Job Overview
We work closely with a number of contractors, one of whom won a contract to develop a commercial site in Greengates, Bradford. The plan was to turn one commercial unit that used to be a ‘Blockbusters’ into two. It was going to have a training centre on one side, whilst the other was destined to be a favourite of ours – Greggs! Our part of the project was to build a partition wall, 18 metres wide and 8 metres high. A bit of a monster…
The Challenge
This was a large-scale project which needed three people working full time: one cutting, one fitting, and one swapping between cutting and fitting. Teamwork was really important – an approach that combined great communication between the three of us, a keen sense of health and safety and an awareness of budget and timescales. All of this without compromising our perfectionist approach.
Due to fire protection and acoustic insulation requirements, the partition wall was multi layered. And because the ceiling was a sloped shape, each layer had to but cut exactly in order to fit perfectly. Easy to say when you’re not eight metres up in the air!
The Technical Bit
The first job was to build a vast metal stud partition from the concrete floor up to the ceiling – a jumbo stud wall with a width of 150mm. Since the ceiling was sloped, each of these lengths had to be cut individually. This is a real area of expertise for Daga…our background in metalwork was perfect for this project.
We then had to double-board the Greggs side, as it had to be fire-proof in order that regulations could be met.
The first layer of plywood went on, then a further two layers of plaster board. In between them we laid acoustic insulation. When we were convinced that the perimeters were completely flush, we ran beads of fire mastic right around the whole perimeter. This would seal the wall around the floor, walls and ceiling and had to be completely tight for full fire-protection, but also neat so that it was discrete.
At Daga Projects, we are certified to meet PASMA and IPAF standard, so all our customers can be safe in the knowledge that our work meets all required legislation.
But no job is ever straightforward, and this was no exception. The area that we were building on had a number of obstacles, and each one had to be built around with the same perfectionist approach and multi-layering.
Just as well we like a challenge!
The final element was to build a suspended ceiling on both sides of the partition. All that good work, hidden away!
Needless the say, the contractor was delighted with the job, and we’re continuing to work closely with them to this day.
Looking Back
We recently popped back to the site, partly to see the finished job…partly to satisfy our love of Greggs’ sausage, bean and cheese pasties (Scott) and chocolate fudge cake (Rob).
Looking back on the job we recalled how well we had to communicate with each other for the duration of the project. With three people working on the job, two of whom were often eight metres up in the air, communication and team working was critical to ensuring safety and a perfect finish.
