Category: Office Refurbishments

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Classroom Knock-through in Birmingham

Classroom Knock-through in Birmingham

Client: Little Adventurers Nursery
Value: £22k

Little Adventurers Nursery is a popular and busy nursery, who contacted us looking to knock-through some walls between classrooms. The purpose was to maximize the child-to-staff ratio along with some other modifications to milk prep stations and new infant sized toilets.

Knock-throughs and modifications

The main difficulty with this project was to minimize the disruption to a busy working nursery. Because the nursery is in use Monday to Friday 8am – 6pm all year round the only option was to carry out the work over weekends.

The client had 6x classrooms and they wanted to knock through 3x openings of various sizes to enable a better child to staff ratio. The work involved modifying the existing milk  prep stations, along with removing kitchen units and storage.

Additionally the client wanted to swap the existing hand wash basins for new infant toilets to give them 4x toilets in total.

Existing Photos

Work in Progress

To make this project happen we completed the 3x knock throughs over 3x weekends. Doing prep works on the Friday afternoon including removing the kitchen units allowed us to ensure the guys had 2x full days on the Saturday and Sunday to complete the main works.

On the Saturday they needed cut the new opening and install the new lintel letting the cement dry overnight.

Sunday they returned to plaster the opening and make good the floor. The kitchen units needed to be re-instated, making everything clean and safe for Monday morning.

The following weekend, once the plaster was dry they were able to paint the previous opening on the Friday before starting the next opening.

A 4th weekend allowed us to finish the final opening and swap the sinks for infant toilets and install a new door.

Work in Progress Photos

Completed Photos

Unfortunately due to being a working nursery there are very few completed photos as there were always children around.

But the finished openings were all plastered and painted to match the existing walls with crisp corners and vinyl flooring was installed over the thresholds. more importantly it allowed the staff more space essentially doubling the size of each classrooms and ensuring visibility at all times.

The toilets were not fancy but purely functional and allowed less congestion at break times.

Could your space benefit from less walls ?

Whether you require expert space planning, bespoke design, or a full interior fit-out, the Cre8tive Interiors team is here to help.

Contact us today to discuss your vision. Call our experts: 01380 73 88 44 | Enquire Online: Contact us 

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All Project Categories Kitchen refurbishment Office Refurbishments Partitioning Projects

Office fit-out Project For Greenhatch in Chippenham

Office fit-out Project For Greenhatch in Chippenham

Client: Greenhatch
Value: £64k

Following a period of sustained growth Greenhatch Group was looking to move from a smaller leased office to the purchase of a new office  unit.

The new unit was a great size and had a really good location but it had had been left in dilapidated state and would need striping out and fitting out to make it fit for purpose.

Greenhatch engaged us early in the process to ensure they knew the costs involved to get what they wanted from the space.

Strip-out and Fit-out of the New Office

The current office space was split over two floors with lots of very old and dated partitioning separating the space into lots of smaller offices with narrow corridors.

Once we had drawn the existing office on CAD we were able to strip away the partitioning and provide options to the customer on the new layout. The layout included a large open plan office on the first floor for up to ten people with one directors office. On the ground floor the customer wanted a larger kitchen and breakout space along with a large “kit room” for all their specialist equipment.

The office fit-out works for this project included:

  • stripping out and removing all existing partitioning, kitchen and flooring.
  • Re-decorating all walls, doors, skirting and architraves using feature wall colours and graphite grey on the doors for a modern look.
  • New solid partitions to form the Kit room and one side of the directors office.
  • New glass partition forming the front of the directors office.
  • All new flooring using carpet tiles in the office with anti slip vinyl throughout the toilets, kitchen and kit room.
  • A new modern grey kitchen with an integrated fridge.
  • A large amount of electrical work including a new fuse board, nearly 60 double sockets in flexible 2-compartment trunking, 32  data points and new extraction for the kitchen.

Existing Photos

Work in Progress

The strip-out and office fit-out was completed very quickly as we had vacant possession of the building as soon as the customer completed the purchase of the building and were given a window of time before they needed to move in.

The strip out went very smoothly although the old carpet was extremely difficult to uplift as the previous owner had used more of a domestic type carpet with a really strong glue.

The walls are all a crisp bright white however the back wall of the main office was painted in a bright green which is more in line with the new corporate colours and matches the chairs the customer has.

