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Extensive Dilapidation Work in Reading

Client: The House of God Evangelical Church
Value: £100k

Dilapidation Work

The House of God Evangelical Church needed us to carry out some Dilapidation work in Reading.

We carry out dilapidation work occasionally and is very similar to the general term of office refurbishments. We carry out this work when a client leaves their current building and it has to be put back to an original state. In this case, the state of the building over three floors was pretty bad, but in essence it just needed all of the things that we currently do. Stripping out, new suspended ceilings, dry lining, painting and decorating, flooring work, demountable partitioning, fitting a small kitchen and minor structural work.

As we were doing the work the client asked us to build some new offices on one of the floors and we constructed the walls from demountable partitioning. Some finished photographs are shown below.

Existing state of the building

As you can see from the photographs below the building needed quite a bit of work doing to it, nothing unusual to what we normally do, just quite a bit of it.

Finished photographs.

Unfortunately we did not get to many finished photographs for this project, please find some below.

Why Demountable Partitioning?

  1. Demountable partitioning is tax efficient in that they are seen as movable items and so can be treated differently in writing down allowances in the accounts.
  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 Demountable Partitioning?

If you are not sure about anything we love to talk about projects and sort out problems and issues with space, please give us a call on 01380 738844

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All Project Categories Office Furniture Office Refurbishments Partitioning Projects Storage Walls

Office Design and fit out in Chippenham

Client: Redlynch Leisure
Value: £27k

Office Refurbishment in Chippenham

Redlynch Leisure wanted to have a new open plan space to have an office design and fit out carried out. The initial space was completely empty and required a complete design with fitting out work, consisting of Interior space planning and design, demountable partitions, storage wall, carpets, creation of canteen area, flooring, decoration and minor electrical work. We also supplied all of the office furniture which was in keeping with the design of the building.

Design and drawing work

We came up with a few different ideas, the customer in the end went for a more traditional layout.

The office design and fit out project also required us to submit plans to Building Control for approval which we obtained on behalf of the client. The major aspects of this office refurbishment project is in using materials which were complimentary to the design of the building. We chose Komfort Klassic timber demountable system which matched the finish of the barn styled windows. The storage wall was chosen to take the place of a partition wall and a cupboard, saving on cost, and fitting with the finishes of the partitions, outside of building and the furniture, which we also supplied and installed. We also had to alter the plumbing and move a radiator in order to install the partitioning. We provided a complete package and all the customer had to do was to move in.

We also put the customer in touch with an IT company and telephone systems company to handle the requirements which we work closely with in projects.

Storage Wall

We designed into this project a product called storage wall. Storage wall combines the function of a cupboard with a partition wall. So we build it up to the ceiling and as the width is around 400mm the thickness of the wall with the contents gives really good sound insulation. It is still demountable, so can be taken down and rebuilt.

Why Demountable Partitioning?

Another key element of this work was that the partitions had to be demountable. There are several reasons why this type of partition should be used in office projects:

  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.
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Air Conditioning All Project Categories Design Office Furniture Office Refurbishments Partitioning Projects

First Floor Office Refurbishment in Bath

Client: Regency Laundry
Value: £28k

Cre8tive have carried out many office refurbishments over the years and all need to have some design and drawing work done initially and is the most important aspect of a project that needs to be  carried out in order to carry out a project properly. The existing office space had small narrow corridors, a dated partitions system and dark green colours making the space very dark.

We redesigned the office space and used beam system furniture to get computer cables off the floor. We also created a tea point in a cupboard and added some features in the carpet for some added interest in the design. All of the walls had to be redecorated. The refurbishment project consisted of Komfort Kameo 75mm demountable partition system, Gaskell carpet tiles, Armstrong suspended ceiling and Sebastien Indulgence furniture.

Included:

  • Design and drawing work
  • Stripping out of existing
  • Demountable Partitioning
  • Electrical work
  • Air conditioning
  • Flooring
  • Kitchen / tea point
  • Office Furniture

Drawing and Design Work

Working out what the customer wanted meant we had to drawer what they had and come up with several layouts to explore how the office would work for them.

Office Refurbishment Construction Images

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?

  1. 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 Dilapidation work Mezzanine Floors Office Refurbishments

Office and Factory Refurbishment in Chippenham

Client: Image Factory
Value: £350k

Office and Factory Refurbishment project

This customer wanted a Factory Refurbishment having taken on the old Royal Mail building in Chippenham.

