a breakout space away from the desks, where they could also brainstorm and do some problem solving away from the formality of meeting rooms. The space at the end of the building seemed ideal, so we allocated that space for that function.

The Vaulted Roof

The actual office space looks lovely, nice open roof space with oak beams. The building as well is in an amazing environment, very rural, lots of nice space, plenty of parking. However, as is common with many spaces built by builders, it is not very practical. Looks nice, but for an office space, not great. All of the wall surfaces are hard plastered walls and painted, and the high roof offers little in acoustic performance, the saving grace was at least they had a carpet.

Separating off the space into rooms therefore presents a bit of a problem. They liked the idea of glass walls, so we could build up to the roof beams, and then above the gaps would need to be filled in to prevent noise going through the trusses.

The meeting room needed at the front would need the trusses blocked in, and a new timber beam run along the side with the wall above filled in, with glass underneath in an ‘L’ shape. Along with an entrance door into the main office space.

The ideas room at the end would be more straightforward, build the glass up to the truss, and then infill all of the gaps above.

Initial Plans and Ideas

As always, we draw everything anyway. The main reason is so we can cost things accurately, and we do not always need to give the drawings to the client, but in this case, they paid us separately for the drawing and design work which was nice, and a bit unexpected but they were happy to do this. We also said that should they go ahead with the proposals, we would credit back the cost of the drawing work against the work which is what we did.

Infilling the Trusses and Glass Walls

In two of the overhead trusses, we had to allow to infil these with plasterboard and steel which was always going to be a time consuming job. Each section of the truss is different, it would have been very difficult and expensive to get these infilled with glass and then there is the sound performance issue with glass. Each of the sections we added insulation into the gaps.

Remaining Construction Photos

Below shows the remaining construction photos, some show the assembly of the desks using a ‘beam’ system, with shared leg frames. The main advantage in using a beam system is that the support leg frames are shared amongst adjoining desks, hence reduce the costs. Shared leg frames gives more leg room under the desks. The central spine of the desk cluster also has a cable management tray which keeps all of the power and data off the floor. The cabling can then be run from the edge of the walls, rather than worry about floor boxes near where people sit. Floor boxes would need cables running up from the floor boxes to the desks. Much neater to have cable management in the desks themsleves.

Also shown is the write on ideas wall, the glass writing board, the meeting tables, boardroom table and the other furniture in the rooms.

Space Planning and Design Work

If you are unsure of what can be done with a space, we really like to do the space planning and design work, working with what space you have. Making the most of the features that are in the building and maximising the light using glass walls, introducing vibrant colours and having an area to stimulate ideas were all aspects of this project that were enjoyable to do. If you have a project similar, and have any questions we would love to be involved in your project. The first visit is always free and the advice is free as well. If you are not sure what is involved you are not sure on how things can be done, then we are sure we can help.

Please call 01380 73 8844 or email us via the contact form on this website, or at [email protected]

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All Project Categories Office Refurbishments Partitioning Projects

Fitting out of a brand new unit in Salisbury

Fitting out of a brand new unit in Salisbury

Client: Dauwalders
Value: £72k

We were asked to look at this project in Salisbury for Dauwalders. They were looking to take on two units next to each other, but one needed to be an office. The obvious location for an office was on an existing mezzanine floor, which would allow a work area underneath, and separation from the main warehouse floor.

A nice new unit, nothing had ever been built in it, however we could hear absolutely everything from next door due to the way the mezzanine floor had been built. We certainly needed to minimise this as much as we could without going over board with it.

The unusual way the mezzanine floor had been built, was that the floor did not actually go right up to each of the walls leaving a gap. Clearly we had to box this, and make it safe for the people working in the space.

The requirements were around 4 people in the office upstairs, with power points downstairs for benches, and the downstairs space needed a pair of double doors on it. The next door unit had to be knocked into, with a fire alarm fitted to cover both units, and this was fitted for us by the Fire Alarm Consultancy, which we recommend on all our projects.

There was some stipulation with dates, and that allowed Dauwalders to plan on what to move where and all of that was fine.

