Measure the old frame first.
Sizes come off the existing building, not off a drawing from the year it was built. Column centres, levels, bolt patterns and cladding lines are recorded, and your groundworker sets out the new bases from the old steel.
Steel erection / Attleborough
Extra bays on food factories, extended units on the A11 estates and structural steel for the builders putting up Attleborough's new homes. Fabricated in our Norwich workshop and erected to the contractor's dates.
New steel onto oldRAMS written per site
Attleborough, about 17 miles south west of Norwich on the A11.
Structural steel installation, Norfolk
A growing town means buildings that grow.
Most steel erected round here is not a new shed in a field. It is another bay on a building already at work.
Swift Fabrication carries out steel erection in Attleborough for food processors, logistics firms, unit owners and the contractors who build for them. The usual request is more room: an extra bay on a packing hall, a despatch canopy, a lean-to plant room or a link between two buildings.
An extension has a problem a new build does not. One side of it is somebody else's steel, put up years ago and possibly not where the old drawings say. So our steel erectors survey the existing frame before fabrication: column positions, eaves height, what the gable posts and rails are doing. The new steel is then made to fit what is there.
Structural steel in Attleborough
Extending a live building
How steel erection works on an Attleborough extension.
The building next door keeps trading while we work, so the order of jobs, the hired plant and the price are all settled with you first.
New frame up, old wall last.
New columns and rafters go up outside the existing gable with a hired telehandler or crane, and a MEWP for the connections. The old end wall stays shut for as long as it can, so stock and production stay dry and secure while the frame is built.
Joined, plumbed and tightened.
Connections to the old frame are made the way the engineer has detailed them, drilled or welded on site. The new bays are lined and plumbed, bolts tightened, and the structure is handed on to the cladders.
Food sites on the A11 corridor
When the extension is on a food factory.
Attleborough's food processors cannot stop for a building job. We fence our area off from yard traffic, keep steel deliveries clear of your intake and despatch times, and follow your rules on signing in, clothing and hot work.
Most of the work is outdoors, which helps. The moment that matters is the breakthrough, when the old wall opens into the new space. Fix that date with us early. It can be timed for a weekend or a planned stop, with joints bolted where possible to keep sparks and dust away from production.
RAMS are provided for site work and written round your permit system. Send your contractor rules with the drawings and we will say what we can supply.
New homes and the builders behind them
Steel for the housing growth.
Major housing growth is planned for Attleborough, and houses take steel as well: beams over wide kitchen openings, goalpost frames for bifold doors, posts and lintels where timber will not span. We carry out steel beam installation for developers and for small builders extending homes in the older streets.
On a plot the steel is a morning's work that the bricklayer and the roofer are both waiting on. Tell us the plot sequence and we will fabricate ahead and fit several plots in one visit.
Machinery installation in AttleboroughAttleborough and nearby
Down the A11 from Norwich, past Wymondham.
It is about 17 miles from our workshop, so a survey, a delivery and a return trip to snag are all easy to fit in. We cover Haverscroft Industrial Estate and Bunns Bank, the business park at Snetterton, and Old Buckenham, Great Ellingham and Banham.
To price an extension we need the engineer's drawings, anything you hold on the existing building, photographs of the wall being extended and the dates your contractor is working to. If no drawings of the old frame survive, say so and we will measure it. Estimates are free and the price is agreed before we start.
Steel fabrication in AttleboroughAttleborough questions
What owners ask before extending in steel.
Can you join new steel to an old frame?
Yes, once an engineer has confirmed the old frame can take it and has detailed the connection. We survey the existing columns and rafters, fabricate to suit and make the joint on site, drilling and bolting where we can and welding where we must.
Can we stay open while the extension goes up?
In most cases, yes. The new bays are built outside the existing wall, inside a fenced area with its own route for deliveries. The one real interruption comes when the old wall is opened up, and that can be planned for a quiet day.
Do you work for main contractors?
Yes. A lot of commercial steelwork around Attleborough is let as a package by the builder or main contractor. We price from the tender drawings, work to the site programme and inductions, and provide RAMS for our part of the job.
Do you cover Snetterton and Banham?
We do, along with Old Buckenham, Great Ellingham and the other villages round the town. All are a short hop off the A11, so they are priced the same way as Attleborough itself.
Steel erection, Attleborough
Extending a building in Attleborough?
Send the drawings and a few photographs of the building as it stands. We will come and measure the existing frame, then give you a free estimate.