Confined spaces can pose a variety of different dangers to workers that are required to enter them. So, recognising the key dangers is the most important and effective form of defence. The majority of dangers that are present in confined space environments can have catastrophic implications and can sometimes even
Leading UK construction, refurbishment and fit out contractor, Gilbert-Ash, has won a £17million design and build contract at one of England’s most historically significant colleges. Trinity College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, was granted planning permission last year for the erection of the new high-quality building.
BALI Registered Contractor Ground Control has been awarded the British Association of Landscape Industries’ (BALI) prestigious Grand Award at the 43rd BALI National Landscape Awards 2019, sponsored by BALI Registered Affiliate and Headline Sponsor of the Awards Green-tech. Ground Control’s project, The Children’s Garden, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew was entered
Did you know that the biggest selling type of vehicle in USA are trucks? With over 17 million vehicles sold every year in America over 60% of them are a variation of truck. Yet so many body shops are still investing in old painting technology that doesn’t really cater for
Confined spaces can pose a variety of different dangers to workers that are required to enter them. So, recognising the key dangers is the most important and effective form of defence. The majority of dangers that are present in confined space environments can have catastrophic implications and can sometimes even cause fatalities if procedures are not carried out, and precautions are not taken. It is therefore vital that businesses ensure that their staff are correctly trained to understand what dangers to look out for. Confined space training is the most effective way of educating workers on how to respond to dangerous situations and how to reduce the likeliness of them occurring. What Is Defined As a Confined Space? There is a lot more to defining a confined space that you might think. You might assume that confined spaces are just small enclosed areas however, they can include many different environments such as tunnels and large chambers. Essentially, a confined space is any space that is enclosed and can present a risk, whatever size it is. The identified risks in the Confined Space Regulations 1997 are as follows: Serious injury as a result of a fire, explosion or excess of oxygen. Loss of consciousness as a result of an increase in body temperature. Loss of consciousness or asphyxiation as a result of gas, fume, vapour or the lack of oxygen. Drowning from an increase in the level of liquid. Asphyxiation as a result of a free-flowing solid or the inability to reach a respirable environment due to entrapment. (Reference: The Confined Spaces Regulations 1997) What Are Main Dangers That Workers Could Face? The potential dangers that workers can be confronted with are varied. The first step to take would be to identify whether a confined space is hazardous before anyone enters it and what risk it poses if a task was to go ahead. The person in charge of a team when it comes to working in a confined space needs to be certain whether there are flammable substances or oxygen enrichment present. They also need to check if there is excessive levels of heat, toxic gases, vapours and fumes and assess the possibility of the confined space filled with liquid during entry and while a task is being carried out. There may also be additional hazards that are present due to electrical equipment. What If The Dangers Are Ignored? If dangers are ignored when it comes to confined spaces, it can lead to injury and even death. If a business fails to protect its workers and ignore regulations in place, serious consequences will occur as punishment. It’s therefore critical for all business that requires their staff to work in confined spaces follow the Confined Space Regulations 1997. This includes conducting risk assessments, considering all potential dangers, taking action to ensure there are safety precautions in place before anyone enters a space and ensuring all personnel are fully trained. Why Situation Training is So Important Working in confined spaces can be overwhelming and scary at times sp preparation is the most important thing in order to avoid accidents and fatalities. Training providing a safe way of teaching workers what to expect in confined spaces before they enter them. Practising working in a simulated environment that represents real-life working conditions helps to prepare workers for when they are required to enter a confined space. Training is hugely beneficial for helping to build employee confidence before it comes to dealing with the real thing. How Often Should Employees Be Trained? Training is normally required periodically and will depend on a workers continued experience once they have completed their initial training course. Of course, each worker is different and may have different training needs, so it is important to look at the training records for each worker and to look for any issues that may need to be addressed. There are a wide range of confined space training solutions for businesses that operate in such environments including advice on the identification of confined space, to help with developing best practices and safe systems of entry and training packages that are relevant to specific environments within a confined space.
