Tag: air conditioning

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Domestic Air Conditioning Installation

Domestic Air Conditioning Installation
Finished installation

Client: Private
Value: £2.3k

A domestic air conditioning installation is perfectly possible for us at Cre8tive Interiors Ltd, and so when we were recommended to this customer we did not turn the work down.

We carry out exactly the same process that we would do for a commercial customer, so we visit the site and talk to the customer about what is required. We had a look at the outside position for the external condenser and looked at the pipe routes and electrical connections.

We also noticed that in the garage the customer had a running machine, so thought we would suggest a new type of wall mounted unit which would be much better for the customer to use.

Most wall mounted units for offices direct the air using blades and in the commercial environment we always have issues with the direction of cold blast of air on people. The unit we chose was a new design from Midea which lets the air come out of the unit through thousands of perforated holes in a front grill, resulting in no cold blasts. The cooled and heated air also comes out of the unit from the sides. We felt that this was a much better unit for the customer as the air supply to the space would be much more comfortable than conventional units from Daikin, Fujitsu and some of the other makes that we can fit and maintain.

We also suggested a small fresh air system but the customer did not want to spend the money on this, just the air conditioning system.

Existing Space to be cooled

Installation Photos

Domestic air conditioning requirements?

As mentioned previously a domestic air conditioning installation is not something we would normally do. One of the things that was attractive to the customer is that we included within the costs the electrics and took away all of our rubbish as well as clearing everything up. We also carry out the maintenance every year and this unit came with a 5 year warranty. This particular unit also had a Bluetooth controller that could be connected to the internet and programmed remotely when not at home.

This unit was actually perfect for a domestic air conditioning installation.

If you would like any further information or a quote, 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 Partitioning Projects

Office Fit Out Chippenham

Office Fit Out Chippenham
Finished offices

Client: John Guest Limited
Value: £15k

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

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

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

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

Existing Office Space

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

Office fit out Construction Photographs.

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

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

Final Photographs

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

Summary on Demountable Partitioning?

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

Questions on additional offices?

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

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

Office Design and Fit Out in Swindon

Office Design and Fit Out in Swindon

Client: One Technologies
Value: £260k

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

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

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

Preparation work.

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

Design Visuals.

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

Specifications, contract and planning.

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

Build Photographs.

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

Final photographs finished office.

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

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

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

Why Demountable Partitions in Office Refurbishments?

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

Not sure what to do?

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

01380 73 88 44

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Air Conditioning All Project Categories Office Furniture Office Refurbishments

Office Refurbishment in Salisbury

Office Refurbishment in Salisbury

Client: Chestergate Financial
Value: £40k

We were asked by this customer to look at the whole office space to address several things, and carry out a general office refurbishment. One of the main problems is that they needed to fit another couple of desk positions and space was limited. Other requirements were to completely re-decorate the offices, and to do something with the existing kitchen. Currently they just had a bit of worktop and had to fill a kettle with water from the toilet which was not ideal.

The carpet needed replacing in the main office and we cleaned the others. The windows were very drafty, and so we allowed to fit some secondary glazing inside the sash windows. Other issues was that the lighting was poor in the corridors and the spot lights were dazzling which made the office difficult to work in. People also tripped up and down the steps so we came up with some step lighting to solve this problem. We fitted a new kitchen and piped the supply and waste through the building to connect to the toilets.

The problem of desk space was solved by using some narrow bench style of desks grouped together in a cluster or bank. The computer screens were then fixed to the desk screens by using gas arms, freeing up desk space.

When we came to decorate the previous decorators had filled in the panels in the meeting room with silicon rather than decorators cork which meant the edges cracked. It all had to be hacked out and filled properly and then repainted.

Original Office Space Photographs

Design and Drawing Work

Drawing is one thing, working out then how it could be done with an occupied office was another. We worked closely with the customer to work out which rooms we could have access to, and how much time we needed for each section before we could move things around.

