Step On Safety Ltd

We were invited by Kier to come up with a new way of doing things for the Service Riser flooring on phase one of the Perry Barr Residential Scheme in Birmingham last year. When complete, the scheme will provide 1,400 much-needed new homes for Birmingham. Part of a much wider project, it will also act as a catalyst for circa. 5,000 new homes and wider regeneration in the north west of the city – including improved leisure and community facilities along with upgraded transport infrastructure. Phase one includes a mix of one and two-bed apartments and three and four-bed houses, an ‘extra care’-type facility providing housing, a variety of services for the older community and areas of public space, as well as private courtyards and amenity spaces.For the apartment blocks, 120 GRP Riser Floors were required but, rather than us installing them after the floors were poured, they needed to be cast in by the contractors responsible for the concrete.There are advantages to doing it this way:You avoid having riser voids in the floor that people or equipment can fall down and you don’t need the fencing on site to protect them – 25% of workplace fatalities are due to falls from height, 13% are caused by falling/moving objectsThe risers are done by the flooring contractor at the pace they set (usually earlier in the process than a ‘retro’ fit), so no co-ordinating of teams from different organisations meaning fewer delaysBecause the modular riser units were all constructed at our premises in Suffolk, there were no extra teams working around each other while cutting and building on the siteThe steel industry has been providing the profiles for this for a while but, if you wanted to use a complete low-maintenance GRP solution, it hasn’t been possible. Our engineers came up with a solution that worked, allowing a seamless integration into the schedule with minimal fuss. The resulting riser duct floors met every requirement and holes for service pipes and cables can be quickly and easily cut in as required with no hot works or sparking hazards.If you have an idea of a new way of doing things and need a GRP partner to help you develop your thoughts, get in touch today.

Situated in South Kensington, the home of science, arts and inspiration, and directly opposite the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal College of Music is one of the world’s great conservatoires, training gifted musicians from all over the world for international careers as performers, conductors and composers. Opened in 1883 by the then Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), the RCM has trained some of the most prestigious figures in British and international music life, including composers such as Holst, Vaughan Williams, Turnage and Britten; conductors such as Leopold Stokowski, Sir Colin Davis and Sir Roger Norrington; singers such as Dame Joan Sutherland, Sir Thomas Allen and Alfie Boe and instrumentalists such as Sir James Galway, John Lill, Gervase de Peyer, and Natalie Clein. Bringing an older building up to code regarding health and safety is always a challenge. Modern amenities were squeezed into spaces as they became available, but the emphasis was always on preserving as much of the original building as possible; going back in – often decades later – to make those spaces safe for maintenance crews or to replace outdated systems that involves crawl-spaces, false walls and hidden hatches.It was just such a request we received recently. A GRP Cat Ladder and RiserDeck floor with access hatch were required to allow work on the hidden pipework within a very narrow space. The ladder needed to be positioned in such a way that the pipe behind it wouldn’t be kicked; the hatch would be small, so needed to be 100% snag-free and the ladder height required safety hoops to help prevent falls. After drawings were approved by our client, the ladder was built onsite at Step on Safety and cut in half to allow it to be loaded onto a flat bed vehicle and to ensure it could be manoeuvred into position once it reached RCM. You can see from the photos that even the two-man installation team would have been a tight squeeze! GRP is lightweight so the fact that only two people could be there to lift it into place wasn’t a problem and being GRP, now the ladder is there, it will last for decades to come.Find out how Step on Safety can fill the gaps in your Health & Safety certification by calling Amber on 01206 396 446.