The first photograph below shows a £1m printing machine and Image Factory invested in two of them, along with taking over the old NHS distribution building on Bumpers Farm Industrial Estate. The complete building had to be refurbished, so the main factory along with the offices along the front of the building.

Factory Refurbishment

A large part of this project was electrical. The main factory had no power infra struture at all to power all of the print machines that the Image Factory owned as well as the new ones; so we had to install a heavy power buzz bar system into the factory and prepare the base and ground works for a new substation to be fitted.

In the main factory the floor had to be scrabbled to remove old oils in the concrete floor and then a high quality epoxy paint applied to the floor. All of the beams, walls and other surfaces also had to be painted.

Factory Refurbishment Photographs

Office Refurbishment

As well as the factory itself, the offices at the front of the building had to be completely stripped out and refurbished.

The mezzanine floor had to be turned around and a new jumbo stud fire wall constructed. Below the mezzanine floor we created a new reception area with fire rated ceiling, decorations and flooring. Upstairs included new ceilings, carpets, plastering and decorations as well as a new kitchen. Also fitted upstairs was a new office constructed from Komfort Kameo 75mm demountable partition.

If you need any advice or are thinking of an office refurbishment project please give us a call, we would love to talk to you, on 01380 738844

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All Project Categories Office Furniture Office Refurbishments Suspended Ceilings Visuals

Office Renovation and Fitting out an existing space in Trowbridge

Client: Sea Terra Trowbridge
Value: £12.5k

Office Refurbishment

This project involved the office fitting out of an existing office space in order for the company to occupy. The existing office looked quite dated, but the position of the space and the structure suited the customer well. As the office was going to be busy with lots of noise on the phone a suspended ceiling was essential, as well as providing CAT 2 lighting which is needed when working on computers.

Space Planning and design work.

The space was quite small, there was also a requirement to fit a certain number of people inside the office and so a basic space plan was required.Moving on from a basic space plan we applied some colours to the layout as well so the customer had some idea what could be done by using different carpet colours. There is a difference between basic drawing work and space planning, please click on the link for more of an explanation.

Final photographs.

Luckily the office space was empty so it made fitting the suspended ceiling much easier. The original space was just an old shop with a plasterboard ceiling and old fissured (squiggle pattern) tiles which made the space look really dated. The lighting was surface mounted tubed light fittings which are not allowed under the Visual Display Regulations, so they had to be changed anyway to CAT2 at the very least as the customer was using computers.

The project included the installation of a new suspended ceiling, new CAT 2 lighting & electrics,  new flooring, decoration and furniture. The ceiling was slightly tricky as the existing space had arches located centrally within the space.

Suspended Ceiling

Suspended ceilings are almost always used when carrying out an office refurbishment as existing ones can look tired. We have a bit more information on suspended ceilings on the following link if you would like to have a look, please click this link. The choice of the suspended ceiling is almost always price versus performance. It is possible to have a plasterboard ceiling but the problem with this type is that it is very hard to get services over the ceiling with access problems, and the hard surface of the ceiling lets the sound bounce around. The mineral fibre tiles that are generally used offer good sound absorption properties, and can easily be taken out to get to any cabling that you may wish to run over the grid system.

We also install all our ceilings with a self leveling laser to so the ceiling is completely flat. Some builders try and put ceilings in and we do often have to put them right, it is important to get the supporting wires tensioned properly as well as centering the grid system properly so it looks evenly balanced in the space.

The furniture chosen was a beam system type of furniture which allows cables to be hidden in an integral beam that joins the leg frame uprights together.

Please give us a call on 01380 73 88 44 for more information about this project or any requirement you may have.

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Air Conditioning All Project Categories Mezzanine Floors Mezzanine Floors Office Refurbishments Partitioning Suspended Ceilings

Office Refurbishment in Milton Keynes

Client: Edwards International
Value: £187k

Office Refurbishment

We were  invited by this customer to have a look at their existing office space as it needed an office refurbishment in Milton Keynes and the customer did not know where to start. They found us on the internet and liked our website as it showed real photos of actual projects rather than nice photo shopped images.

Out of the few that they contact we were the only ones to respond to their enquiry within a day.