Leading UK construction, refurbishment and fit out contractor, Gilbert-Ash, has won a £17million design and build contract at one of England’s most historically significant colleges. Trinity College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, was granted planning permission last year for the erection of the new high-quality building. It is set to provide teaching facilities, residential accommodation and a multi-purpose auditorium. Gilbert-Ash will construct 45 new en-suite study bedrooms, five dedicated teaching rooms, three multi-purpose areas for music practice rooms, additional teaching rooms and a basement for plant and storage. Advanced logistical planning is pivotal in this project as the new building will be located on a sensitive site close to several listed buildings and gardens. It represents the first major building project at Trinity College for over 50 years. The new building will also be home to additional formal study spaces, a new reception area designed as an orangery overlooking the gardens and two additional student kitchens. There will be a kitchen to provide catering facilities, laundry and basement storage facilities, as well as male, female and gender-neutral bathrooms and ancillary accommodation. It has been designed in a classical manner with traditional materials being carefully considered to reflect the established architectural character elsewhere in the college. It will have stone-faced elevations finished in a honey coloured ashlar limestone to complement buildings across the college and ensure it sits comfortably with its historic setting. Having constructed the student accommodation at Wadham College, Gilbert-Ash has a well-established working relationship with the University of Oxford and has a deep knowledge of working in areas of significant historical importance. Raymond Gilroy, Gilbert-Ash Construction Director, commented, “Gilbert-Ash is really pleased to be working on this major project for Trinity College. We are excited about the new building and what it will offer to the university community. We are in no doubt about the challenges which lie ahead, working in a tight location surrounded by listed buildings and grounds, but our team has the experience to meticulously plan for and work through any challenges which present themselves. We are ready to roll up our sleeves and work with our partners to deliver this prestigious project.” Working as one with Trinity College and the design team at Adam Architecture, Gilbert-Ash has developed a thorough plan to ensure the project objectives are delivered to the highest possible standard. The structural challenges have been addressed through the sub and superstructure strategies, which include contiguous piled basement retaining walls, internal load bearing piles with in-situ concrete basement and ground floor slabs. The superstructure will be an in-situ RC frame up to roof level with proprietary timber trusses and large concrete transfer beams at first and ground level to accommodate large open column free spaces. The project is due for completion in August 2021. Highly detailed design, advanced logistical planning and development goes into every Gilbert-Ash project, with the team skilled in delivering the finest quality projects in the UK and globally, including historic building and educational developments. For more information on Gilbert-Ash visit www.gilbert-ash.com
BALI Registered Contractor Ground Control has been awarded the British Association of Landscape Industries’ (BALI) prestigious Grand Award at the 43rd BALI National Landscape Awards 2019, sponsored by BALI Registered Affiliate and Headline Sponsor of the Awards Green-tech. Ground Control’s project, The Children’s Garden, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew was entered into the Community and Schools Development category. The annual BALI National Landscape Awards, held at the iconic JW Marriott Grosvenor House, Park Lane, London celebrates the skills, hard work, quality, commitment and successes of BALI Registered members and are the largest landscape Awards in Europe. They recognise excellence in landscape design, construction and maintenance both in the UK and overseas, as well as awarding Affiliate customer service and employer excellence. Ground Control, a UK-based multi award-winning grounds maintenance provider specialising in winter maintenance, took home the top Award for The Children’s Garden at the Royal Botanic Gardens, the first significant development within the Kew Gardens estate for over a decade. Ground Control developed the initial design concept, engaged with Kew’s visitors, local community groups and larger public organisations before transforming a large under-used area into a unique play and learning space. Children of all ages can now enjoy a beautiful adventure space unaware they are learning about nature, plants and the environment. This year’s BALI National Landscape Awards’ Adjudicators, led by Chair of the Adjudication Panel John Melmoe, jointly commented, “The quality of the finish on this hard and soft landscaping scheme is absolutely superb. The contractor has embraced the design and created an amazing play and learning space for children, complete with a beautifully constructed oak tree circle walkway, meticulously installed play equipment, carefully sited rockery boulders, and a skillfully laid plethora of different surfacing including artificial grass, composite boarding, gravel pathways and safety surfacing. Every aspect, without exception, has been tackled with skill, precision and exemplary attention to detail. The planting scheme softens and enhances the hard elements and, despite the garden’s popularity and consequent heavy use, seems to thrive in spite of the attention of many small hands and feet. This is landscaping at its very best and a worthy winner of this year’s BALI Grand Award.” 145 entries were judged by BALI adjudicators over the summer with 91 National Landscape Awards bestowed on 63 members of the Association in September, with 23 Principal, 8 Special and the coveted Grand Award announced live on stage at the glittering ceremony. Other notable wins came from BALI Registered Designer Rosemary Coldstream MBALI who won three Principal Awards, two for her Modern Garden Hampstead and one for Copper Courtyard whilst BALI Registered Contractor Blakedown Landscapes (SE) won a Principal Award for the Venetian Waterways, Great Yarmouth and was also the recipient of two Special Awards; Best Community Involvement for the aforementioned project and Outstanding Memorial for Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham – Sousse and Bardo Memorial. BALI Registered Contractor Bridgman & Bridgman also received a Special Award for Best First Time Entrant and BALI Registered Contractor NAO Landscapes took home a Special Award for Best Newcomer to BALI. This year also saw several records broken, including the most entries received in the last 10 years, the highest number of first-time entries at 51 and 34 International entries ever received. This was the second year the Awards were successfully delivered in-house by the team at BALI’s Landscape House. Events Project Manager Leah Brookes, who attended the 2018 Awards and project managed the 2019 event said, “It has been an immense pleasure managing the BALI Awards 2019. From attending the event last year, to meeting and working alongside the expert adjudicators, to managing the whole entry process and advising members on their submissions. To see the fruition of a year’s work come together on this special day and celebrate together with each and every member is fabulous. I send my heartfelt congratulations to all our winners and thanks to all our sponsors, adjudicators and stakeholders for their continued support of the prestigious National Landscape Awards.” Sport and lifestyle presenter Mark Durden-Smith played host for the afternoon’s proceedings in front of over 1,000 BALI VIPs, members and guests, including Adam White MBALI, President and Fellow of the ‘Royal Chartered’ Landscape Institute and BALI Registered Designer; Chair of the Society of Garden Designers, Sarah Morgan; Rod Winrow, Chairman of the Association of Professional Landscapers; Sue Biggs CBE, Director General of the Royal Horticultural Society and Gerald Bonner, President of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture (CIOH). BALI’s Chief Executive Wayne Grills said, “Once again I am delighted that the level of quality and professionalism demonstrated at our 43rd Awards is set at the highest possible level. Our well-deserved Grand Award winner for 2019, Ground Control, seriously impressed adjudicators who recognised their outstanding contribution to landscaping with a flawlessly executed standard of workmanship and professionalism in The Children’s Garden scheme. This delivered in excess of the expected levels of quality as a BALI Registered member and also achieved the highest level of client satisfaction. Congratulations to them and all of our winners this year, and thank you to our sponsors, who without them, the event would not be possible.” Benefitting from a collection at the event, this year’s chosen charities were Perennial and the BALI Chalk Fund who will both split £4,905 between them. A full list of award-winners and a description of the winning schemes is available on the BALI Awards website here.