The spectacular Council House, located in Victoria Square, is the home of Birmingham City Council providing office accommodation for council officers and elected council members alongside the council chamber, Lord Mayor’s Suite, committee rooms and a large and ornate banqueting suite, complete with minstrel’s gallery. The first-floor’s exterior balcony is used by visiting dignitaries and victorious sports teams, to address crowds assembled below. The side of the building that faces Chamberlain Square is the entrance and façade of the Museum and Art Gallery.The Grade II listed building was designed by Yeoville Thomason in 1871 and features a central section with a huge hexastyle Corinthian order porte-cochere carrying a balcony with an arch and tympanum high up above, flanked by piers and columns which, in turn, carry a large carved pediment. Construction began in 1874 when the first stone was laid by mayor Joseph Chamberlain and was completed in 1879 at a cost £163,000 (equivalent to £16,700,000 in 2019). The Council House was extended almost immediately, to house an art gallery, museum, and the corporation’s Gas Department. It was extended a second time in 1911–19 with a new block to the north connected to the original building by an intricately designed archway. That extension contains the Feeney Art Galleries.As with so many listed buildings, ensuring they meet today’s Health & Safety standards can be quite the challenge and this one is no exception. However, the Step on Safety design and installation teams are more than qualified for the task and are installing GRP Riser floors around the services in place.Using glass reinforced plastic open mesh grating and pultruded profiles is quicker and easier than metal options. It’s lighter, so easier to manoeuvre where space is limited, and easier to cut – so can be fitted closely around pipes and cables, closing any gaps in the riser voids that people or objects could have fallen through.Step on Safety believes in providing superb customer service and treats every project – no matter the size – with care and attention to detail.

We were asked to provide teams at Scottish Water’s Treatment Works in Whitehillocks, Glenesk with safe access to a large chemical bund for operational and maintenance activities.A new installation, our client chose a GRP solution for its non-corrosive, low maintenance properties. We were tasked with designing, fabricating and installing the new platforms, the last phase taking just four days.As always, the project began with a detailed survey after which the CAD engineers created drawings to enable costings. The platform was initially constructed on our site at Brantham to ensure every component was accounted for and that the completed structure would meet all the requirements of our client. Once engineers here were satisfied, everything was shipped up to Scotland where our team rebuilt it in situ, making any fine adjustments as required. An enclosed working space often adds challenges but, by keeping the area tidy and organised at all times, everything went as planned.Step on Safety operatives hold relevant English (EUSR) and Scottish (DOMS) Water Hygiene certification and have a great deal of experience working on Water Treatment Works all over the UK.The finished solution features a raised GRP Anti Slip Grating platform on a GRP Profile frame with our Ergonomic Modular Handrail and steps at each end. This was carefully aligned with the bund wall to make a continuous, trip-free surface without compromising the integrity of the wall itself. A 4m GRP Ladder with Safety Hoops takes you up to a secure Anti-Slip Platform enclosed by Handrail and a Safety Gate.  

A chance encounter a couple of years ago has resulted in the development of a close, collaborative relationship between Step on Safety and client Anglian Water, clearly demonstrated by the recent refurbishment project at the London Road Pumping Station in West Thurrock.The station has four large foul chambers, each with maintenance platforms up to 11 metres deep providing access to the inlet and outlet pumps. The existing steel grating and handrails had begun to corrode, rendering at least one of the chambers unsafe to enter. An urgent solution was required to replace some or all of the platforms in each one – a challenge under any circumstances but even more so in working chambers during flood season.The first issue was access. The chambers are classed as Level 3 Enclosed Spaces so can only be entered by qualified engineers. The condition of the platforms was, in some cases, so poor that the surveys had to be done using 3D scanners lowered into each pit. The uneven build-up of residue on the walls and existing surfaces resulted in imprecise measurements which meant that whatever material was used, some adjustment would be necessary once work started. GRP was the ideal choice because it’s faster and easier to cut – even when you’re working in a hole. It’s also lighter so easier to manoeuvre into position.The second issue was the installation itself. Because of the access restrictions, Step on Safety teams were unable to go down into the chambers to install it themselves; specialist Anglian Water engineers completed the install whilst working collaboratively with Step on Safety onsite service teams cutting, bonding and fabricating up top. It was agreed that an SoS installer would be onsite throughout the project, assisting and advising the AW teams every step of the way.The new platforms were built just above the old steel ones, which acted as a safety net during the installation. Most of the cutting and assembly was done at the SoS workshop Brantham, Suffolk, with only minor adjustments needed during the project. The GRP profiles, open mesh grating and handrail was all made using isophthalic resin which has superior resistance to the toxic environment it will sit in. As an added precaution, every cut edge was treated with resin to maintain the integrity of the materials. Once the GRP was in place, the rotten steel was disassembled and lifted out for disposal.Step on Safety’s Dave Atkins worked alongside Anglian Water crews to get the project done. “It was a new way of working for us as we are usually down in the working areas hands-on” he told us. “Communication from top side was critical in which and what measurements were needed for a smooth project installation. Marcin and Ken’s team were fantastic and I’m really happy with what we have achieved together.”Clear, effective communication was key to the success of the project and Marcin Jacobowski was more than happy with the outcome. “I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for helping me to complete this project” he wrote. “We had a lot of problems during the project (flooding incidents), but we managed at the end. What have I learned is, without the good communication and co-operation with AW Operations and the subcontractors’ support (Cadman & Step on Safety) this scheme wouldn’t be the success that it is. I can highly recommend Step on Safety for quality of work and great communication.”