When we first visited the client it was very obvious that the while area needed stripping out and starting again. What was surprising, although in reality we are not surprised, was that the existing partitions and mezzanine floor were not fire rated. We recognised the system below the mezzanine as a 50mm wide demountable partition system which has no fire rating at all. None of the exit routes out of the building were 30 minute protected and the mezzanine floor had a suspended ceiling fitted but it was not fire rated. The staff were working in a death trap. If there was any problem in the building then there would be a lot of trouble. The customer specialises in fire detection equipment, so for them to be in a building that was a potential death trap as it was not properly fire protected was nonsense.

Building Regulations

There were three different mezzanine floors installed at various times at different heights, and no paperwork to show that they had been passed Building Regulations, so from a fairly straightforward requirement to refurbish the offices there was a need to look at the whole building, design and specify it properly and get Building Regulation Approval. In the design we had to consider:

  • Fire protection of the mezzanine floors using the correct grade of suspended ceiling tile and support  column encasement
  • Correct design of protected fire exit routes throughout the building, checking of escape distances and signage
  • Full electrical design to suit.
  • New fire rated partitions where needed to meet Building Regulations
  • Supplementary fresh air systems to enclosed offices
  • Changes to air condition systems
  • Heating were needed.

CDM

There was no doubt that we were going to be on site for more than a month, and have more than 5 people on site, the whole project was quite a bit of work and so the work comes under the Construction Design and Management Regulations. The purpose of the regulations is to protect the employee and employer in making sure that a construction project is run safely. If you do not notify the Health and Safety Executive that the project is being carried out and there is a problem then directors of the company where the work is being done can go to jail.

Where do we start?

The first step is to measure everything and take lots of photos to see exactly what has been fitted. The next was to understand from the customer how they wanted to work in the space, so this included some basic functional block drawings identifying where they wanted Sales, Accounts and Technical. Once the broad locations were identified then the detail layouts were carried out identifying voice and data positions, partitioning and ceiling layouts and the work that had to be done on the mezzanine floor. Once the layouts were agreed we had to submit the plans to Building Control and get their approval which we did.

We produced many many drawings. All showing everything that was needed for each trade. Some shown below. The important document was the Building Regulations Approval document that is a legal requirement.

Existing Photographs

The first two photographs below show the immediate and obvious problem. The partitions are 50mm wide demountable and are not fire rated at all. The third photo shows the the vast storage area out the back. The rest just show the general bland and dated look of everywhere needed some tlc.

Stripping out and Construction work

We produced a plan and submitted all of the documents to the local Building Control people who assessed the drawings and arranged for some visits throughout the work. We also employed a Health and Safety Consultant who oversaw the work and kept all of the sub contractors on their toes, and they submitted the F10 to the Health and Safety Executive.

Refurbishment Projects

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Air Conditioning All Project Categories Office Refurbishments Suspended Ceilings

Wall Removal to Enlarge and Refurbish an Office Space

Client: Kingsley Pike Estate Agents
Value: £13k

This Design and Refurbishment project including supplying and fitting two steel beams to support the three floors above the shop, and to remove a structural wall and so needed some design work in order to carry out the refurbishment of the space.

The effective use of space was very difficult to achieve due to the small space in the office, however we still had to produce drawings to satisfy Building Control and to determine exact positions of voice, data and lighting positions. The project included electrical work, decorations, air conditioning, construction of step, flooring, lighting design and carrying out the work in 7 days. We had to carry out a complete design and refurbishment of the existing space.1703 kingsley pike 11-10-05-Model

Design and Refurbishment work

We spent some time working out what was needed in the space and what we could get in. The beam was calculated, as the back wall to the shop needed to come out to widen the office space, the issue was that the wall held up the 3 floors above. One of the main problems was that the main beam was 6 meters long and it took 4 people to lift it into the shop from the main high street. The delivery vehicle had to leave the beams on the pavement whilst everything was prepared.

Construction Photographs

Completion photographs.

General Refurbishment and Fit out Work

If you need any advice or are thinking of an office refurbishment project please give us a call, we would love to talk to you, on 01380 738844

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All Project Categories Office Furniture Office Refurbishments

Enhancing First Impressions: A Reception Area Redesign Project

Client: Smurfit Kappa
Value: £49k

We have been working with the customer over a number of years and they wanted us to come up with some ideas on how to deal with the customer interface into the factory. The brief was to redesign carry out a reception refurbishment to represent a modern clean and welcoming customer entrance into the building.

The total open area was vast, dominated by an open egg crate ceiling, dull lighting, brick walls with a dark oppressive atmosphere, and a dated looking ceramic tiled floor with a mosaic of colours pinks and dark greens. The reception office was situated in a brick built room at the far end of the open foyer area.

