Structural steel fabrication for Diss and the villages on both banks of the Waveney. Steel for barn conversions, farmhouse alterations and farm buildings, cut and welded in Norwich to your engineer's drawings and delivered down the A140.
Diss, about 23 miles south of Norwich on the A140.
Old barns and farmhouses, new uses
A timber barn was built to hold hay, not bedrooms. Turning one into a house nearly always means hiding some steel in it.
Swift Fabrication Services Ltd is a Norwich welding and steel fabrication company. Diss lies about 23 miles south of us, right on the county boundary, so our steel goes to Roydon and Scole on the Norfolk side and to Eye, Botesdale and the Mid Suffolk villages across the river just as readily. The work is mostly rural.
On a conversion the structural engineer decides where steel is needed and how big it is, and Building Control checks their figures. We do not size or certify anything. What we bring is the making: frames that slot between old oak posts, beams plated to pick up timber, and connections bolted so that nobody has to weld beside centuries old, tinder dry boarding.
Steel fabrication in Diss
Barn and farmhouse steel
Norfolk and Suffolk alike
23 miles down the A140
What rural jobs need
Three sorts of order come out of a market town ringed by farms. Each is made to an engineer's drawing, and each is sized to get down a lane and through a gate.
Steel frames set inside a timber or brick barn to carry a new first floor and stiffen the walls. Ridge beams where old tie beams are cut for headroom, flitch plates bolted through tired timbers, and posts on baseplates hidden in new partitions.
Beams for extensions and knock-throughs in Diss itself, from the streets round the Mere outwards, and in clay lump cottages in the villages. Box frames for wide openings, lintels, and wind posts for glazed gables. A long beam can be spliced to pass through a cottage door.
For the working farms of the Waveney valley: lean-tos against existing sheds, extra bays, replacement columns and rafters, purlins and cladding rails, and frames for machinery stores and workshops. Primed or galvanised, as the specification and your budget decide.
Email the engineer's drawings and a few photographs and a free estimate comes back. After the price is agreed, we drive down to measure. Old barns are never square or level, so we check the real distance between posts and walls before cutting, and settle with your builder how each piece will be brought in.
Everything is cut, drilled and welded at the Norwich workshop. Frames for conversions are made in bolted sections that two or three people can handle, since a crane seldom fits inside a barn. Steel leaves us primed, and galvanising, paint or powder coating can be arranged. Heavy loads come to Diss on a HIAB lorry, and we can install.
Warn us about single track lanes, tight bends in the village, soft verges, low branches and whether a lorry can turn round in the yard.
Consents and dates
Conversions run on approvals. Planning, listed building consent where it applies, and Building Control acceptance of the engineer's design are for you and your architect to obtain, and drawings often change on the way. We prefer to price from the approved set, and to know when the barn will be propped and ready.
Which bank of the Waveney you are on changes nothing for us: Diss is Norfolk, Eye and Botesdale are Suffolk, and the service is the same. Send drawings, address, finish and dates. If a welding standard or coded welder is specified, say so and we will confirm what we can supply. An estimate is not an order.
Ask for a barn steel priceWorth gathering
The engineer's drawings and calculations, with sections, lengths and every connection to timber or masonry. The architect's plans and sections. Photographs inside the barn showing posts, tie beams and the floor. The size of the biggest doorway. And a word on whether existing timbers must stay untouched, which changes how steel is fixed.
Around Diss we deliver to Roydon, Scole and Harleston in Norfolk, and to Eye, Botesdale and the Mid Suffolk villages over the Waveney. Bungay and Beccles lie further along the same valley. Each is one planned trip from Norwich, timed with your builder.
Our fabrication quote checklistRural questions
Barn conversions, Suffolk deliveries, listed buildings, single RSJs and fitting.
Read every fabrication FAQYes. Inner frames, ridge beams, floor beams and posts for timber and brick barns are typical structural work. The design must come from a structural engineer, and we fabricate to it in sections sized for the access you have. We can also suggest bolted details that spare the old timber.
Yes. Diss is on the border, and Eye, Botesdale and the villages of Mid Suffolk are as near to it as the Norfolk ones. Whichever side of the river the site is on, the lorry comes from Norwich down the A140, the estimate is free and the price is agreed before we start.
We can make and fit it, once consent is in place. Listed building consent and planning are handled from your side, usually by your architect, and the engineer's design will need to respect them. Tell us about any conditions, for example timbers that must not be cut or drilled.
See how a job runs with usYes, one beam is fine. Give us the section, length and plate details from the engineer's drawing, and the price is agreed before we cut. Delivery is arranged to suit your builder.
Yes. Our team installs beams and frames in and around Diss, working beside your builder, who looks after propping and making good. In a barn we often lift with a telehandler or by hand with lifting gear, since headroom and floors rule out bigger plant. RAMS are provided.
Steel erection in DissThe engineer's drawing, the finish, the farm address and your dates. If you are at an early stage, the span, length and height will do for a budget figure. Photographs of the shed it joins help too.
View the quote checklistRelated work
Swift Fabrication Services
Email the engineer's drawings, the address in Diss or the villages, and your builder's dates. The estimate is free and the price is agreed before we cut.