Building Regulations

The other fairly obvious item that needed to be considered was Building Regulations, particularly as there are people working on a mezzanine floor. The rules are that if people are working on a mezzanine, they need to have enough time to get out of the building in the event of a problem. The structure therefore has to be fire rated, to ensure it does not collapse, and the escape routes need to be clear, protected if required, with emergency lighting, fire alarm detection etc.

In this particular case, the travel distances to get out were not massive, and if we positioned the stairs where required, the exit is straight to a fire exit, as well as into a protected space underneath with an exit, as well as the roller shutter, and potentially into the other unit. Plenty of ways to get out.

The main stipulation from the Fire Inspector is to make sure that the mezzanine floor itself is fully 60 minutes protected. There was no stipulation on the walls, but we would normally fit 30 minutes anyway, and the Inspector was happy with that.

All of the steels therefore had to be boxed in 15mm fireline board, which is the pink board in the photographs below.

Building Regulation and Customer drawings and plans

We always draw everything anyway, but these drawings needed a bit more detail for the Inspector to be clear about what was going on. The offices needed fresh air ventilation, and this is done with a VAM unit. They had air conditioning which provided heating and cooling, but in Building Regulations there is no requirement for air conditioning, just a means of heating the space, which an electric radiator would have been fine. There is a definite requirement for fresh air ventilation.

Sound Problems from Next door.

This was always going to be tricky. Even as we stood on the mezzanine floor before we did any work at all, you could hear everything. Part of the issue was the really bad design of the mezzanine floor. They had designed it so that the main floor ran through all of the units, right the way through, then plonked the dividing walls on top of the floor to split up the units. Any noise translating into vibration just carries on through any metalwork. There were also huge gaps between the edge of the floor and the outside of the building, any noise was going to go straight up through these gaps to the upper floors. Even though the noise next door was downstairs, in their unit it was going straight up and through the gaps.

In our unit, we can deal with the gaps at the edges, but really it needed RWA45 acoustic slab in the walls, and sound block board to try and absorb noise coming through, and then block it coming into the potential new office upstairs. It also needed decent suspended ceilings with bagged 200mm insulation over the suspended ceiling grid and that was probably as much we could do.

Construction Photos

Please find below some construction photos. We needed to ensure that the mezzanine floor was 1 hour fire protected and as mentioned previously, we carried this out using 15mm fireline board, boxing all of the columns and the edges of the mezzanine floor.

We also had to build over the gaps at the edges of the mezzanine, to ensure any potential fire did not go up between the floors.

Some completed photos

If you are thinking of taking on a new unit, and have any questions, we would love to be involved in your project, the visit is always free and the advice is free as well. If you are not sure what is involved you are not sure on how things can be done, then we are sure we can help.

Please call 01380 73 8844 or email us via the contact form on this website, or at [email protected]

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All Project Categories Office Refurbishments Partitioning Projects

Glass Meeting room on the edge of a Mezzanine floor.

Glass Meeting room on the edge of a Mezzanine floor.
Completed office on a mezzanine

Client: ProsysDev
Value: £67k

We were asked to look at this project via an enquiry from our website, the customer had looked around and felt we could help. When he contacted us, our first reaction was that it was around the M25, and miles away, surely someone closer could build a partition. The problem was that the customer wanted a bit more than a partition as the new room had to sit on the edge of a mezzanine floor and he was unsure about Building Regulations. The people he had contacted just wanted to give him a price for glass walls, without listening to what else he needed and gave no reassurance that it would actually comply with regulations.

For us, it was unusual to find a client that understood that there were Building Regulation issues to be addressed. The customer wanted a piece of paper at the end of the work to say that it complies and everything is fine as that was the right thing to do. When they took on the unit we think it helped that part of the specifications was a mezzanine floor that had been fire rated and was suitable for offices above, and that must have triggered a question.

All the other suppliers of partitioning just wanted to build a wall and that was it. Didn’t even want to visit.

The Next Step

After speaking with the client, we decided to just have a quick look for him if he could send over some details and see what we thought and give some budget costs. We just wanted to see how we could help, so let us have a quick look.

These are the details that were sent to us, pretty good actually.