What we did was to look at the area that was important and that is the meet and greet to potential customers and suppliers by the entrance doors, and guiding important visitors into the main boardroom upstairs, or the CEO’s offices which were situated just off the main entrance doors.

We therefore came up with the idea of bringing the whole reception area towards the main entrance doors and just focusing on this area. We would then leave the majority of the area behind a glass wall alone and focus on the main lobby. By doing this, it also meant that we could meet the customers budget. It would simply cost too much to deal with the whole area.

Existing customer experience into Reception

Reception Refurbishment construction photographs

CDM and Health and Safety

The duration of the project and the number of people on site, as well as the access issues meant that we had to employ a Heath and Safety consultant to carry out a risk assessment and discuss with the client safe fire exit routes and means of protection from the staff whilst we were doing the work.

Reception Refurbishment Projects

If you would like us to look at your reception area, or indeed any aspect of your offices, please give us a call just for an initial no obligation discussion about what we may be able to do. We love to talk about projects.

Please call us on 01380 73 88 44

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All Project Categories Office Furniture Office Refurbishments Partitioning

Simple and Quick to Carry out Office Refurbishment in Swindon

Client: Stibo Reprographics
Value: £67k

The brief was for an office refurbishment in Swindon of the open plan office space. The work included to redecorate the main office, replace the old damaged blinds, new carpet and a small amount of partitioning. We have been working with this customer for several years and were happy they contacted us again for this job.

The open plan office area is very large, about 550sqm, and has several departments and teams mingled in together. The office was also dominated by 2m tall floor screens around each person’s desk, the whole atmosphere was very closed off and disorganised.

Initially we decided removing the screens would open up the office dramatically. We then looked at how the space is used. AutoCAD plans were drawn up to see how the space could be put to best use. The last job we did for the customer was to redesign the conference room with colours chosen from the companies’ logo. A similar colour scheme was chosen for the main office too, with the carpet, desk high floor screens and seating all tied into the colour scheme.

A new manager’s office was built from demountable partitioning and a solid wall closing off the reception was taken down replaced by a new glazed wall, to further help open the office up. The existing blinds were matched by our suppliers and we replaced only the damaged blinds, so making a saving for the customer.

The carpet was laid by our experienced fitters over the weekend and in evening to minimize the amount of time we disturbed the office. Finally some new meeting room furniture was supplied.

Why Demountable Partitions?

  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.
  2. We can also 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 demountable partitions 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 about an office refurbishment?

If you are not sure about anything we love to talk about projects and sort out problems and issues with space, if your office needs reorganising or you need a general office refurbishment please give us a call on 01380 738844

Categories
All Project Categories Mezzanine Floors Office Refurbishments Partitioning Suspended Ceilings

Office Expansion in Corsham for Coombe Castle

Client: Coombe Castle
Value: £48k

Office Expansion in Corsham

This project consisted of converting a storage unit in to office space in order to provide some much needed office expansion. The project would involve fire protecting a mezzanine floor as this is required by Building Regulations if you have offices above, steel work and a suspended ceiling.  Ventilation had to be put round a chiller and fire sensors had to be installed within the chiller as it could not be moved to fit the fire protected board. Office windows had to be installed to match the rest of the building.

Upstairs needed a complete office fitting, so a suspended ceiling, dry lining the outer walls, decoration of the outer walls,  some fire rated partitioning to create a fire barrier between the offices and warehouse, as well as demountable partitioning within. Full electrical work including CAT2 lighting, 3 compartment perimeter trunking, flooring and new windows were also required. As always we follow our process, so the first step is to understand what the client wants, and then to assess what they have by taking photographs, and drawing everything.

Existing Space Photographs

It is a bit difficult to see from the photos, but essentially we had several areas to deal with. Underneath the mezzanine and on top of it was the main area, but included absolutely everything we do.

Building Regulations

It is crucial to consider Building Regulations when looking at layouts for offices. In particular fire ratings and Building Regulations which is a legal requirement. This particular project needed offices to be fitted on top of a mezzanine floor and so this is why it had to comply to the law.

If you need more information about Building Regulations, we have written a few things here.

Construction and finished photographs.

Office Expansion?

If you have a problem with your existing office space and need it altering as you are running out of space then Cre8tive can help. Please give us a call on 01380 738844.