GLOUCESTER RUGBY

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BRAND NEW TRAINING FACILITY

We received a phone call from a company called EG Carter Ltd, a well established construction company asking us to price for some fitted furniture for a job they were working on down in Gloucester, initially there was nothing out of the ordinary, the usual “as quick as you can and as cheap as you can” however the client wasn’t quite so ordinary, it was going to be for Gloucester Rugby Football Club.  Being a rugby fan this perked my interest and was motivated to win the project and put our name to the furniture that went into the brand new training facility of a professional rugby club. (Even if it isn’t the mighty Leicester Tigers)

INTERESTING DESIGN

Another reason for wanting to win this project was because of the design.  We love projects that are a bit different and with this one being manufactured using OSB Sterling Board it made it interesting.  OSB Sterling board has become fairly popular in recent months for furniture, if you haven’t heard of it before, basically its the stuff they use to board up house or pub windows after the glass has been broken.  It’s a construction material that isn’t usually on show, mainly because its just big chips of wood glued and pressed together to form a sheet, so its not the prettiest of materials.  However it has found its way into the category of furniture material and to be honest once its sanded up and lacquered it looks pretty good.

We won the job for everything except a few benches which had to go back to the drawing board as they were over budget.  The job included some pigeon hole units, an AV cupboard and a servery hatch with top and cupboard unit, a nice interesting order.

THE PRESSURE OF TIME

The order came with a tight timescale, nothing new there I hear you say, but the team were due back in to start pre-season fairly soon and they wanted the furniture installed before that. Problem being, that was the following week, nothing like leaving things till the last minute.  There was no way we could make that but we talked it over and it transpired that the team aren’t in the gym on a Wednesday, so we had some wiggle room.  I assured them we would be there as soon as possible to install.

Kingsholm Stadium – Gloucester

First things first was a site measure, luckily I was going to Cornwall for the weekend so I managed to call in and measure up on my way down.  It was great to visit the new facility, it was right next to Kingsholm Stadium and was being kitted out with some fantastic gym equipment, a running track and an indoor training pitch.  I got all the info I needed, spent the weekend in Cornwall and returned to work on Monday with sea shanties on repeat in my head and memories of sea dips in water as blue as the sky to drawer up the furniture for approval.

PROJECT RESCHEDULING

The current shortages in materials and labour are causing delays on jobs we are working on, for example the care home we are producing a bookcase for is behind because the staff were all self isolating due to the, dare I say it….. ‘Pingdemic’ so we could afford to put a couple of jobs on the back burner and focus totally on this one. Owen and Lee were the team for this and got cracking as soon as materials arrived.  Excellent progress was made until everything ground to a halt because we were waiting for a roll of edging to be released from customs. Thank you BREXIT…….

After a couple of weeks of Danny constantly calling to chase the material or trying to source from elsewhere, the supplier decided it might be quicker to send a new roll with faster delivery, they were correct.  Once the edging arrived we were able to finish off the pigeon hole shelves and lacquer it all!

INSTALLATION DAY

With a heavily laden van we drove down to Gloucester to fit it all.  Arriving on site we went through the usual formalities of site induction and health and safety briefings, then with a heavy emphasis on cleanliness we were allowed to do our thing.  Owen and Charlie went about installing the huge and heavy pigeon holes while Dexter and I fitted the serving top and cupboard.  Everything went great, until we started on the AV unit where we discovered that a slight error had occurred when the architect was setting out the electrics, he had shown the height of the socket to be exactly where the top of the AV units were going to be, so they had to be moved. Que reluctant electrician who insists he did it to the drawing and we have to alter our cabinets…….. After some charm and sweet talking he happily moved them for us while we moved the data cabinet which was also in the wrong place.  These minor issues were the only problems we had to face, and we were thankful that was it.

AV Unit being installed.

After a super clean up we informed the site management we were done, who checked it all over, thanked us and sent us on our way.

THE FINISHED ARTICLE

Pigeon hole units fitting snug into their apertures.

Each unit had a little door which will receive the clubs logo.
Servery hatch with unit to take a bin where you can drop litter through the top.
AV Unit – Eventually there will be a media wall of four screens above, for analysis and presentations.

It was great to be a part of this job, a really smart build with a top quality finish we are pleased to put our name to.  For your interest I’ve included a photo of the gym to show you the finish.

Pretty smart huh!?

Have a great weekend!!

Adam.

 

Tags: Commercial Furniture, JFW Ltd HQ, JFW Process, Sports, Uncategorized
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