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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

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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Kitchen Tea Point in an Office in Chippenham

Client: Volutio
Value: £1.5k

This project involved installing a new kitchen tea point in an office in Chippenham. The existing office was open plan. The project consisted of careful spatial planning as the configuration had to allow for the possibility of future expansion while catering for a greater number of people. Drawing and design work were also undertaken to create a unique flooring/carpet design that fitted and complemented the kitchen and its surrounding office space. Fitting the units was only one trade, we also had to arrange plumbers, electricians, decorators and a new floor. We carry out these activities anyway when we carry out refurbishment or office fitting out work they are easy for us to arrange as the people we use know us and work well together on projects.

Obviously what we have built is actually a mini-kitchen using all the materials that you would use in a house. We have accounts with all of the major suppliers of kitchens, and as we build these quite often in offices we are able to get some good pricing on product.

Types of kitchen.

We could use flat pack units available from most DIY stores. We use commercial grade kitchens which will not deteriorate and the carcasses are pre-made in a factory, already assembled so they are much quicker for us to build. The kitchen ends up being more durable. In this case, the toilets were the other side of the kitchen, it was a logical place to put the units as the supplies and waste were very close to connect to. We also had to fit an extractor in the suspended ceiling to take away those pot noodle smells when the micro-wave is used.

There are many options to chose from in terms of finishes, the range selected in this project was in the middle range, most refurbishment project we do have a small kitchen or tea point which is no problem for us to install.

Break out areas

Tea points are important in offices, more recently we have designed an area inside an office which is more than just a tea point and forms the focal part of the office with a breakfast bar. Please refer to this project for details by the clicking this link. The idea on this project was to encourage people to get off their chairs, away from their desks and to circulate, to encourage people to talk to each other and mingle. The customer was an American company that used to bring in bagels and have sandwiches brought into the office.

If you would like us to look at your break out / tea point area please give us a call on 01380 73 88 44

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This project involved installing a new kitchen tea point in an office in Chippenham

This project involved installing a new kitchen tea point in an office in Chippenham

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

Office Refurbishment in Gloucester

Client: Scott Law
Value: £160k

Mezzanine Floor installation

Cre8tive Interiors completed an office refurbishment fit out project in Gloucester. The original building consisted of an occupied warehouse with a split level floor and block walls which needed to be converted to offices. We are calling this project a refurbishment project, it involved taking an industrial unit and changing it (refurbishing it?), and then fitting out the inside to provide a complete office space by fitting a mezzanine floor inside. So it is probably a mixture between a refurbishment project and a fit out project.

The offices had to include toilets, reception area, new staircase, kitchen, boardroom and further offices as well as full integration of electrics, data and air conditioning. The project was also run under the Construction Design and Management regulations, so adherence to Health and Safety was paramount. All activities had to have risk assessments carried out as well as method statements for the type of work. Cre8tive was also Principle Contractor for the work, and this meant that there were some things that the client wanted to do within the time frame on site which we managed to do.

Pre-construction Photographs

All of the internal walls, ceilings, toilets and electrics would have to be stripped out including the spiral staircase and small room above it. The two units had a gap inside joining them which would need to be blocked up. The block walls inside would have to be modified. In the end it was easiest just to rip it all out and start again.

Construction Work

The following photographs show the stripping out as well as the construction and finished photographs. The photographs show the sequence of events and all of the work that goes into creating offices over a mezzanine floor. Complete network cabling, power and data, heating and cooling with air conditioning, flooring, external windows, there are many things to manage and get to work properly which is what we do at Cre8tive.

We used demountable partitioning for the offices upstairs and downstairs for a few reasons, the first is that is is easy to reconfigure if you want to change it, and one of the other main benefits is that it can be leased and treated as a ‘moveable item’ as well as the mezzanine floor. The mezzanine floor itself is fully self supporting and not fixed to the fabric of the building so is also ‘demountable’. It could be unbolted and then re bolted in the car park outside if needed.

Why Demountable Partitioning?

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

Office Refurbishment

This particular project was more complicated that many that we do in that it involved the mezzanine floor. 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 Consult Install Office Refurbishments Partitioning

Office Fit Out British Nuclear Group

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]

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All Project Categories Suspended Ceilings

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.