Construction Photographs

Office refurbishment

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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Air Conditioning All Project Categories

Air Conditioning Problems in Chippenham

Air Conditioning Problems in Chippenham
The outdoor air conditioning units where the problem was

Client: Alliance Pharmaceutical
Value: £2.5k

Alliance Pharmaceuticals in Chippenham had some problems with their air conditioning systems.

We contacted this company about something else and happened to mention that we look after air conditioning systems, and although the customer did not have what we were asking for, they said they were unhappy with their current provider as they had been complaining about some noises for 18 months and the other company had not got to the bottom of the issue. The photograph above shows the main 3 outdoor units providing air conditioning to 15 units inside the building. For information about air conditioning systems please call us. Please click the link below to download and watch the video showing the fault in the system..

Air Conditioning Problems.

One of the difficulties in working out what problems are on systems that have been designed and installed by others is trying to work out how the whole system has been designed and fitted. It is much easier to determine what is happening if you have put in the equipment yourself. We engaged a Toshiba engineer to visit the customer and quickly saw that there was no gas in the system, which meant there was a leak somewhere. In order to find out where the leak is, the existing gas has to be removed and a special tracer gas installer which is high is nitrogen. The fitters then use a special detector to track down every single brazed joint. In this case every single unit was checked, and the leak was found on one of the outdoor units shown in the main photograph.

Air Conditioning Problems leak video

Please click on the link to download a short video which shows where we identified the leaks coming from, in fact there were multiply leaks coming from this part of the equipment and we cannot understand why the other air conditioning company (a specialist), could not find it.
Alliance vid 1

Completed Photographs.

Sizing of the unit to an area is very important in the design, if too large a unit is specified then the unit will not be working as hard as it is designed to, and will actually be very inefficient. It is therefore important to get the kilowatt output correct for the space. The new units out now are also A+ energy rated, so super efficient and if you have multiple indoor units with one outdoor unit you can save a considerable amount of space outside as well as only having one power supply instead of multiple power supplies for multiple systems.

Alliance Pharmaceutical air conditioning problems
The outdoor air conditioning units where the problem was

Air Conditioning problems?

We have been supplying and fitting air conditioning systems as part of our main refurbishment projects for a number of years, if you are unhappy with your current provider or air conditioning or fresh air ventilation, or unsure about anything please give us a call.

We can fit all of the major makes; Daikin; Fujitsu; Mitsubushi; Samsung as well as many other less popular makes. We can also fit VRV or VRF systems, ducted systems as well as conventional single splits.

Please give us a call on 01380 73 88 44.

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Air Handling Unit in Swindon

Air Handling Unit in Swindon

Client: Stibo
Value: £17k

We are asked to help with some options on repairing the existing air handling (air conditioning) system at Kembrey Park in Swindon for one of our existing clients. The main unit in the building had failed, and it serviced 10 areas of the building with cool air, the main issue was that the unit was quite old, and was not readily available in the UK.

The outer casing of the unit was a steel box, and the outdoor compressors and equipment were also faulty, so we had to import a new unit from America and modify it to fit all of the existing trunking systems that were in the building. The cost to completely replace all of the ductwork with a new VRV type system or single splits would have been much more expensive as we would still have had the cost to strip out all the old equipment.

Air Handling unit photographs

Air conditioning selection of units.

Sizing of the unit to the area is very important, if too large a unit is specified then the unit will not be working as hard as it is designed to, and will actually be very inefficient. It is therefore important to get the kilowatt output correct for the space. The new units out now are also A+ energy rated, so super efficient and as you can see from the photographs quite discrete. The main difficulty with this project is that we had to use our engineering skills to get it to work.

Air Conditioning problems?

We have been supplying and fitting air conditioning systems as part of our main refurbishment projects for a number of years, if you are unhappy with your current provider or air conditioning or fresh air ventilation, or unsure about anything please give us a call.

We can fit all of the major makes; Daikin; Fujitsu; Mitsubushi; Samsung as well as many other less popular makes. We can also fit VRV or VRF systems, ducted systems as well as conventional single splits.

