Cre8tive Interiors were ask to look at the complete office design and refurbishment for Thales Optronics in Taunton, to convert an existing factory area into a new reception area. Initial work required the removal of a metal skinned demountable system, ceilings and lighting, along with stripping out and replacing the entrance doors with new glass doors.
The lighting chosen was LG3 direct / indirect fittings which is the recommend lighting systems for modern offices. The partitions included silicon jointed glass called Komfort Polar, joining into Komfort Kameo 75mm system which offers a soft radius profile and joins neatly with the Polar silicon jointed system. The doors are disable access width to conform to the DDA regulations.
Existing Space
Thales did not use this building and wanted to create more of a main reception for the site. The building inside was very factory looking, in that it had metal partitions. Fine for a laboratory environment, not very nice for offices. The lighting was also pretty bad with old lino, the whole area needed replacing.
Metal partition walls and hard lino floor everywhere
More metal partitions
Lots of dark cubbyholes
Ceilings all over the place.
More metal walls
Entrance doors needed replacing
Drawing and Design work
Existing layout to work out what we have
Final design for Thales
Construction work
Lots of metal to come out
Old entrance doors to come out
New demountable partitions built
Builders work in progress..
Glass fitted waiting for manifestations
Carpets fitted
Final Photographs
View from inside the meeting room
Nice open reception waiting for furniture
Special feature wall behind reception desk
Lots of glass
Two meeting rooms
Design and Refurbishment Work
Often with these projects the hard part is knowing where to start. The customer knows it is not right and may have seen other areas that they like. Translating that into a cost can be quite difficult, so what we do at Cre8tive is to listen and then try and interpret what the customer wants. We go through certain steps and doing the drawing work is one of them.
If you are struggling to come up with something, please do not hesitate to give us a call 01380 73 88 44 or email us on [email protected]
Further on from the previous two office that we built for Mango solutions, we created a new corner office for the MD, a storage cupboard and meeting room. The new partitioning was to be joined to some existing demountable partitioning that we had previously built for the customer.
We needed to take down the corner of the existing meeting room to build the new offices. Each of the two new rooms have a double glazed window with integral blinds. The beauty of demountable partitioning is just that, the frames are demountable and you can re-use the uprights frames and plasterboard.
Powder coated grey aluminium metalwork was used to match the existing, and insulation inside the cavity wall was used to help reduce the sound travelling between the rooms. The demountable partition is available in different widths, 50mm, 75mm and 100mm and choice depends very much on what performance you want to achieve with the system. The narrow systems we can make look good, but do not perform as well as the wider systems which we installed for Mango. If you are unsure about anything or need more information please do not hesitate to give us a call.
Why Demountable Partitioning?
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.
We can also lease Demountable Partitioning systems as they are movable, this spreads the costs of having the work done as demountable partitioning materials always cost more than customers think.
Leasing of demountable partitions is very tax efficient and Cre8tive can provide illustrations, please contact us for further information.
Most landlords insist on demountable partitioning 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.
A complete office design and refurbishment project was required, involving initial space planning and design, through to stripping out and refurbishing the office space.
The existing space had a problem with an existing pillar which could not be moved and it was in the middle of the space, so we made a feature of it. We constructed a curved wall around the pillar. The project included: plastering, decorations, air conditioning, flooring, lighting, new suspended ceiling, demountable partitioning, the design and build of a specially sized conference table with pop up modules in the desk to connect a laptop to for presentations. The project also included the supply and installation of office furniture fully co-ordinated with the colour scheme. We also produced some visuals which allowed the customer to appreciate the colour choices.
Design Work
Once we have looked at the current space and taken a brief from the customer, then we draw it. We use Autocad, and we first have to identify exactly what is in the current space which will include the existing lighting, electrical and air conditioning aspects, as well as the walls and other items in the space. In coming up with a new design we first look to see what the customer wants and then try to squeeze it in. In this case we had a pillar in the way, so we made a feature of the pillar in the design. We always draw technical drawings which allows our suppliers to cost items, but sometimes customers can’t visualise what something may look like. We therefore organise some visuals to be produced which help the whole process in getting the project approved.
