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Fire Damage Restoration in Swindon

Fire Damage Restoration in Swindon
The first toilet where the fire broke out.

Client: Keningtons LLP
Value: £11k

It’s not often we are requested to undertake fire damage restoration, and we hope that this is because we take the matter of fire protection very seriously at Cre8tive Interiors. Fire protection is part of the Building Regulations which is something we need to be aware of in every project. We have worked on many projects that involve replacing fire doors (click here to see why we replaced the fire doors in Allied Computer Systems) or installing fire protection to a mezzanine floor (click here if you have a mezzanine floor).

We were contacted by Keningtons LLP after something caught fire in the bin of the ladies’ toilet within one of the offices they manage. Luckily it was put out quickly because it was contained in a small space, but the fire damage caused by such a small fire was frightening. Working with Keningtons LLP and the insurance company we were tasked with restoring the toilets to the original condition.  

Initial Visit

At the first visit we could see immediately that the fire had caused a great deal of damage despite only being a small fire and being extinguished quickly.

The fire started in a small bin in one of the toilets which had completely melted along with half of the toilet seat and the towel dispenser that was above it. The suspended ceiling had given way and collapsed and all of the insulation above was black from the smoke. The walls, floors, doors and even the appliances were coated in a thick layer of soot from the smoke. The fire damage wasn’t as extensive in the second toilet, where the door had obviously been closed, but there was still a lot of soot from the smoke. The smoke damage extended out into the hallways where it had coated the suspended ceiling and walls in layers of soot.

As we went through we took note of all the fire damaged areas that would need replacing.

  • The vinyl flooring was melted in places.
  • The toilet, soil pipe and boxing in was badly damaged.
  • The plastic towel dispenser was destroyed.
  • The walls were coated in a thick layer of soot.
  • The appliances were very badly soiled from the smoke.
  • The plastic grill in the door was melted and the doors and handles were all badly soiled.
  • The suspended ceiling was destroyed and badly soiled in other areas.
  • One light had completely melted, the others were badly soiled and the wiring needed replacing.
  • Both of the skylights were black with soot.
  • The extractor fans were badly damaged and the ducts were full of soot.
  • The insulation above the ceiling was black along with the fire barriers.
  • The walls and suspended ceiling in the hallway were all soiled from smoke.

Fire damage is absolutely devastating and extends much further than you would think. Smoke penetrates very small holes and spreads the soot everywhere which is difficult to get rid of.

View into the fire damaged toilets and storage area.

The first toilet where the fire broke out had the worst fire damage.

The first toilet where the fire broke out.

The suspended ceiling and skylight damaged by the fire.

The appliances in the storage area.

The second toilet was more smoke damaged than fire damaged.

The lighting and electrics had all been damaged by the fire.

The walls and ceiling in the hallway were damaged by the smoke.

The soot from the smoke covered the skylight even in the hallway.

Fire Damage Restoration in Progress

One of the main things we had to consider when restoring the fire damage was how to minimize the spread of soot. The office was on the third floor above a high street so the rubbish had to be transported a considerable distance just to remove it from the premises. We used plenty of floor protection to make a safe route to the closest exit at the front of the building; everything then had to be carried around a side alley to the skip at the rear. The flooring, ceiling, insulation and any badly fire damaged items were removed first using plastic rubble sacks. The toilets were then given a deep clean and a layer of paint first which stopped any more soot being spread.

Temporary site lighting until the electrics were replaced.

The old suspended ceiling was removed.

New electric cables and ducts were installed.

Pipework was repaired and boxing was rebuilt.

Re-decorating in such a cramped space with only site lighting was difficult.

Suspended ceiling with LED lights.

Suspended ceiling replaced in the hallway.

Suspended ceiling replaced in the toilets.

New LED lights installed in the toilets.

PIR occupancy sensors were installed in the toilets.

The carpet in the hallway was replaced.

New toilets and sinks were installed like-for-like.

Anti-slip vinyl flooring was installed throughout the toilets.

New toilets and sinks were installed like-for-like.

Extractor fans were replaced and installed.

Completed Project Photographs

The insurance company specified replacements that were like-for-like because this was a fire damage restoration project. We normally prefer to install modern dual-flush toilets and more efficient hand dryers. The tenants within the building asked us to install LED lights in the toilets and hallway separately for energy efficiency. We were happy to do this as it is much better for the environment and they paid the balance on this.

The toilets look brighter and cleaner than ever before. With all new sanitaryware and LED lighting and being freshly decorated we have not only restored the fire damage, but made the toilets better than before.

Finished view into the toilets.

The second toilet ready for use again.

New sink tap and pipework.

One of the toilets with new tiles.

New bin and door grille installed.

Summary on Fire Damage Restoration

  1. Using floor protection and common sense we can reduce the spread of soot into the office.
  2. We look past the obvious fire damage and figure the true extent of the damage.
  3. We work hard to find like-for-like replacements to match the original fixtures.
  4. When replacing items we can use this as an opportunity to upgrade for energy efficient options.
  5. Proper site lighting and equipment allows us to work in the space straight away and get it clean before the electricians replace the wiring.

Questions on Fire Damage Restoration or Fire Protection

If you are not sure about whether you have adequate fire protection then we will be more than happy to offer honest advice. The safety of your staff is very important to us, please give us a call on 01380 738844.

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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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All Project Categories Office Furniture Office Refurbishments Suspended Ceilings Visuals

Office Fitting out in Trowbridge

Office Fitting out 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 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 Design Office Furniture Office Refurbishments Partitioning Suspended Ceilings

Office Refurbishment in Bristol

Office Refurbishment in Bristol
Bespoke MD's desk

Client: Smurfit Kappa
Value: £65k

Office Design and Refurbishment in Bristol

Our client wanted a complete redesign refurbishment of the existing office space. The first task was to come up with some ideas and some colour schemes, the director wanted an adventurous new scheme, so we focused upon creating a more spacious effect through introducing new concepts of Lighting, Suspended Ceiling, Partitioning, new Air Conditioning systems, Flooring and Furniture in order to create a more relaxed office environment that mixes bold contemporary colour and natural materials.

