Tag: air conditioning and ventilation

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All Project Categories Office Refurbishments Partitioning Projects

Fitting out of a brand new unit in Salisbury

Fitting out of a brand new unit in Salisbury

Client: Dauwalders
Value: £72k

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

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

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

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

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

Building Regulations

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

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

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

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

Building Regulation and Customer drawings and plans

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

Sound Problems from Next door.

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

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

Construction Photos

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

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

Some completed photos

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

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

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All Project Categories Office Refurbishments Partitioning Projects

Glass Meeting room on the edge of a Mezzanine floor.

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

Client: ProsysDev
Value: £67k

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

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

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

The Next Step

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

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

Building Regulations

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

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

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

Design work, specifications

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

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

Construction, work in progress.

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

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

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

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

Toilet refurbishment

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

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

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

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

Toilet refurbishment progress photos

Some work in progress and completed photos

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

For example, in these toilets we needed:

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

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

Some completed photos

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

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

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

Categories
All Project Categories Dilapidation work Projects

End of Lease Dilapidation work in Calne

End of Lease Dilapidation work in Calne

Client: Fabrinet
Value: £365k

Cre8tive Interiors had been a provider of Office Interior fit out and refurbishment work over many years for Fabrinet in Calne. The previous name was Exceptions EMS and we had been carrying out work at the premises since 2014 to 2023. It was a complete surprise to find that the site was closing in 2023 with the loss of 100 jobs. For us, over the years we had carried out many projects, and actually knew the building and the people quite well.

Dilapidation work

When we were advised of the close, the management team contact us as they were presented with a £1.2m dilapidation bill from the landlord.

Fabrinet only rented the space, and over the years had installed many things, much of which had to be stripped out. All of the equipment was going to Thailand where Fabrinet has another facility, there were centralizing production, having closed their factory in Germany as well, earlier on in the year.

The big issue really was that Fabrinet obviously did not want to spend that kind of money and as the business was closing the first priority was the staff. Once the staff were sorted there was a limited amount left. It was then a case of prioritizing, going through each section to make sure it is the best that could be done with the money.

Scope of work

There were a great many things we had to do. Below is a list which probably does not show the scale of what we did as the areas were huge.

  • Stripping out all of the partitioning we had installed over the years on the ground floor, with the suspended ceilings inside them as well.
  • Removal of the metal skinned secure assembly area.
  • Replacing of suspended ceilings in many rooms, some were replacement of grid as well.
  • Replacement of carpet
  • Painting the whole of the building inside, as well as underneath the first floor, all staircases.
  • Check operation and repair all 103 internal doors.
  • Repair of all external doors.
  • Stripping out of redundant cables, removal of the old air conditioning systems and replacement.
  • Servicing all of the existing air conditioning and ventilation systems
  • Repair of the gas fired overhead Ambi-rad heating system.
  • Replacement of window boards

Some drawings and documents produced..

In order to cost all of the areas properly, we had to create many drawings and detail all of the activities that needed to be done. One of them that was time consuming, was that each door had to be looked at and cleaned / replaced if the oil from door closers had leaked into the wood, replacing damaged kickplates, push plates, replacing door closers and checking for gaps in the doors. There were 103 doors. We produced a schedule and then costed the work on each door.

A few initial photos

Throughout all of the years of doing work at Fabrinet, we were not allowed to take any photos. The only ones we could take were when they were closing and we managed to take a few just before we started the stripping out work. All of the equipment seen was being removed and shipped to Thailand or being sold.

Some work in progress and completed photos

It was demoralising to remove much of what we built on the shop floor over many years, not as bad for the employees losing their jobs of course. The key word with it all is of course demountable partitioning. It was all aluminium framed and easily removed, just a vast amount of it. All of the offices needed new ceilings, or replacement tiles, most needed carpets and decoration throughout.

Some completed photos

Dilapidation Schedules

Over the years it never ceases to amaze us how much surveyor costs are but fully appreciate they are to a particular code of estimating, which they all have to follow. As Cre8tive Interiors actually does the work and does not subcontract the majority of work we can actually do the work much cheaper than many traditional builders. All they would so is sub to us for the partitioning, ceilings, ac and ventilation work, so we may as well just do the work anyway.

