Structural steel fabrication for Dereham and the farms of mid Norfolk. Portal frames for barns and grain stores, lean-tos, replacement columns and steel beams for rural builders, fabricated in Norwich from the engineer's drawings and delivered to your yard.
Dereham is about 16 miles west of our workshop on the A47.
Steel frames for working farms
A farm building is ordered around the farming year. If the store has to be up before harvest, the steel wants starting in spring.
Swift Fabrication Services Ltd is a steel fabrication and welding company in Norwich, a short trip along the A47 from Dereham. Mid Norfolk is farming country, so much of the structural steel we make for this area is agricultural: frames for general purpose barns, grain and machinery stores and livestock housing, along with steelwork for the town's trade estates.
We build the frame, we do not engineer it. Column and rafter sizes, the connections and the foundation loads come from a structural engineer, and that matters most on grain stores, where the push of the heap against the walls has to be calculated. With drawings in hand we cut, drill, weld and prime the steel, and can erect it for you as well.
Steel fabrication in Dereham
Barn frames, lean-tos, beams
Free estimate, price agreed up front
16 miles west on the A47
What farms ask for
Three sorts of order come from the Dereham area: new agricultural frames, changes and repairs to buildings already standing, and beams for builders working in the town and villages.
Portal frames for barns, grain stores, machinery sheds and livestock housing: columns with baseplates, rafters with haunches and apex plates, bracing, gable posts and door goalposts high enough for modern kit. Purlins and rails can be included, ready for your cladder.
Lean-tos bolted to an existing frame, extra bays on the end of a shed, and replacement columns or rafters where a telehandler or trailer has caught the steel. We survey the old building first, as older farm frames are seldom standard, and an engineer should confirm what it can carry.
Steel beams for extensions, barn conversions and knock-throughs in Dereham, Mattishall, Shipdham and North Elmham. UB and UC sections with plates and cleats welded on, goalposts for wide glazed openings, and mezzanine or platform steel for units at Rashes Green and Yaxham Road.
Post or email the drawings and we will work out a free estimate. For a new building on a clear site the engineer's drawings are usually all we need. For a lean-to or an added bay, we come out and measure the standing frame, its bay spacing and its levels, before hole positions are fixed.
All fabrication is done in Norwich, and members are match marked so they go together in order. Farm steel is commonly primed or painted, and galvanising can be arranged where livestock, slurry or fertiliser would attack paint. Steel arrives on a HIAB lorry that unloads itself, and our erectors can put the frame up. Any welding at the farm is done with our own power.
Farm tracks catch lorries out. Warn us about weak bridges, tight gateways, low wires across the yard and ground that turns soft after rain.
Mind the calendar
Everyone wants a new store finished by July, and groundworkers, cladders and concrete gangs are all busy at the same time. The earlier the steel is ordered, the easier it is to line those trades up. Tell us when the building must be in use and we will give you a realistic date for the frame.
Alongside the drawings we need the farm address, the finish, and whether you want supply only or supply and erect. Planning permission or prior approval, and any grant paperwork, stay with you or your agent. If a specification names a welding standard, let us know and we will confirm what we can supply.
Get your farm steel pricedHandy to include
The engineer's frame drawing with span, eaves height, bay centres and roof pitch. Whether purlins, rails and gutter brackets are wanted. For grain stores, the walling you plan to use. For extensions, photographs of the existing columns and connections. A location plan showing the yard and the lorry's way in.
We deliver structural steel to Dereham, Swaffham, Shipdham, Mattishall and North Elmham, and to farms along the A47 and the lanes off it. Watton, Wymondham and the wider county of Norfolk are part of the same round.
See the quote checklist for fabricationFarm and town
About grain walls, damaged columns, yards without power and who erects the frame.
Find more fabrication FAQsYes. We make steel framed agricultural buildings to an engineer's drawings, sized for your use and not picked from a catalogue. That helps when the building has to fit a tight yard, line up with an older shed or clear a particular machine.
Yes, to an engineer's design. Stored grain pushes hard on the walls, so the columns and their foundations are heavier than in an ordinary barn and must be calculated. Give us the engineer's drawings and the walling system you have chosen and the frame will be fabricated to suit.
In most cases. We look at the damage, measure the original and make a new column or a repair section, with the roof propped while it is swapped. If the frame has moved or several members are bent, an engineer should inspect it before anyone works beneath it.
How we work, from first callNo. The frame is welded in the workshop and bolts together on site. For alterations that need welding at the farm, we can bring our own power, so a bare field or an old yard is fine.
If you want us to. Our erectors assemble frames around Dereham and across mid Norfolk using a telehandler or hired crane, checking the holding down bolts first, then plumbing, lining and tightening the steel. RAMS are supplied. Cladding, concrete and groundworks stay with your other trades.
Steel erection in DerehamSpan, length, eaves height and bay centres from the engineer's drawing, the finish, the site address and the month you need it. Say if you want it supplied only or erected as well. The checklist covers the detail.
Read the quote checklistAlso from Swift
Swift Fabrication Services
Send the drawings, tell us where near Dereham the building is going and when it has to be ready. The estimate is free, and the price is agreed before work begins.