Making a feature around the pillar
Furniture layout
New ceiling plan and electrical
Visuals
We appreciate that we still carry out visuals by hand and some may say that computer generated visuals are better. However we like to have another perspective on the design and so these are carried out by another company. The visuals are hand drawn and then painted or coloured in and it is a final check that we are happy with the design.
3 d visual by hand
3 d visual
3d visual for Smurfit Kappa
Existing Space Photographs
Very green colours
Angled roof and a pillar in the way
All outer walls breeze block
Very dark colours
Everything has green in it and grey
Nice angles to play with
Squashed display area needed to be more prominent
Sloping ceiling again
This is the offending pillar, right in the way of the meeting rooms
Stripping out Work
most walls stripped out
Old Cat2 lights stacked for disposal
More office stripping
Walls coming out
Walls being removed
Outer walls being plastered
Outer walls being plastered
Outer walls being plastered
Stair signage
Demountable partition construction
Studwork being fitted
Good view right through to the other side
Walls to be taped yet
Construction of the curved wall
The pillar is now a feature
Insulation fitted into wall cavities
Skirting being fitted
Most walls taped now
Most walls taped now ready for paint
Most walls taped now ready for paint
Fitting trims
Getting there
Waiting for glass and more paint
Finished Results
The most pleasing aspect of this project is that we identified a major issue with the layout and as we could not move it, created a feature of it. The pillar ended up being the focal point of the space where the directors could display some of their samples.
Great natural light nice and airy
Making a feature of the pillar
All furniture was supplied
The table was hand made to fit the space
The table was hand made to fit the space
Also shown is a smart board
Do you have something similar and need help?
Often with these projects the hard part is knowing where to start. In particular with this project the space was really awkward. The directors knew that something had to be done as it was so dull but we are a loss on what to do.
Translating ideas into a cost can be quite difficult, so what we do at Cre8tive is to listen and then try and interpret what the customer wants. We go through certain steps and doing the drawing work is one of them.
If you are struggling to come up with something, please do not hesitate to give us a call 01380 73 88 44 or email us on [email protected]
We had already laid out the storage wall on this project on a separate design, at the same time we designed the layout for the offices and meeting rooms on the first floor.
Layout of offices
Demountable partitioning was the obvious solution to the issues that the customer had. The requirement for this project was to provide low cost offices with a boardroom which would still look pleasant but not costing much money. The 50mm wide composite system still offers a degree of sound insulation and can still be made to look really nice with double glazed blinds, powder coated frames and veneered doors.
To improve the sound insulation between offices we used a 75mm wall in these positions only to keep costs down. Unfortunately this is one of the few project that we do not have any construction photographs for, just a couple of the finished room.
Demountable Partitions for meeting rooms
Overall view of finished offices
Slightly different view
Why Demountable Partitioning?
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. Please click on this link for a bit more information.
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.
Leasing of demountable partitioning is very tax efficient and Cre8tive can provide illustrations, please contact us for further information.
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
This was a difficult problem to solve and the only way we could think of doing this was to actually construct a glass partition onto the reception desk. The school had a specific issue with noise coming into the office area as the reception desk is in a main traffic area. Draught’s were also a problem as well as some of the electrical control equipment including the CCTV system was spread over a large area. A new cabinet was supplied under the desk with all the cables re-routed to suit. It was also important to keep the costs to minimum so various options were considered before work started.
In addition to the above, the school wanted some degree of sound insulation. Their initial thought was that the desk would have to be rebuilt with some form of new partition built and all of the computing equipment behind the desk would have to be moved. The CCTV and security systems would also have to be disconnected so a real nuisance. I did think that the desk that was there was pretty good and we could keep it in place, why get rid of it. The idea then was to build something on top of it. The complicated section was on the raised section, a normal partition system would have very chunky frames, so we chose a silicon jointed glass system that would be ready neat and tidy. The joins of the glass could then be angled and ground, then seal with a silicon seal without any vertical aluminum uprights that you would normally use on a conventional partition system.