Always interested in looking at leases at the time to move, if we can help in anyway and save money, please do not hesitate to contact us.

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Air Conditioning All Project Categories

Air Conditioning and Ventilation Project in Trowbridge

Air Conditioning and Ventilation Project in Trowbridge
Ventilation ductwork

Client: Baloos Soft Play
Value: £45k

We were recommended to Baloo’s to provide air conditioning and ventilation for their new project in Trowbridge. After having a good look around the building and listening to the requirements we arrived at some suggestions to the client. Baloo’s had already received several air conditioning quotations, but all were different and confusing. We were able to provide a quote which was clear, meet their budget as well as demonstrate that the other companies were not complying with Building Regulations which is very important.

Building Regulations

Cre8tive Interiors considers Building Regulations all the time in any refurbishment project and so understand them very well. A major consideration is Ventilation. Most air conditioning companies do not carry out this work as well as air conditioning so they do not understand how it is relevant to office and public places. Cre8tive Interiors also carries out the electrical work associated with the air conditioning and ventilation requirements, so there is no need for the customer to worry about additional trades to get everything to work. One order with us, and it works.

Equipment Locations

The outdoor units for the air conditioning system had to be located around the back of the building, out of the way. The indoor Ventilation units or VAM units, had to be located high up out of the way but also needed to be positioned in such a way that we could service the units properly. Each VAM unit has a side access panel to get to the fresh air filters.

Cre8tive Interiors air conditioning and ventilation
Potential location of outdoor air conditioning units

Vam Unit

The ventilation unit provides fresh air into a space by pulling air from the outside, as well as extracting stale air from inside the building to the outside through long duct work pipes. Both incoming and outgoing air pass through the ventilation unit which filters the air. The different air temperatures cross over each other and average out, the energy is ‘recovered’. The calculations of the size of the unit depends on the number of people inside the building, another calculation is the volumetric space. Each unit is sized and calculated to meet the current regulations. The units at Baloo’s for example can exchange 1000 m3 of air per hour, so they are quite big units. One on each floor.

Challenges with the Original Building Layout

  • The client did not want a suspended ceiling and wanted to keep the original beams and structural look of the building as much as possible. This presented a slight problem as the pipework would either have to go straight under the beams or go up and over them. In the end we decided that there was enough height to run straight underneath.
  • We advised that an ‘industrial look’ would be absolutely fine, and we would locate all of the pipework on cable trays.
  • The main VAM units would be located in one of the rooms at the back to facilitate servicing. The ground floor unit would be located in the lobby area around the side of the building, again making servicing as easy as possible.
  • Budget was also a challenge. We design the system for more units and air flow but installed in this first phase the minimum that would be required with a plan to review the performance and add additional units as required. The important things were to get the equipment in the time that they wanted, and to the budget they had.

The Solutions

  • We chose a new manufacturer to the UK which were cheaper actual units but offered a 10 year manufacturer’s warranty. As well as reducing the cost, it gave assurances to the client that the manufacturer is confident of their equipment enough to provide this length of warranty.
  • Many local air conditioning companies offer equipment that only has a 2 year warranty because they want to tie in the client with lots of repair bills. Our main business is refurbishment work, but we service the equipment as well.
Air conditioning and Ventilation project in Trowbridge for Baloo's
Air conditioning and Ventilation project in Trowbridge for Baloo’s

Initial site photos

As the main pipework is designed to be on view, it was very important to get everything level and square. Visually most people can tell if something is not quite straight, so the installers used lasers to check the alignment and levels.

Installation work

As the main pipework is designed to be on view, it was very important to get everything level and square. Visually most people can tell if something is not quite straight, so the installers used lasers to check the alignment and levels.

Final photographs

Below are some photos of nearly finished as well as some final photographs with the play equipment in place.

Summary on Air Conditioning and Ventilation Projects

  1. We can supply and install all makes but would prefer those manufacturers offering 5 years warranty or more such as Daikin, Fujitsu and Midea.
  2. We understand Building Regulation requirements on ventilation whereas many companies do not.
  3. We maintain all equipment supplied by us and offer a service and maintenance contract on all installations.

Contact

If you have any questions or need any help with air conditioning or ventilation projects please do not hesitate to get in touch 01380 73 88 44, or via email at [email protected]