Building Regulations

Looking at it initially, slightly tricky. The handrail would be in the way and we would have to remove it, and build the wall to the edge. The other bit that was quite hard was the sloping roof, we could have to build up to it and deal with the beams and make it look right. The customer was quite right, and we had to check with Building Regulations which is what we did, free of charge. The key things were that there were two means of escape with the 45 linear meters, so that was fine. The room needed fresh air ventilation, via a VAM unit, any glass to be fitted, which was our preferred options needed to be a special thickness as it is right on the edge at height. Again not a problem. We would also quickly need to check the mezzanine floor itself, to make sure it had the right fire protection. As it happened there was no cavity barrier inside the suspended ceiling underneath as the floor was long than 18 linear meters, and it needed one, so we put one in.

There are other things we did, but in essence, none of this was an issue.

We gave a budget cost, subject to a visit and that was ok, we visited and they also wanted their toilets refurbished. So we refurbished their toilets as well.

Design work, specifications

We always produce a drawing, initially we do this anyway so we can cost the project properly and not just guess everything which we know many people do.

The drawing needed to be tided a bit, although not to architectural standards, it is good enough to explain what needs to be done.

Construction, work in progress.

We liked the design of this project, the idea was to build a bulkhead suspended down from the roof which would form a rectangular opening to accommodate smart modern looking glass walls. Another tricky bit, as well as having to remove the handrail was to follow the shape of the roof and box the beams to make it look right. There were a couple of beams at different angles but we made it look right.

To build the walls around the meeting room out of tradition demountable partition systems, with plasterboard and double glazed windows would have actually been more expensive with what we were proposing, and certainly it would not look as good.

There was a small bit of detail in the construction that we quite liked. When we fitted the fresh air unit, the VAM unit, we prepared all of the ductwork which gets hidden by the suspended ceiling above, but also included extra ductwork to feed the potential downstairs office below the mezzanine.

The interior wall for the meeting room we built flush over the steel work, that give us a cavity where we could run the 200mm diameter ductwork down the walls, through the mezzanine floor and capped off ready for the room below. The ductwork needed fire dampers in them for fire protection purposes; preventing potential fire travelling from the upstairs to the downstairs through the pipework in the unlikely event of a fire. The dampers are also required to meet Building Regulations.

Toilet refurbishment

As mentioned previously in this post, the initial enquiry was not to refurbish the toilets but when we visited, we said what else we could do and they needed something doing to them.

Although small, we could hide the plumbing by using IPS systems, which is a system of enclosing pipework and cisterns behind a closed panel. Often seen in commercial centers, like shopping centers, motorway  service centers.

We could also box the pipework, tile the walls, paint it, change the flooring, fit a new suspended ceiling and lights.  Quite a bit really for such small spaces.

It is not possible to get lots of trades to do this type of work.

Toilet refurbishment progress photos

Some work in progress and completed photos

One of the problems in refurbishing small toilets is that they need lots of different trades, and there is not enough room in them to have lots of people doing different things.

For example, in these toilets we needed:

  • a plumber to disconnect / reconnect the existing and new.
  • Someone to build and fit the IPS panels, (needs a carpenter to cut the panels to size, sit them squarely)
  • a plumber to fit the sanitary wear to the IPS panel as it is being fitted.
  • A tiler to fit new wall tiles straight and flat.
  • A decorator to prepare the walls and paint them.
  • A suspended ceiling fitted to fit a new suspended ceiling
  • An electrician to disconnect the existing light and fit a new one, someone to fit a new toilet extraction system.
  • A flooring contractor to uplift the existing and supply and fit a new wood effect vinyl floor planks.
  • Someone to fit the new towel rail, toilet role dispenser, mirror, door signs.

Larger toilets are much easier as all of the activities can be scheduled and planned in as the elements usually take longer than a day. In this case there is not enough work to allow to bring in separate trades to do individual elements, planning and timing of those events would mean that doing the toilets would take months and cost a fortune. Luckily we have a fitter that can do all of the tasks, including the plumbing works. We were onsite anyway doing the electrics for the new offices, so it was easy for them to drop over onto the toilets to sort out the light fittings and extraction. Not so easy for anyone to do this type of work. Most plumbers would not know how to deal with the IPS system as there are commercial systems.

Some completed photos

The following photos were supplied by the client after we had left site. They show the boardroom table and chairs, and the comments from the customer is that they are very pleased with the final result and use the ideas wall along the long wall to good effect.

