Tag Archives: steel building construction

Main Contractors getting too busy to co-ordinate all the trades?

Many are reporting that  the construction industry is beginning to show signs of growth with more projects moving through planning and onto UK construction sites.

bbc.co.uk    constructionenquirer.com

The downturn had caused a reduction in managerial construction staff with main contractors stream-lining the number of directly employed quantity surveyors, estimators, project and contracts managers to ensure they stayed afloat in the recent tough times.

Inevitably, with experienced  staff retiring and others looking outside of the construction industry to find stable employment, the industry as a whole will struggle to meet the demands of rising workloads.

This is increasingly leading to quantity surveyors and projects managers overseeing a number of projects at once, making it even more important that they choose sub-contractors who can provide not only quality on site but also in their management and off site work.

At Reidsteel our clients have seen the benefits of working with us and have entrusted us with the design, supply and erection of steelwork and cladding and glazing time after time.

All projects undertaken by Reidsteel have a team of no fewer than 10 staff managing the project from initial design to completion on site, meaning main contractors and clients need not worry about the complications and conflicts between steelwork, cladding and glazing as this is all taken care of at our works in Christchurch ensuring all interactions can be perfectly co-ordinated.

All elements of our work are discussed with our clients through one of our experienced Project Engineers who will co-ordinate all disciplines from tender stage through to completion of our works onsite.

Many of our staff, whether designers, draughtsmen, fabricators or erectors have been working at Reidsteel for the majority of their working life meaning they have unrivalled experience and knowledge of steel structures.

The luxury of Reid’s experience does not come at a premium, our skills help us to design incredibly economic and  efficient structures and also by combining the steelwork, cladding and glazing packages our clients avoid the risk of variations and conflicts between these trades, meaning the price which is quoted is the price paid.

For more information of how a project works the ‘Reid’ way please click here to see a short presentation.

If you have a project to discuss please contact us.

 

Springside Industrial Units, Trinity, Jersey

springside-news01REIDsteel have a history of working in the Channel Islands and were delighted to be given the opportunity to design, fabricate and erect 2 new Industrial buildings in Trinity, Jersey.

We had been involved in the planning and pricing of the project for over 5 years before we were chosen to complete the building envelope and worked with the main contractor, F Nicolson and Sons, architects, J Design and consulting engineers, Ross Gower associates.

REIDsteel were also chosen to construct the 2 structures due to the client owning the original units adjacent to the site supplied by REIDsteel in 2000 and being impressed by the lack of repairs and maintenance needed due to the quality of the building provided.

Working with the client’s team enabled us to design the steel structure to allow a specific floor area and clear height as well as detail in the architectural features of the buildings, near 3m overhangs at the eaves with cantilever tubular struts and floor to roof, brick piers which were to be tied back into the structure.

The interface between cladding and steelwork was detailed and ordered in house from leading UK suppliers to offer a 25 year guarantee of both composite roof panels and double skin wall cladding.

Detailing the cladding in house also give Reidsteel a great advantage to design and supply the glazing and personnel doors. REIDglazing provided powder coated aluminium windows and steel doors with glazed port holes.

All materials were scheduled and shipped logically from our site in Christchurch ensuring our experienced erection team were never held up waiting for materials and could complete both buildings in fewer than 18 weeks much to the satisfaction of the client and the end users who were ready to move in.

In addition to steelwork, cladding, gutters and glazing we were also responsible for applying the intumescent paint to the steel work and providing a fall restraint running line system. Something that allows the end users to access the roof via a lanyard and carry out roof maintainance.

REIDsteel and Zulal

zulal-news01REIDsteel are proud to have recently supplied three Water treatment plants to Libyan Contractor Zulal Water Technology.

We supplied the steel frames, composite cladding, glazing, doors, roof extraction vents and a 5-tonne overhead crane to each building.

The installation of all REIDsteel supplied components were assisted by experienced supervisor Rowland Phillips.

The Gialo plant was completed in only nine months, on a full turnkey basis. The plant is producing excellent quality of water and should provide the people at Gialo field with a reliable supply for many years to come.

REIDsteel Helps New Forest Ice Cream Structure for Growth

newforesticecream-news02New Forest Ice Cream, one of the UK’s fastest expanding ice cream brands, is celebrating production starting in its brand new purpose built Lymington headquarters that was designed in close conjunction with Christchurch-based REIDsteel.

A family firm launched 30 years ago that now supplies over 2,500 outlets across the UK, New Forest Ice Cream was approached by REIDsteel when it outgrew its old premises and was struggling to find a suitable new building in the New Forest area.

newforesticecream-news01The new 2,000m² premises provide state of the art ice cream production facilities plus bright and modern office space. A dominating feature of the new building is the giant freezer which occupies around one third of the internal footprint of the new building.

REIDsteel worked closely with the family throughout the design and build process, to deliver a tailor-made structure that provides the company with the perfect facilities for their expanding business.

The structure’s clad envelope consists of three different types of steel based cladding systems.

The roof is clad in a Kingspan insulated composite panel system, which is ideal for this type of building as it can be installed quickly and efficiently.

newforesticecream-news03Because of this REIDsteel’s team of erectors were able to install a 1m wide by 14.5m long panel every four minutes, enabling work to commence on the floor slab when the roof was complete in super-fast time.

Similar to the roof cladding system, part of the wall area is clad in a Kingspan insulated composite architectural wall panel system, which incorporates REIDsteel’s aluminium framed windows and curtain walling system.

The remaining area of wall is clad in a site assembled, insulated twin skin wall cladding system and also incorporates windows, personnel and vehicle doors.

REIDsteel’s Project Engineer for the development, David Cooper says:

By working direct with us on this project New Forest Ice Cream was able to use the expertise of our designers to optimise their production facility. The purpose built structure is tailored exactly to their needs and will allow them to continue expanding production of their wonderful ice cream for many years to come.

Graham Jenman, Director, New Forest Ice Cream comments:

On behalf of New Forest Ice Cream I would like to thank Reid Steel for the quality of the finished building and professional manner they went about the process, from the initial design to the handover of the keys.

They clearly explained what they would do and what was required by the ground workers. All work was done to schedule with no fuss. You could not ask to work with a more professional team.

Mongolia: Fuselage Sealing Doors

Construction of the aircraft maintenance hangar in Mongolia continues, and the fuselage sealing doors are now in place.

Designed by REIDsteel to fit an Avro RJ85. The fabric ring inflates to create a tight seal around the aircraft body so that maintenance can be carried out on the aircraft without the need for the whole plane to be inside the hangar.

When the seal is not in use, the smaller, outer doors slide shut and seal the hangar.

Small outer doors seal the hangar

The project was commisioned by Eznis Airways LLC, and is located in the Capital Ulaanbaatar.

Mongolia is a huge landlocked country, covering an area of over 1.5 million square kilometres. It is bordered by China on the south, east & west sides and by Russia to the north.

Local members of the construction crew

Mongolia: Minus 37 – That’s REALLY cold!

 

mongoliaminus37With UK temperatures now starting to creep below zero, spare a thought for our team constructing a REIDsteel designed aircraft maintenance hangar in Mongolia.

Temperatures there have dropped as low as minus 37 degrees centigrade!

At these kinds of temperatures things freeze fast, and the locals have developed some interesting methods for keeping their vehicles in service!

The cold also required some method adaptation for the REIDsteel crew.  Materials behave differently, and jobs that are normally straightforward  become fiddly when wearing gloves, but if you take your gloves off and touch metal with bare skin it will freeze and stick!

Despite these hardships, the team have done a great job and are due to complete on schedule.