A further requirement was that they wanted a sliding hatch arrangement so they could open and shut glass doors as needed and we could build this in a partition.
Construction photos
Timing was important as with a busy school and the reception desk being situated in the main thoroughfare, we had to build the partitions out of school hours for safety. The first section to build was the more conventional sliding frame hatch using a conventional partition system but using special ‘Chas mood’ sliding door gear within the partition frames. Once the sliding hatch was built, the glazed system was constructed across the desk. Once all of the frames were built the glaziers arrived to fit the glass.
Open reception desk before
Behind the desk
This bit needed a serving hatch
Sliding hatch frame built
Ready for silicon joint glass
Ready for silicon joint glass
Chasmood sliding track system
Top panel ready for glass
Completed photos
Sliding hatch completed
Detail of the sliding hatch
Finger slider in glass
View of the faceted glass
Another view
Different view
View from inside
We did use two different proprietary demountable partitioning systems to provide the finish result. There are several good reasons to use this type of system, the main one is that it can be taken down and removed quite easily. The words demountable partitioning are used quite often in our fit out and refurbishment projects.
Summary on Demountable Partitioning
Using Demountable Partitioning is very tax efficient as they are seen as movable items and so can be treated differently in writing down allowances in the accounts. We have a better description on our News / Blog page on this site.
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.
Leasing of demountable partitioning is very tax efficient and Cre8tive can provide illustrations, please contact us for further information.
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 extending offices?
If you are not sure about anything as well as taking about all kinds of partitioning including Demountable we love to talk about projects and sort out problems and issues with space, please give us a call on 01380 738844
Cre8tive was asked to help carry out an office fitting project for Coombe Castle,who were moving from Corsham to Melksham. The work on this started 6 months ago, once the customer had in mind what they wanted to do, Cre8tive carried out a detailed plan of the building. This involved taking accurate measurements of all of the inside and outside space, in particular determining where all of the cabling went.
Cre8tive then designed the position of the new canteen and offices that were required on the existing mezzanine floor. The only problem was that the roof height was over 4 meters high, and Building Regulations says that you have to have 1 hour fire separation between offices and warehouse, so we devised a specification to meet this.
Other requirements for office fitting included spaces that need ventilation and heating, so Cre8tive had to extended the existing heating system, and fit a VAM unit within the ceiling void to take air from the outside to the inside.
The office fitting project included data cabling the existing offices as well as the new, providing all electrical, flooring, kitchen, decorations and suspended ceiling for the space.
Drawing and specification work.
We produced many drawings for each of the areas that we had to work on. This included work to the front offices, so they needed power and data, lighting, repairs to the suspended ceiling and new carpet. Other areas included:
Repairing some of the panels in the toilets.
Stripping out the existing kitchen and canteen, converting into a new Sales office.
Providing all of the plumbing requirements for the clean room area downstairs.
Building new offices and canteen on top of the mezzanine floor which had to meet building regulations.
New heating and ventilation.
New comms rack.
Painting much of the outside block walls white.
Building a couple of offices on the shop floor, again these had to be 1 hour fire rated.
Upstairs space, needing offices
Existing downstairs including car park
Detail of the new offices and canteen.
Detail of data cabling for the Sales Office
Existing building photos before work
Front offices all walls and carpets need replacing
Kitchen to strip out and convert to Sales Office
Kitchen to strip out and convert to Sales Office
New offices to go here
Big open factory floor
Fully fitted desks needed to be removed in offices
All walls dull grey block
Construction photos
Initial open space for the new upstairs offices
Chiller being built by others
View of where the offices need to go
New comms rack delivered
VAM Ventilation unit in
1 hour fire rated wall
Frames in for the office fronts
Boarded one side
Formation of openings for windows
Special fire rated window frames in
More boarding
Very tall walls!
Old kitchen units out, to be re-used in new kitchen
Most boards tape and jointed ready for painting.