The new carpet tiles looked great using a subtle striped pattern in a chequerboard pattern adds interest while the pattern hides any stains or wear to keep it looking new for longer. Carpet tiles were just for the upstairs space and stairs.

The doors were painted grey to look much more modern than the old wooden doors, along with fresh stainless steel ironmongery. The new kitchen had a concrete worktop and stainless steel sink. The new flooring downstairs was grey anti-slip vinyl flooring.

Work in Progress Photos

Completed Photos

The completed office fit-out looked clean, fresh and modern with brighter and more open plan spaces and more importantly, the customer was very pleased with the finished result.

Does your office look dated?

Whether you require expert space planning, bespoke design, or a full interior fit-out, the Cre8tive Interiors team is here to help.

Contact us today to discuss your vision. Call our experts: 01380 73 88 44 | Enquire Online: Contact us 

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All Project Categories Office Refurbishments Projects Suspended Ceilings

Reception and Boardroom Refurbishment in Swindon

Reception and Boardroom Refurbishment in Swindon

Client: Torin
Value: £32k

Cre8tive Interiors was commissioned by Torin to carry out a reception refurbishment as well as a boardroom upgrade. Torin is a busy manufacturing site in Swindon and the work was needed urgently  ahead of some important meetings.

The customer had been let down by another refurbishment company leaving them only a matter of weeks to upgrade the customer journey ahead of the meeting. Torin were very impressed that we visited the next day, took a project brief along with measurements and having a good look around. We then produced a detailed proposal quote with an ideas board to show finishes and how it could look. They were very happy with the response and the proposals and we were on site the next week starting work.

Once we started the work, they wanted us to have a look at the boardroom as well.

Existing Reception and Boardroom

Our first step was to measure the space and discuss with the client what they are hoping to achieve. In this case the brief was relatively simple,  they just wanted the reception and boardroom to look a little bit cleaner and more modern ready for an important meeting.

The existing space looked very tired overall, with many marks in the carpet. The suspended ceiling had very old looking ceiling tiles, (fissured) which were sagging and stained in places.

We discussed with the client the quickest and most cost effective ways of achieving a clean and modern look which included:

  • Replacing the ceiling tiles for flat white modern tiles to give a cleaner look to the ceiling.
  • Replacing the flooring using a modern wood effect vinyl in the reception. This would be much easier to clean than carpet. As the space is also a high traffic area it would last much longer than carpet. The plan was then to provide new carpet into boardroom in a modern grey colour.
  • A general re-decoration of all walls, doors, skirting and architrave to ensure everything looks clean fresh.
  • Upgrading the look of the stairwell by re-painting all of the metalwork and installing vinyl onto the treads with anti-slip stair nosing’s to remove the work effect on the staircase.
  • Installing modern wooden slatwall panelling into the reception and boardroom to give a modern feature wall for their TV and signage.

Timing was most important for the client so once we had the brief we worked out the costs and produced the quote the following day with the aim of being on site the following week.

Existing Photos

Work in Progress Photos

Completed Photos

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

The space was completed with time to spare for the clients meetings and allowed them time to add the finishing touches like some new furniture.

Does Your Reception Area Look Dated?

Whether you require expert space planning, bespoke design, or a full interior fit-out, the Cre8tive Interiors team is here to help.

Contact us today to discuss your vision. Call our experts: 01380 73 88 44 | Enquire Online: Contact us 

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All Project Categories Office Refurbishments Partitioning Projects Suspended Ceilings

Factory Refuge Area and New Inspection Room in Swindon

Factory Refuge Area and New Inspection Room in Swindon

Client: Torin
Value: £23k

After successful completion of the office refurbishment and reception refurbishment projects Cre8tive Interiors was commissioned by Torin to create a factory refuge area / breakout space along with a new inspection room within the busy manufacturing site in Swindon.

Factory Refuge Area and New Inspection Room

The client had already designated the area at the end of the factory which was being used for storage so our first step was to measure the space.

The client wanted to create a designated refuge area for the staff with a visual separation from the factory without sacrificing the natural light from the large windows along the front of the building. This was achieved by building a half height 1.5m timber stud partition bolted into the concrete floor. Not our normal partition wall that we build, as usually they are built floor to ceiling. We had to use some heavy duty steel brackets to give strength to the wall. New vinyl anti-slip flooring also enhanced the look of the space making it more welcoming to staff.