If you have any partitioning requirements that are perhaps a bit complicated and you are not sure on how things can be done, then we are sure we can help.

Please call 01380 73 8844 or email us via the contact form on this website, or at [email protected]

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All Project Categories Design Office Furniture Office Refurbishments

Office Design and Refurbishment in Chippenham

Office Design and Refurbishment in Chippenham
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

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All Project Categories Office Refurbishments Projects

External windows in industrial buildings

External windows in industrial buildings

Client: Biosynth Ltd
Value: £31k

Many of the office refurbishment projects we do, or just partitioning, the offices already have external windows. We try to position the walls to maximise the light inside the space, usually using glass. Sometimes however, there are no external windows at all!

We had to refurbish an internal office space, including building some offices, however this project needed some new external windows into an industrial building for Biosynth Ltd near Newbury.

There are a few key differences between windows in a house compared to windows in industrial buildings.

Most industrial buildings are steel structures with metal cladding, the cladding comes in all different profiles and colours. While the metal cladding makes cutting an opening for a new window relatively quick and simple additional timber framework must be installed inside the new opening to support the windows.

Specialist cladding flashing profiles are installed to make the new opening watertight. These are powder coated in any RAL colour to match the existing cladding.

Most industrial buildings use aluminium windows. These are much longer lasting than UPVC and can be powder coated in any colour.

Planning permission will be required to ensure that the windows are in keeping with the design of the building and the local buildings nearby. Planning will also pay close attention to what the new windows will be overlooking like residential areas or schools.

Preliminary work

This project required 6 new external windows. We produced multiple layouts for the offices to show staff positions and ensured that the new window positions were mirrored in each of the other industrial units next door.

The windows were kept in line with existing windows using 4  panel and 2  panels windows to match the height and width with the same top opening windows.

Work in Progress photographs

This particular unit had a block wall inside the steel structure and metal cladding. This is unusual as most building would simply be insulated and dry-lined inside but this meant a steel lintel was installed into the blockwork and the timber frame for the metal cladding was installed into the cavity.

The openings were then cut, flashing profiles installed and new windows installed at the same time to ensure the openings were sealed as quickly as possible.

Once the windows were in it was just a case of installing the plasterboard reveals around the windows, new window boards and decorating.

Completed photos

Once the new external windows were installed, plasterboard reveals and new MDF window boards were then installed and decorated.

The finished result is windows that match perfectly with the rest of the building and look like they have always been there.

Need new external windows in your building ?

If you would like new external windows installed in your building, please do give us a call on 01380 73 88 44, or email us at [email protected] and we would love to help.

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Air Conditioning All Project Categories Design Office Furniture Office Refurbishments Partitioning Projects Storage Walls Visuals

Complete Office Design and Fit Out Project in Swindon

Complete Office Design and Fit Out Project in Swindon

Client: One Technologies
Value: £260k

We carried out an Office design and fit out fit out project for One Technologies Ltd in Swindon,Wiltshire. The project included creating ideas for the design, detail specification and documents, planning and then organising the work which was completed on time within budget.

The customer is an American company that wanted to set up and office in the UK. They had a breakfast bar in their office in Dallas, we tried to replicate the way they work in the US so part of their culture of how they work comes across into the UK. The customer is a web based company and the new office will be receiving inbound calls so is basically a call center. The image of a phone box in the reception is intended to reflect this and is one reason why there is a  concentration of desks in space. The digital image that is printed on heavy textured wall covering. Desk footprint was important in getting the right numbers in, and we have designed this so they can increase the numbers easily, all of the future space planning has been done. You will see the grey wallpaper in the office is very textured to give some personality to the paper and help with sound performance.

The activities included Office Design, Project Management, CDM regulations, Building Regulations, contracts, stripping out work, demountable glass partitioning, decorations, design of a breakfast bar, supply and fit of all office furniture, air conditioning new and changes to existing, ventilation changes, lighting, electrical work, data cabling, supply and fitting of the communications cabinet, cctv, access control, audio visual equipment and connection, storage wall and flooring changes. We also supplied all of the office furniture, screens, cupboards, plants, graphics, chairs and monitor arms.

Preparation work.