Suspended ceiling going in
Walls wall papered to improve sound performance and wear.
Internal demountable partitions to the offices.
The line across the office fronts.
Starting work on the kitchen
Getting on with the kitchen
Electrical work being done.
New Sales office complete
Glass installed
Warehouse offices being built
Warehouse offices being built
Lots of plumbing work downstairs
Completion photographs
All block walls painted
Doors fitted and finished offices
Warehouse offices completed
Canteen complete (and kitchen)
Non-slip flooring in the canteen
View of upstairs offices on the mezzanine floor completed.
Project Management..
We have many ideas on how to make the best use of space, and we are seeing offices and talking to customers all of the time. Over the years we have seen many projects and often have to work to a budget. What we do is get the space working right first and then focus on the budget. In this case the budget was very tight so we ended up using a very cheap carpet which did not affect the design of the office, and just brought it into the manageable level for the customer. This project was leased over 3 years. Please contact us for further information about leasing and financing.
Cre8tive were contacted by an Office Furniture company as they were not able to deal with the office fit out side of the project for British Nuclear Group. The customer had already employed an architect to specify what was required and so it was really a case of demonstrating that we knew what we were doing and that could cost the project to meet the clients budget. This project took place on the ground floor of Mallard Court.
The project was designed by Oxford Architects who specified the partition system.
The project was a 6 week duration project which had to run under the Construction Design and Management regulations. Cre8tive Interiors acted as Principle Contractor on the project. The office fit out for British Nuclear Group consisted of Komfort Double Glazed Polar Demountable Partition System, as well as single glazed Polar screens and Komfort Komfire 100 partitions. The project also included supplying and fitting of a kitchen from Howdens, new carpets, fitting of fire barriers in the ceiling and floor voids, and complete decoration of the workspace.
Initial design and drawing work
Partitioning layout
Electrical work
Kitchen details
More kitchen details
Initial site photographs before work
First job, check materials access
Next main entrance
All open with glass
Ceiling grid unusual
Site foremans desk position
Central core to the building is glass
Construction Photographs
Working for the British Nuclear Group had it’s challenges. As you would expect every aspect of the work was scrutinized, we also had to have a permanent person on site all of the time which sometimes on projects like this we do not always need to have fitters doing work whilst other work is being done by others. BNG contracted their own duct work people, so they had to carry out some works when we had to be off site.
Electrician looking puzzled!
Frames up, looking at bording now.
Frames up, looking at a bit more bording now.
Insulation being unrolled
More walls to be borded
Drylined ready for decorations, tracks in for glass
Better view of the tracks for glass
Kitchen under construction
Kitchen under construction
Kitchen under construction
Tracks in for glass nibs
Still decorating..
Still decorating..
Doors being made ready
Another door hung
Glass going in for the offices
Single glazed glass nibs running into the office
Single glazed glass nibs running into the office
Main glass delivery, carefully does it.
Glass being installed
More glass being moved about.
Nearly done
Another door to hang
Last one..
is a bit of a..
struggle…
NIce open space ready for furniture
still a bit of work to do in the kitchen
Completed Photographs
Almost finished kitchen
Almost finished kitchen
New glass partitioning
New single office
Another office
Another office
Wider view of front offices
Why Demountable Partitioning?
This particular project had what we call demountable partitioning in it. Landlords insist on this type as it can be easily relocated without doing much damage to the building.
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.
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.
Leasing of demountable partitioning is very tax efficient and Cre8tive can provide illustrations, please contact us for further information.
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.
Need an Office Fitting out?
This particular project was driven by BNG with a design carried out by Oxford Architects. We were the contractor who completed the work. If you need any design work doing we can do this, as well as being the principle contractor for the work.
Any questions please do not hesitate to contact us on 01380 73 88 44 or email [email protected]
The Administration Building looked very dated and did not represent the image De La Rue wanted to present to their customers. The building needed a thorough interior office refurbishment and design to create an environment in which staff feel empowered and involved and to portray the right professional image to visitors to reflect the high company values.