The height of the roof in that part of the factory was nearly 6m high. A bit of a problem as if we fixed to the roof we would have to use jumbo stud; increasing costs; additional labour; scaffold towers, and taking much longer to build. We discussed the options with the client and decided the best way to build the inspection room was to make it lower, and fix a lid / top over it. This would still create a clean and bright inspection room. We dropped a suspended ceiling at 2.7m inside the walls to enable bright LED panels to be fitted above the inspection area. A pair of double doors were installed for easy access and new grey vinyl floor.

Existing Photos

Work in Progress

The new partitions were built very quickly using 3m high partitions for the inspection room and half height timber partitions for the refuge area. All partitions were tape and jointed and painted white for a crisp clean look.

The new inspection room had a pair of double doors painted grey while the refuge area had a new anti-slip vinyl flooring installed in a light grey colour.

The new suspended ceiling used a modern flat white tile with new bright LED panels giving much better lighting for the inspection team.

Work in Progress Photos

Completed Photos

The finished refuge area was clean and modern.  The half height partitions gave a good level of privacy for those eating at a table without sacrificing natural light to the factory.

The new inspection room was clean with bright LED lighting and double doors for easy access.

Does your factory or warehouse need some areas segregated ?

Whether you require expert space planning, bespoke design, or a full interior fit-out, the Cre8tive Interiors team is here to help.

Contact us today to discuss your vision. Call our experts: 01380 73 88 44 | Enquire Online: Contact us 

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All Project Categories Office Refurbishments Projects Suspended Ceilings

Office Refurbishment Project in Swindon

Office Refurbishment Project in Swindon

Client: Torin
Value: £91k

After successful completion of the reception refurbishment, and boardroom upgrade project, Cre8tive Interiors was commissioned by Torin to continue with the main office refurbishment phase.

The client really liked how quickly we responded and the feedback from the staff was very positive to the clean and fresh look of the reception and boardroom.

Refurbishment of the Main Office

Our first step was to measure the full extent of the space, which included a very large main office along with a number of smaller managers offices and meeting rooms and even a small kitchen.

The existing space just looked very tired overall, with lots of marks in the carpet and dated fissured ceiling tiles which were sagging and stained in places along with very dated furniture.

The client wanted to continue a clean and modern look which we had already provided on the reception and boardroom project so this new project also included:

  • Replacing the suspended ceiling / installing new using flat white modern tiles to give a cleaner look to the ceiling.
  • Replacing the flooring using a modern wood effect vinyl in the kitchen and walkways. Due to the manufacturing nature of their business, the walkways attracted much more wear. The vinyl flooring was much easier to clean and longer lasting. The new carpet tiles in the main office and meeting rooms had a modern grey plain colour / pattern.
  • A general re-decoration of all walls, doors, skirting and architrave to ensure everything looks clean fresh and moves away from the bold orange future walls.
  • Dry-lining the printed breeze block wall to give a much smoother look the to office.
  • Removing all old redundant radiators from the walls before re-decoration.

Existing Photos

Work in Progress

The office refurbishment was completed in two phases by doing all of these smaller meeting rooms lobby and kitchen first before starting on the main office which minimised disruption to the business.

The new suspended ceiling used a modern flat white tile which looks much cleaner than the old fissured tiles making the space much more light and airy.

The walls are all a crisp bright white however the pillars were painted in a teal blue which is more in line with the new corporate colours and adds a nice little colour detail.

The new wood effect vinyl flooring looks great whilst being super hard wearing and easy to clean.

The new carpet tiles in the office were a modern light grey making the space much lighter especially with the new ceiling tiles, LED lighting and fresh decorations.

Work in Progress Photos

Completed Photos

The finished offices and meeting rooms looks clean, fresh and modern with much better lighting levels ready for the new furniture to be installed.

Does your office look dated?

Whether you require expert space planning, bespoke design, or a full interior fit-out, the Cre8tive Interiors team is here to help.

Contact us today to discuss your vision. Call our experts: 01380 73 88 44 | Enquire Online: Contact us 

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All Project Categories Office Refurbishments Partitioning Projects

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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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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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