Much of the initial time on the project was spent exploring different layouts and seeing how the space could work. Care was taken in seeing how the customer wanted to use the space to have an area where people could relax and have teas and coffees.

Design Visuals.

We have covered elsewhere in this website our view on visuals. Please click this link for more explanation as to the difference between drawing work, space planning and 3d visuals. As a large proportion of the cost of the project focused around the breakfast bar we felt creating visuals was really important. The breakfast bar being an essential part of the office design. The film taken of this project reinforces how much the finished build reflects the initial visuals we produced for the project. Although they are in the film clip, they can be seen below:

Specifications, contract and planning.

The next step was to provide much more detail in the the specifications in the form of written documents. We had a commercial contract drawn up, as well as produced a full build specification document detailing every aspect of the build. Due to the amounts of money involved £250k +, we produced a project plan which showed the phases of when payments were due to be made depending on when various parts of the project were delivered. The final document was a detailed Gantt chart showing project timelines, dates, slack periods, completion dates and contingencies. Also built in were times required for the American IT team to visit and have all of the computer equipment installed and configured.

Build Photographs.

As you can see from the photographs there was quite a bit to organise, in particular we had to follow the progress to a programme, as well as maintaining dates that had to fit in with the American IT team visiting the UK to install the server the programme had to be met for the financial reasons in order to maintain a steady flow of payments coming to us from the USA. The main office design and fit out project for us was only one small part in order to get the office up and working. The customers IT people only had 3 days to install all of the equipment, so all of the infrastructure cabling, power, air conditioning, cabinets and of course all of the security access controls and cameras had to be fully working before they came over to visit. They were bringing with them a special server built by Dell to handle the call volumes anticipated in the office and the server itself cost 7 figures.

Final photographs finished office.

We are very please with the final office design and fit out. If you have not seen the video in the first part of this page then you can also see it here by here by clicking this text..

Moving / expanding or have problems with your existing office space?

Many offices have problems with sound, problems with fitting enough people in, and may look dated and need reworking which is where we can help. From an initial brief as to what the problems are to the final completed office we can carry out everything that you need inside an office. In the project above we used demountable partitioning but using a special type of glass to enhance sound performance. The system was also a propriety demountable partition system called Komfort Polar. The glass wall was double glazed, with seamless glass joints for a smooth simple look.

Why Demountable Partitions in Office Refurbishments?

  1. Demountable partitions are tax efficient in that they are seen as movable items and so can be treated differently in writing down allowances in the accounts, we can also lease elements of office refurbishments. Anything that can be moved.
  2. We mainly lease Demountable Partitions 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 movable items is very tax efficient and Cre8tive can provide illustrations, please contact us for further information.
  4. Most landlords insist on demountable partitions in an office 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.

Not sure what to do?

Please give us a call and we can help with any aspect of interior office fit out, along with space planning and design work.

01380 73 88 44

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All Project Categories Office Refurbishments Suspended Ceilings

Hall Refurbishment for The Rotary Club in Chippenham

Hall Refurbishment for The Rotary Club 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

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All Project Categories Dilapidation work Mezzanine Floors Office Refurbishments Suspended Ceilings

Commercial Dilapidation Work in Swindon

Commercial Dilapidation Work in Swindon
Finished mezzanine

Client: REPL
Value: £25k

We can carry out Dilapidation work for customers when the customer is required to carry out work by a landlord if they are moving premises, please see our post for more description about what it means by clicking this link.

We carried out quite a major change visually to a worn out factory that looked tired and needed sprucing up. The main elements were a new factory floor, decoration, refurbishment of the offices, and to tidy up the existing mezzanine floor. The existing fire protection on the steel work was not adequate and not fitted correctly, so rather than just paint it, we decided to completely strip it off and install a new fire rated suspended ceiling and a new column encasement system. A quick lick of paint would not have satisfied the fire protection requirements so we decide to do this properly and install all of the correct materials.

Existing Warehouse

The customer has been in the existing building for many years and the unit the occupy is part of the original railway buildings in Swindon, so is probably around 100 years old. As you can see from the photos the the building was quite dilapidated, and this is often referred to as dilapidation work.

Old mezzanine floor

Electrics need sorting!

Wider view

Lots of wires need sorting

Some wires not connected!