Many of the GRP Riser Floors we install are fitted during the initial build. Using a framework made from GRP profiles, capped with panels of GRP Grating, we fill usually simple shapes as a building goes up, ensuring people and equipment can’t fall down the holes required for services installation.In an older building, the chances are the services are already in place, which means we need to cut around any pipes, cables and ducting to ensure a neat fit with no gaps.Gainsborough House in Richmond was one such installation. The riser gaps were actually quite small so, while there was no risk of a person falling through, dropped tools could, presenting – at worst – a potential hazard to people and equipment below and – at best – an inconvenience as tools need to be retrieved or replaced. We were sub-contracted by Westgreen Construction to bring the spaces around the risers up to the current safety standards and help prevent future accidents.On some floors the gaps were almost full of services trunking and, as an added challenge, electrical cable trays coming forward presented an uneven surface to work on. We built frames between each tray, creating a raised base to fit the grating to. The mesh was then carefully cut to accommodate the various services in place.In other parts of the building the client needed the grating to be 50mm away from already-installed duct work to allow for lagging and requested a kick plate rather than the normal flush fit. This required a modified frame to give the site team something to fix the plate to.GRP is an incredibly flexible material to work with. It’s much lighter than steel equivalents making it relatively easy to manoeuvre into position. It’s also easier to cut and non-sparking so doesn’t require a hot works permit. This allows us to make adjustments onsite, achieving a high level of precision in a fraction of the time, keeping quality up and costs down.No matter what type or age of a building, our expert teams will find a GRP riser solution to ensure site safety. For more information call us on 01206 396 446.

Originally built in 1889, in 2007 the Savoy Hotel closed for a four-year-long £220m restoration project which saw the Edwardian structure reinforced, rationalised and restored, bringing the facilities up-to-date whilst maintaining and celebrating the glamour and luxuriousness of the original Art Deco styling. The Savoy re-opened in 2010 and quickly re-established its status as one of the top hotels in the world.Unfortunately, the structural changes made did not foresee the subsequent changes to Health & Safety requirements and last year it was established that further works needed to be undertaken to protect maintenance staff.After providing an initial quote back in October 2019, work commenced onsite on the 29th July 2020 and the next 12 days were spent installing 80 QuartzGrip GRP 38mm Open Mesh Grating Riser Floors over ten storeys of the historic building. Retro-fitting Riser Decks is always more challenging when being involved during the construction of a property; access is restricted and you’re working around structures and fittings that would ideally be installed AFTER the riser floors are in place. However, the work was made a little easier by the COVID-19 enforced closure of the hotel. There were no guests to work around and staff levels were at a minimum. Whilst access was still difficult, at least disrupting residents’ stays with construction noises wasn’t an issue.There was a documentary about the 2007 renovations and more recently, a TV series following the daily activity at the Savoy which ended as the hotel locked down in March 2020. Viewers are still waiting to find out if there’ll be a second season, but here’s hoping that by 2021 life there will be back to normal. To find out how riser floors can improve the safety of your property call Amber on 01206 396 446.

