Mezzanine floors, plant platforms and support frames erected inside working factories and warehouses in Thetford. Planned around your shifts, your hygiene rules and the shutdown dates already in your diary.
Thetford, about 30 miles south west of Norwich on the A11.
Steel erectors, Thetford, Norfolk
Indoors there is no wind to worry about. The limits are headroom, floor loading and production.
Swift Fabrication carries out steel erection in Thetford for food producers, manufacturers and the warehouse operators along the A11. What these sites tend to need is a mezzanine over a packing hall, a platform round a new machine, a support frame for conveyors or ductwork, and the stairs and handrails to go with them.
None of that can be craned in through a roof. Steel has to come through a dock door or a personnel door, cross a floor that may be full of pallets, and go up under sprinkler pipes and lights. We fabricate in sizes that suit that route, and settle with you which hours we can work and what needs screening off.
Structural steel in Thetford
Working round production
Your production plan comes first. The steelwork is fitted into the gaps in it, with the price and the working hours agreed before anyone arrives.
We measure the space and the way in: door sizes, aisle widths, slab condition, whatever hangs from the roof. Your engineer confirms the floor can carry the new column loads. From that we fix piece sizes and whether anything needs a splice.
Inside a building the lifting is done with hired plant that fits: a compact telehandler, a small spider crane, a scissor lift for access, or hand gear for light members. We screen the area, erect a bay at a time and clear up before your next shift.
Columns are anchored and plumbed, beams levelled and bolts tightened before decking, stairs and handrails go on. Swarf and drilling dust are cleaned away. The area comes back to you when it is safe to walk under and work on.
Food factories and clean areas
In a food plant, drilling dust, weld spatter and grinding sparks count as contamination. So as much as possible is finished in our Norwich workshop and simply bolted together on site, keeping hot work to a minimum.
Where welding or cutting cannot be avoided, it happens under your hot work permit with screens and a fire watch. Tell us your rules on clothing, tools and signing in, and whether steel should be galvanised, painted to your specification or stainless in wash down areas. Finishes can be arranged.
RAMS are written for your building and your permit system. Send your contractor rules with the drawings and we will say what we can and cannot provide.
Warehouses on the A11 corridor
Logistics sheds around Thetford fill up fast. A mezzanine for pick and pack, a raised office or a platform over the goods in bay gives you floor area without moving. We erect mezzanine steel made to your engineer's design, with stairs, pallet gate openings and edge protection framed in from day one.
On Fison Way, Brunel Way and the Enterprise Park, older units often want a frame altered: a column moved, a door opening widened, a lean-to added. That is structural steel installation too, priced from drawings and a visit.
Machinery installation in ThetfordThetford and Breckland
The A11 is dual carriageway the whole way, so Thetford is an easy run from our workshop with a loaded lorry. We also cover Brandon, Croxton, Mundford and Watton, and the Suffolk side of the border just south of the town. For night or weekend work we only need the dates early enough to book plant.
For an estimate we need the engineer's drawings or a sketch with sizes and loads, photographs of the area and the route in, and your limits on working hours. If there is a shutdown date, give us that first, because everything else is planned back from it. Estimates are free and the price is agreed up front.
Steel fabrication in ThetfordThetford factory questions
Yes, by arrangement. Night, weekend and shutdown working is normal for steelwork inside a running plant. Give us the dates as early as you can, because hired plant and a crew for a fixed window have to be booked ahead. If a date cannot be met we will tell you at once.
Clear what you can. We need the footprint of each column, a route in for steel and plant, and nothing stored under a lift. Machines that cannot move can be sheeted and worked around, which is slower but often the practical answer.
That is one for your structural engineer, who checks the slab against the column loads and designs the baseplates or new pads to suit. We build to those drawings. If you have no engineer yet, we can explain what information one will want from you.
We do. Brandon, Watton, Mundford and Croxton are close enough to Thetford to be part of the same trip from Norwich. Travel is allowed for in the estimate, so you see it in the figure from the start.
Steel erection, Thetford
Send the drawings, your shutdown dates and a few photographs of the area. We will visit, talk through the method and give you a free estimate.