Please give us a call on 01380 73 88 44.

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Air Conditioning All Project Categories

Air Conditioning Installation in Chippenham

Air Conditioning Installation in Chippenham

Client: Redlynch Leisure
Value: £3.8k

The problem with this project is that the customer did not want an air conditioning cold blast over them where the unit had to be fitted, so we chose a special unit which throws the air up against the ceiling. The air then runs along the ceiling and drops down the other side of the office. The unit was a bit more expensive than a standard air conditioning unit but careful selection and advice to the customer meant that they placed the order with us even though we were more expensive than another company. We chose the right product for them.

Planning Permission.

As the building is a grade 2 listed building and the building is owned by the Bowood Estate, we had to make sure that both the landlord and the local Council approved the position of the outside unit and what the pipework would look like. We decided to hide the pipework in a cast iron drainpipe which was in keeping with the rest of the building.

Air conditioning selection of units.

Sizing of the unit to the area is very important, if too large a unit is specified then the unit will not be working as hard as it is designed to, and will actually be very inefficient. It is therefore important to get the kilowatt output correct for the space. The new units out now are also A+ energy rated, so super efficient and as you can see from the photographs quite discrete.

Air Conditioning problems?

We have been supplying and fitting air conditioning systems as part of our main refurbishment projects for a number of years, if you are unhappy with your current provider or air conditioning or fresh air ventilation, or unsure about anything please give us a call. We do have some more information on a separate web page, click the following link for more information.

We can fit all of the major makes; Daikin; Fujitsu; Mitsubushi; Samsung as well as many other less popular makes. We can also fit VRV or VRF systems, ducted systems as well as conventional single splits.

Please give us a call on 01380 73 88 44.

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Air Conditioning All Project Categories

Air Conditioning in Calne

Air Conditioning in Calne

Client: Goughs Solicitors
Value: £2.5k

Air conditioning can make a big difference in any office, and Cre8tive has installed many systems over the years usually as part of a larger refurbishment project. However we are able supply and install air conditioning systems on their own as we do know what we are doing, can provide a competitive price and offer a 5 year warranty on the equipment. We also offer yearly servicing. With this particular project Cre8tive were able to re-assure the client that the outdoor unit would not be in the way of the stairs and could be positioned out of the way of potential people that may want to tamper with the outdoor air conditioning unit.

Finished results

Designing the system.

Sizing of the unit to the area is very important, if too large a unit is specified then the unit will not be working as hard as it is designed to, and will actually be very inefficient. It is therefore important to get the kilowatt output correct for the space. The new units out now are also A++ energy rated, so super efficient and as you can see from the photographs quite discrete.

Is air conditioning fresh air?

There is a common misconception that air conditioning is fresh air in an office, it is not. All an air conditioning unit will do is to heat or cool air that is currently inside the room or area. This is not fresh air. In order to meet Building Regulations there is a requirement for people to have a certain volume of fresh air pushed into a room, with the stale air extracted out. We carry this out by using a different system using a VAM unit. If you need any more information about this please do not hesitate to contact us.

A further explanation is on the page please click on this link.

Air conditioning problems?

We have been supplying and fitting systems as part of our main refurbishment projects for a number of years, if you are unhappy with your current provider or air conditioning or fresh air ventilation, or unsure about anything please give us a call.

We can fit all of the major makes; Daikin; Fujitsu; Mitsubushi; Samsung as well as many other less popular makes. We can also fit VRV or VRF systems, ducted systems as well as conventional single splits.

Please give us a call on 01380 73 88 44.

Categories
Air Conditioning All Project Categories Design Office Refurbishments Partitioning Suspended Ceilings

Complete Office Design and Refurbishment

Complete Office Design and Refurbishment
Lots of glass

Client: Thales Optronics
Value: £55k

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.

Drawing and Design work

Construction work

Final Photographs

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]

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Air Conditioning All Project Categories Office Refurbishments Suspended Ceilings

Complete Design and Refurbishment

Complete Design and Refurbishment

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