Undergoing some serious regeneration, Bromley High Street in East London has several building projects underway at the moment with new, affordable flats and houses springing up everywhere.Thomas Sinden was appointed by Poplar HARCA as their contractor to deliver one such project, building 13 new homes, including a large family dwelling in a single residential block.The infill site at 70-76 Bromley High Street, E3 was underused, but will now provide 3 affordable/social rented units and 10 intermediate houses, as well as a private amenity space and a large communal garden.The architect specified GRP Riser Flooring and Thomas Sinden selected Step on Safety to supply the ten risers required over five floors. They were fabricated by Step on Safety staff at the workshop in Brantham and subsequently installed by the Thomas Sinden site teams. We find that, on fast moving projects where time and space are critical, clients prefer to have fabrications supplied in one delivery so they are available as and when needed rather than co-ordinating multiple site teams. It offers a cost saving too.We are finding that GRP solutions are being chosen by the architects at the very beginning of a project far more frequently, rather than it being left to the preference of the contracted builder. Whether panels and profiles are being cut to fit on or offsite, the benefits over steel alternatives – such as weight, strength, ease of cutting and longevity – are now widely recognised.To find out how Step on Safety can help you meet your architect’s requirements with GRP service riser flooring, call 01206 396 446 today.

The elegant Ely Place, just to the north of Holborn Circus, was until relatively recently, considered to be a part of Cambridgeshire, privately owned by the Bishops of Ely. Even today, the street has its own gatehouse and beadles. The historical site boasts an extraordinary history and was once the site of the Bishop’s Palace and Hatton House. It’s still home to the Chapel of St Etheldreda, parts of which date back to the 13th Century and Ye Old Mitre Public House, originally built in 1546.In 1772, the estate was sold to the Crown and the old palace, now in a ruinous state, was demolished. The handsome rows of townhouses that now stand on either side of the street were built in the same year. Today its buildings are mostly occupied by prestigious legal firms, but its colourful array of former residents are still celebrated and its history has very much been kept alive.It’s always a pleasure to be invited to work in London’s older buildings, effectively becoming a part of the care and restoration required to keep them alive for generations to come and no job is considered too small; this was just a one-day project, replacing a rotten wooden Hop Over and a rusty flight of Access Stairs on the 4th floor with smart, low-maintenance, long-lasting GRP equivalents.They were constructed using QuartzGrip® Anti-Slip GRP Standard Mesh Open Grating and Universal GRP Structural Profiles for the framework and handrailing. Bright yellow Anti-Slip Stair Nosing highlights the potential trip hazard, further reducing the risk of slips and falls. Both were built in our Suffolk-based workshop and transported in chunks for quick and easy fitting onsite. Old or new, is it time to upgrade your site access? We are happy to supply anything from the smallest hop over to extensive maintenance platforms and multi-storey staircases. For more information call us on 01206 396 446.

