RACE AGAINST TIME
It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve had chance to write a blog, I apologise but things have been rather hectic. The end of March is the end of our fiscal year and usually we are waiting for the new budgets to come in so we can get some fresh orders, however, this year was a race against time to get everything done in time! I guess with losing a couple of months last year it had pushed back a few projects. Over 8 days we fitted 8 jobs with one day at the workshop in between, to say we earned our Easter bank holiday was an understatement!
CARDIFF
The job that probably stands out the most from the mad rush is probably the Dogs Trust counters. An order that was placed at the tail end of 2020 after a site survey on a very sunny October day. This was to be the second counter we would supply for the charity and was to include a very large main counter and a smaller counter for a stray centre. The centre was built on a huge plot of land near the docks and steelworks and included a series of buildings which would include:
- 78 glass kennels with underfloor heating – so dogs can choose warm or cool flooring depending on their needs
- Full Veterinary/surgical suite including hydrotherapy/physiotherapy room
- Exercise paddocks and runs
- Training Hall – to help teach old dogs new tricks
- Grooming suite
- A base for education and Dog School teams as well as neutering and microchipping campaigns.
- A stray processing centre
This Cardiff Rehoming Centre is hoping to help save 1,000 dogs a year.
STRAY CENTRE
I’ll start with the smaller of the two, a simple straight two level counter with a DDA section for wheelchair users, like the previous counter the raised section was to be in the trademark yellow colour with a contrasting grey everywhere else. We actually had this one ready to go at the start of March but a late decision was made by the client to include a gate which we had to retrofit, not a problem, it just meant we had to fit it a little later than planned.
Danny and Lee opted to fit this one, if you take into account that it was to be fitted between two walls on top of a floor with underfloor heating, it wasn’t as straightforward as you would think, pretty awkward in fact, but not a problem for Danny and Lee! I’m sure you will agree with us that it looks smart!
As I explained in a previous blog we have been getting involved in the Covid-19 protection screens, again these are made to measure for this counter.
MAIN BUILDING
Like Darlington the counter for the main building at Cardiff was another colossus! measuring nearly 10 metres long it just about fit into unit 5 of our workshop. Owen headed up the construction of this beast with help from Lee. Lessons learnt from the Darlington install helped us with this one, Having Dexter, Josh and Charlie deliver the components on the day before so we could turn up, get inducted and crack on really made a difference! Everything went pretty smoothly, the site manager was great with having the foresight to leave a section free of underfloor heating so we could get a good fixing into the floor.
The problem with having such a large counter is the floor levels, because a concrete floor shrinks a bit after it is poured it is poured in sections, this stops any cracking but you get a bit of a hollow in the center of the “slab” and when your counter spans 3 – 4 of these slabs it can be a problem……. Thankfully it wasn’t too bad and the screed had corrected most of the hollows.
Owen Josh and I had a successful day installing this one! The whole team did very well to fit both these counters and Covid-19 screens all in one day (the hottest day of the year so far and the hottest March day in decades!)
FEEDBACK
I have received some feedback from the QS on the job and he has said everyone loves it and can’t wait to use it, the site manager was extremely impressed with both our service and product and he is looking forward to working with us on the next one.
All that is needed now is the huge Dogs Trust logo on the front!
Have a great weekend!
Adam