As the company uses wood pulp in the production of security papers, an earthy feel was required to the design. Due to the size of the project the work had to be carried out under the Construction Design and Management Regulations (CDM) which applies to any construction type work taking longer than 30 days or employing more than 5 people on site at any one time. Cre8tive was employed as a principle contractor, and the client employed a Heath and Safety Consultant to help run the project safely. The office refurbishment had a strict timetable of 8 weeks for completion.
Design Work
The design process took around 3 months. The initial proposal was made in competition with another company in which we were able to convince the customer that we had the skills to deliver, as well as come up with a good design. The first step is to measure everything and work out who does what where before moving onto the plan. We thought upstairs the best thing to do was to take out as much of the upstairs walls as possible to let as much natural light into the space. Unfortunately the walls upstairs held up the roof, so we had to employ a structural engineer to do some calculations and fit some steels to the beams. Downstairs also required opening out, and a beam had to be fitted downstairs.
Site Plan for De La Rue
First floor plan
Ground floor plan
Visual for upstairs layout
Wider view for first floor proposals
First floor plans
First floor layouts
Initial site photographs
Lots of plain walls to come out
re-route of electrics and wall to come out
Redecoration required
New ceiling to be fitted
Walls to be painted
Walls badly decorated
Damp to sort out
Not very nice doors
Asbestos window ledges
Kitchen to be replaced
Kitchen to be replaced
Asbestos window boards again
False panel to sort out
Stairs to be repainted
Reception with plastic flooring
Back wall non descript and bland
Sterile reception area
Damage to some of the walls
Construction / demolition photographs
Stairs stripped
Start of stripping out
Bare room
Walls comming out
Stripping out
Stripping out
Stripping out
Stripping out
Creating space for beam
Laying cable trays
All ceilings propped as walls come out
Revealed floor at different levels
More props
Marking some hole positions
Downstairs corridor prepared
Upstairs stripping out
Downstairs foundations for beam
Steel supports for roof
Beam for enlarged opening
Cleared rubbish away upstairs
Waste cleared to skips
Main beam ready to go in
Footings prepared
Suspended ceiling grid going in
Suspended ceiling grid
Suspended ceiling
Reveals formed in main downstairs opening
Cables to contend with as well
Suspended ceiling detail
Suspended ceiling detail
Suspended ceiling in
Toilets being refurbished
Partition tracks in prior to glass
Taking a break
New kitchen being fitted
Corridor ceiling and painted
Floor screed going down
Work moving into the main lobby
Silicon Jointed glass partitions
Glass walls in
New toilet cubicles fitted
Wallpapering the forest wall
Wallpapering the forest wall
Wallpapering the forest wall
Curved top door and nice vision panel
Storage wall
Two of the offices done
Glass nibs
View of the final office
LG3 indirect /direct light fittings
Another view of final office
Office Refurbishment Project?
If you need some office design as you are unsure what to do Cre8tive can help, regardless of the size of the project we like to be Cre8tive with what we do with the space. As well as all of the practical things such as running the project as Principle Contractor, dealing with Health and Safety and running the project well we add something extra and that is the Cre8tive effect.
Cole Easdon approached us with a couple of requirements for their new office in Swindon. The first was to construct a couple of office but they also had a major problem with storage. We realised that we could utilise the full height of the ceiling and use a product called storage wall, which is a full height cupboard constructed and fitted to the underside of the suspended ceiling which acts like a partition. We then built some demountable partitions off the storage wall to solve the problem.
Storage Wall Project photographs
Initial layout and design work
Run of 4 storage wall bays acting as a partition wall
Storage inside!
Outer view of the offices
Inside from the small office
Why Demountable Partitions in Office Refurbishments?
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.
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.
Leasing of movable items is very tax efficient and Cre8tive can provide illustrations, please contact us for further information.
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
Storage wall or Partitioning questions?
We have been supplying and fitting storage wall and demountable partitioning as part of our main refurbishment projects for over 15 years, if you are unsure about anything please give us a call.