Poor fire protection

Poor walls

Toilet to be reduced in size

Toilet block to sort

Kitchen to come out

What was most alarming was the existing fire protection had been carried out by people who clearly did not know what they were doing and there were gaps everywhere, there was no way that the mezzanine floor had adequate protection, so even though the customer just wanted a very basic patch and mend, we took the decision to completely replace everything and do the whole job properly.

Although the photographs do not show it, there was quite a bit of work to completely redecorate the offices at the front of the unit. This included stripping out the kitchen, toilets, stairs, repainting the doors, walls, ceilings and skirting boards.

Construction work

The other constraint that we had is the whole job had to be completed in 3 weeks as a new machine was due to arrive in the unit. The reason why the toilet block had to be halved, was that the new machine was 26 meters long and so it would not quite fit.

Toilet door moved back

Poor state of mezzanine

Steel work being exposed

Exteriors walls bad

Plasterboard stripped out

More stripped

Bottom office demolished

New fire line board bulkhead

Starting wall treatment

Toilet halved

Walls nearly done

Walls nearly done

Our van

Completed Photographs.

We were very pleased with the final results as there was such a difference between what was, and what we achieved in the end. The client was also very pleased with the work as we completed it on time and within budget.

New tea point downstairs

New floor

Office decorated

New ceiling

Toilets redecorated

Our van

Internal doors painted

Finished floor

Fire exit door

New equipment just coming in

View from other direction

Finishing things properly

On top of mezzanine

New fire rated ceiling

Dilapidation Work

As you can see from the photographs, the work is general office refurbishment, and covers all of the things that we would carry out for office interiors. If you have any requirements for dilapidation work that is relevant to offices or warehouses then we would be very pleased to hear from you, as we find this type of work very rewarding, and that is not from a monetary view but seeing the difference between old and new.

Please call 01380 73 88 44, or use the contact us form on our website.

Categories
All Project Categories Office Refurbishments

Expansion of Existing Office Space in Trowbridge

Expansion of Existing Office Space in Trowbridge
Another view of the extra space we have created.

Client: The Consortium
Value: £36.5k

Office alterations carried out by Cre8tive are activities that we carry out all the time. The Consortium in Trowbridge needed their offices altering, specialises in supplies for the education and healthcare industry and wanted to extend their existing office by removing the corridor wall.

The changes required involved matching their existing space rather than re-doing the space as a whole. In order to work out costs, we measured the whole space and created some drawings. We then worked out what equipment was needed to take the wall down and how to dispose of the concrete.

We had to take special consideration to ensure that we matched the existing carpets, light fittings and wall paint. A new wall and doorway at each end of the office had to be created to separate the office from the corridor and we needed to install new power and data sockets for the additional desks and the new printer and TV positions. Once drawn and the basic costings were agreed, we then looked into more detail on how to ensure the project didn’t disrupt the busy customer service department, how to minimise the dust from taking down the wall and how to co-ordinate the project to ensure it was completed over three weekends to meet the customers deadline.

Existing layout

The corridor wall ran 45 meters long however only the central section of 35 meters where the customer service department fell needed to be removed.

Construction photographs

Office Alterations – doing the work

The physical work of knocking walls down was going to create a lot of dust at the weekends and keeping the customer service department operational was a high priority so we installed a temporary plastic screen the full length of the office to minimise the dust transferring from the works into the office. we also put dust sheets over each bank of desks first thing on a Saturday morning to ensure the best possible protection.

To take the wall down we needed to remove and replace the central section of ceiling and we also had to remove and replace the carpet as it was a different colour to the office. The wall came down fairly quickly and was disposed of into numerous skips however it did leave a fairly big channel in the floor, we filled this with concrete and levelled the floor to match the office.

Office Alterations Completion Photographs

Once the wall was down and the new walls and doors were in place all the walls were all re-painted and the electrics were mounted into the dado trunking. The carpet was last to be installed to ensure the carpet stayed clean, the light fittings came a little bit later after the 3 weekend deadline as they were made bespoke to this project because the existing light fittings were discontinued in 2007, we then took time to get some specially made.

The internal changes to the overall office has made a significant difference to the feel of the office, for up to 90 people, with sufficient power and data to expand as and when they need to.

Questions on altering offices?

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