Design and Drawing work

In working out what needs to be done, we need to know what is there. A detailed drawing showing positions of electrics and the walls was produced. The new layout required a few designs, and in particular the Director wanted to have a meeting end on his new desk, so we had to design a desk and get it made particularly for him.

Colour scheme / Design

As this area was a completely separate area from the upstairs directors suite, we thought that the whole scheme could be different. The room was completely separate from the rest of the building, so when you walked in, there was a different feel which was modern, had a blend of the traditional timber partitions, along with some stripy carpet, and the middle solid carpet was a very high quality cut pile carpet which felt soft and luxurious underfoot. One of the main requirements was that the Managing Director wanted a meeting end on his desk and it was not possible to get one to fit from standard product ranges. We therefore had to get one made..

Existing space

As you can see from the photographs the whole area needed completely stripping out and replacing.

Stripping out and building photographs

I always like this phase as the office transforms, from a very dull space to something new. We do get an immense level of satisfaction in carrying out office refurbishment projects for this reason.

Final photographs

As you can see from the final photographs, Cre8tive were successful in carrying out a complete redesign and office refurbishment of the customers existing space.

Why Demountable Office 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, 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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All Project Categories Mezzanine Floors Office Refurbishments Partitioning Suspended Ceilings

Office Expansion in Corsham for Coombe Castle

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.

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All Project Categories Mezzanine Floors Office Refurbishments

Mezzanine Floor Extension Project in Salisbury

Mezzanine Floor Extension Project in Salisbury
Wider view of end elevation

Client: Quality Lifts
Value: £44k

Cre8tive were asked to look at a new mezzanine floor extension for Quality Lift Products based at Whaddon Business Park in Salisbury. The project was really interesting as there were many different things to consider.

As well as working out the office layout and lighting, we helped the client organise a number of things themselves in order to keep costs down to a minimum and in effect only used us for doing the specialist work of dry lining, tape and jointing, demountable partitioning, commercial flooring, suspended ceilings and contract wall covering. A small detail was that inside the lower room, the customer wanted the floor plates sunk into the concrete so maximise the space and so that there were no unsightly bolts sticking up out of the floor. The difficulty with this, is that you cant just cut a hole in a concrete floor, you have to check that the composition will be strong enough to support the weight of the mezzanine and that you do not go down too deep affecting the structure of the floor. Cre8tive obtained some specialist advice before carry out the work. The floor was extremely hard to cut and needed a petrol disc cutter with water cooling to achieve it.

Initial Space

Mezzanine Floor Construction Photographs

Final Photographs

Office Extensions

If you have warehouse space and want to extend your offices then we would be delighted to offer some free advice. We are interiors specialists and not a dedicated mezzanine floor manufacturer, as we just sub contract the steel work out, we do what we always do and use our experience in looking at the inside space to make sure it works for the client. In this case, they did not want the cost of moving the lift and needed more space, and so we advised them that we could build around the problem which they did not think was possible. Over the years we have experienced many problems like this and we can usually come up with a solution.

Please give us a call to discuss any projects on 01380 73 88 44, or email us on the contact form of the website.

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All Project Categories Consult Install Office Refurbishments Partitioning

Office Fit Out British Nuclear Group

Office Fit Out British Nuclear Group
Mallard Court

Client: British Nuclear Group
Value: £99k

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

Initial site photographs before work

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.

Completed Photographs

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.

  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.

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]

Categories
Air Conditioning All Project Categories Office Refurbishments

Refurbishment in Shepton Mallet

Refurbishment in Shepton Mallet
Easynet Global Refurb

Client: Easynet Global Services
Value: £160k

Refurbishment

Cre8tive was asked to tender to carry out an office refurbishment in a 3 storey building in Shepton Mallet. Having successfully won the project, the next problem was how to carry out the work in a relatively short space of time, over the winter months with snow on the ground and no heating until the air conditioning was commissioned. The building was not a traditional office, in that there were no suspended ceilings (and not the height to fit any), and no raised floors, and the customer wanted lots of walls removed as well as fitting CAT6 cable into floor boxes in all of the floors.

All of the major elements that are used in a conventional office refurbishment were used, electrical work including data cabling, new lighting, reconfiguration of the power between floors, flooring using a rubber insulation floor to reduce sound transfer between floors, new air conditioning throughout, new kitchens on the floors including new appliances.

One of the difficulties was that the work had to be carried out in the winter months and without any heating until the air conditioning system was installed it was freezing on site. We had heaters but you cannot have the heaters on too much as it would dry out the plaster too quickly causing cracking. The paint also did not dry out properly so it just made the project much more difficult to complete. We also had snow to contend with and we lost several days as the guys could not get into work. We did finish the project a week early allowing the customer some more time on getting the IT equipment in.

Existing building photographs

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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All Project Categories Suspended Ceilings

Suspended Ceiling in Trowbridge

Suspended Ceiling in Trowbridge

Client: Zircon Software
Value: £23k

Suspended Ceiling and Alteration work

We completed this replacement suspended ceiling project for Zircon Software in Trowbridge who moved to new premises. The existing ceiling was very tired, so we produced a lighting scheme along with some drawings to present to the customer with the costing. We supplied new suspended ceilings and lighting throughout and also took out a couple of walls for them. The work carried out here is typical of what we call dilapidation work, in that the work is needed for someone moving in to be able to occupy it in a reasonable state.

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