Did you know that the biggest selling type of vehicle in USA are trucks? With over 17 million vehicles sold every year in America over 60% of them are a variation of truck. Yet so many body shops are still investing in old painting technology that doesn’t really cater for this growing market. So, the question becomes, why should you give yourself a competitive advantage? With Growing Concern Over Climate Change Big Vehicles Are Gone This is perhaps one of the biggest reasons that car painters offer for not needing to upgrade their booths to be able to cope with larger vehicles. Surely with the decrease in large cars and trucks any jobs that come in could just be handled manually. While small zippy cars are great for very short trips when there is just two of you, for anyone with children they simply aren’t big enough to cope with day to day activities. Around the world governments are increasingly stringent about the safety requirements for children traveling in vehicles. This means large, correctly fitted car seats are mandatory in most places – which in turn means that a teeny car isn’t going to fit those car seats. An even bigger issue comes when the children start to play team sports or want to travel anywhere with friends, as each child needs to be in their own car seat. So, for a family, trucks like the Toyota Rav4 or Nissan Rouge become the perfect mode of transportation. However, because families have no money (ask any parent), it isn’t just the need for extra room that is driving the purchase, but the fact that these vehicles are surprisingly economic to run. Hybrid vehicles are becoming more and more popular, making a larger option only marginally more expensive that a little two door shopping trolley. How Do Repair Shops Increase Their Revenue? Unless you have a specialist contract you are unlikely to need a paint booth that will be large enough to fit a bus (although this could be an untapped niche in your area, so don’t discard it immediately). However, distracted parents driving large SUVs do have fender-benders. Kids opening car doors in crowded carparks with an energy only achievable by an 8-year old, do cause a lot of damage. In fact, just living the average American family’s normal life is hectic enough to keep most paint businesses in work for years. Which is why you can increase your yearly turnover by investing in a large truck paint booth like one of these: https://www.paintbooth.com/truck-paint-booths/. A paint booth allows for a quicker turn around time, and a better finish, meaning that you will be able to get your customers’ back on the road faster. Of course, the ultimate result of this faster turnaround means that you can book more cars through, and your customers are going to be so excited by your work ethic and professionalism that they tell all their dent prone friends. Marketing Your Business & ROI Still on the theme of increasing your profit, marketing is a of course a key component to this. But to successfully market yourself you need to have a point of difference and a target market. A key reason to invest in a larger booth is that this allows you to focus on who your target audience is. While you may decide that you do not really want to get all the business from every single soccer mom in your area, perhaps you would rather work with RV owners, truck firms or specialist equipment. If you are in an area with manufacturing start-ups, a little investigation will likely yield a lot of information about their needs for powder coating and how you could work with them to increase your business and get theirs off the ground. To ensure that any investment in equipment, particularly large investments, are going to pay off you will need to do your homework, looking at your current business, where the source of current clients come from, then consider the opportunities that may be available. Bear in mind that investing in a larger operation will not prevent you from being able to work with smaller units, but it will give you scope to expand your business if you can develop the opportunities. You will also need to ask yourself if this investment in equipment is going to be the best use of your funds. Will other options increase your turnover? Do you need to multiphase plan to increase and grow your revenue? What Type Of Paint Booth Should I Get? This is a technical question that will certainly require research. There are a variety of options, but things to think about are: how large can you physically fit in your current space? How longer will it need to be to comfortably fit the largest vehicle you want to work on What is the air flow like? Will it meet your businesses worker safety protocols (see here) What are the maintenance and delivery/installation costs like in comparable models? Cross draft or side downdraft or downdraft? What sort of filters are used, are they going to be adequate for your needs? There are a variety of options that will fit into most current auto shop setups, you just need to make sure that you get the right one. It is a large investment, but if you talk to the right supplier, it is an investment that could pay for itself, and then some, very quickly.