We were thrilled to work at KOKO in Camden recently, installing an 11m suspended access platform as part of the huge redevelopment project currently underway.The music venue closed back in April 2019 for a redevelopment project which included the acquisition of two adjacent buildings and a complete renovation of the iconic rooftop area. Progress was somewhat hampered by a fire in January 2020 that destroyed the famous dome, but work has continued, and we’ll hopefully see the finished results soon.The venue began life as the Camden Theatre back in 1900. Renamed the Camden Palace in 1982, it was quickly established as a crucial part of the London music scene and watched the rise of New Romantic, Dance and New Wave, Rave, House and Acid House before closing in 2004. Since its reincarnation as KOKO, it has hosted stars including Madonna, Coldplay, Prince, Kanye West, Bruno Mars, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Amy Winehouse, Noel Gallagher, Paul Weller, J Cole, Skepta and many, many more. As a century-old, listed building it posed us some unusual challenges regarding what we could and couldn’t do to achieve the result the client needed. Two storage tanks with a combined weight of 2.5 tonnes were to be positioned in the space below the listed roof. Easy access was needed to safely reach the tanks whenever required. Because of the listed status we were unable to fix the platform to the wall – it had to be suspended using drop rods.Our highly qualified and experienced install team came up with a solution, spending just two weeks creating a multi-level walkway that placed no weight on the internal roof and had minimal interference with the listed building’s structure. Composite materials were the logical material to use. It’s lightweight; so easy to manoeuvre and work within such a constricted space but still meets the loading requirements.  QuartzGrip® Open Mesh GRP Grating is manufactured to ISO 9001 quality standards providing the highest slip-resistance available, while our heavy duty SafeRail™ GRP Handrail System is certified to BS 4592:0.The result? A bespoke solution that has provided the client with a non-corrosive walkway meeting all Health and Safety maintenance access guidelines in document M & K of the building regulations and the equalities act, keeping future users safe in an otherwise unsafe maintenance regime. 

We were privileged to be contracted by Keltbray to install 350 riser floors at The Broadway, an exclusive new development at St James’s Park.The Broadway is a vibrant new living quarter located in the heart of Westminster. Described as the epitome of British innovative design and contemporary cool, six impressive towers are home to 258 exquisite apartments with five-star facilities. While the outside is steeped in iconic architecture and a revival of Art Deco design, behind the scenes, architects specified the very latest in building techniques and safety protocols, with Step on Safety’s GRP RiserDeck™ System at the very core of each building.Providing a modern, high-spec alternative to traditional galvanised steel and ply board service riser duct flooring, RiserDeck™ comprises of GRP Open Mesh Grating supported by composite Channel, Angle and I Beam sections to provide additional panel support. Manufactured from durable fibre-reinforced polymers and available with either a closed or open mesh surface, both of which facilitate multi-directional spanning, the inherent strength of these panels is provided by alternating, bi-directional layers of glass fibre woven rovings, which distribute the imposed load throughout the panel surface. The glass fibres are impregnated with polyester resin binding agent, which also provides the necessary corrosion resistance. A silicon carbide grit is applied to the top surface to provide an effective anti-slip finish to this GRP Riser Flooring.The resulting system requires no hot works to cut and fit onsite and is light enough for manual handling – no heavy lifting equipment is needed to manoeuvre into place.The project took ten months, with timings of each riser critical to ensure the smooth running of the project with no delays to other contractors; this had to be achieved while navigating the COVID-19 restrictions that came into play throughout. Three teams of three installers were onsite for the duration, making it one of our largest projects to date.To find out more about how Step on Safety can support your next project, call us on 01206 396 446 or email us at sales@steponsafety.co.uk.

We are onsite in Stratford this week improving GRP Riser Floors that had been installed by another company using sub-standard GRP grating. The GRP supporting joists we are adding will ensure the riser floors meet all the safety standards for decades to come.The building on Pool Street West is one of two developments on the new UCL East campus. Together, the new buildings will house hi-tech laboratories and research space, student accommodation and designated areas for working with schools, charities and local groups. They will total more than 50,000 square metres and be home to 4,000 students and around 260 academic staff. Pool Street West is due to open in 2022, and Marshgate the year after.The two new buildings are part of Transforming UCL, a £1.25bn ten-year programme of investment in UCL’s estate across London to support the University’s continuing growth. Hopefully, the alterations won’t delay construction; glass reinforced plastic structural beams are a fraction of the weight of steel equivalents so are quick and easy to install. We don’t know why the original supplier made the material choices they did but, at Step on Safety, all the work we do is ISO accredited, meeting a minimum load requirement of 5kn/m2. Our grating is the very best quality and our design and installation teams are trained to provide solutions that meet every requirement, every time.To ensure you get the very best GRP solution, talk to the Step on Safety team. We pride ourselves on providing outstanding customer service and take great care to ensure that each project is completed to our client’s complete satisfaction.