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Date:	13th July 2004
Source:	East Anglian Daily Times

 

Glass act is more than Windows and Doors

 

For a company called English Architectural Glazing, is factory operations involve remarkably little glass.  But then EAG is not your typical sealed-unit replacement windows, doors and conservatory outfit.

 

 

The Mildenhall company provides glass curtain walling and other specialist glazing for some of the most prestigious – and innovative – construction projects around.

EAG has a long-established track record of quality work, although it has had to rebuild its business over the last four years since being rescued from receivership. 

Today, it has a workforce of around 110 – down from 200 prior to receivership but up from the 60 jobs retained when the current management came in four years ago – and an annual turnover of about £15million.

 

Managing director Simon Gladwin said the strategy adopted by the new management was to select key members of the workforce and suitable contracts to create a company of size, which could be managed profitably.

A mix of contracts was retained, including residential, public sector and retail schemes, with the criteria being to retain good clients as well as a variety of interesting but manageable work.

“We selected a number of clients and explained our situation to them, “said Mr. Gladwin.

“Some viewed us as a bit of a risk because of recent history but after six months I think it is fair to say that we had overcome that, because they could see they were getting a quality building.”

“Keeping the EAG name showed our confidence, I think.  We did not try to make any secret of who we were and EAG has a good history of good work and good people.”

 

One of EAG’s most prestigious recent contracts involved a 570 apartment residential development by Ballymore Properties at New Providence Wharf in London’s Docklands, just across the Thames from the Millennium Dome.

The development involved a single block built in a “C” shape in order to maximise the number of apartments with a river view.  EAG provided full height curtain walling for both ends of the “C” and all around the block on the lower floors.

EAG is now working on an associated block of apartments nearby.

 

Other residential schemes in London in which EAG has been involved include Berkeley Homes conversion of the former British Steel headquarters by the Thames and yet another waterside scheme the West End Quay development at Paddington Basin.

EAG is accustomed to meeting high acoustic standards when working on residential developments but perhaps the ultimate in sound resistance was a £3million curtain walling project for the new Radisson SAS Hotel at Stansted Airport, now nearing completion, which stands close by the airport apron.

 

Current schemes include curtain walling for a series of glazed atriums within Great Ormond Street Hospital’s new development in London.

To help co-ordinate the timing of activities by the various contractors involved, EAG spent £40.000 on a mock-up of the GOSH project at its factory in Chiswick Avenue, Mildenhall.

Efficiencies on-site as a result of the investment are likely to pay for such an outlay several times over.

“I think this is a way in which EAG is pretty unique,” says Mr. Gladwin.

“We will move heaven and earth to give the client what he wants.  We don’t just put windows in people’s buildings for them.”

 

Certainly unique – for now, although more examples seem sure to follow - is EAG’s contribution to a new office development at Camden Lock in London.

It is the first project to involve the use of the new glazing system developed by EAG and know as “Stax”.

           

Traditional curtain walling involves panels of glass to be drilled and bolted but Stax consists of brackets, which hold the glass in place without bolts.

It can be delivered more quickly after order than a bolted system and can also be erected more quickly on site, so making it more economic. In addition, it requires less steelwork than a bolted system and so provides a “clearer” look to the building, which appeals to architects.

Stax, which is the result of an 18-month development process, largely focusing on the characteristics of the glass used, involves bespoke cast brackets (which are manufactured in India).

The brackets clamp on to the corner of the glass and can be adjusted to compensate for the normal building tolerances allowed in construction projects.

A “spacer” incorporated into the bracket to sit between the panels takes the “dead” load of the glass but the bracket is designed in such a way as to transfer any “wind load” to the structure of the building.

A sliding element within the fixing also compensates for the vertical movement in the floors, so ensuring that the glass panels remain static under any conditions – inside the building or outside.

Camden Lock is also the first contract under which EAG has also taken responsibility for brickwork.  Its typical materials – besides glass - are aluminium, architectural steel and concrete, although at various times is has also undertaken timber, stainless steel and copper cladding work.

 

Edward Whipp, pre-construction director at EAG, says: “We will do pretty much any architectural feature on the exterior.

“We can provide a total cladding service to our clients, a one stop shop so they don’t have to employ six or seven different contractors.  They place on order with us and we co-ordinate all the services.”

With so much of the company’s work taking place on construction sites, “story boards” are used at the factory in Mildenhall to keep staff there up to date with progress and enable them to see what they have been working on taking shape.

 

Although distant from the actual site of development, the factory - which accounts for around 45 of the company’s workforce – is a vital part of the operation. 

As much work as possible on a project is done in the factory, partly because it can be done more economically there than on a construction site, party because it reduces the exposure of components to the risk of damage and partly because it speeds the construction process on site.

As a result of this approach, 90% of the glass used by the company is delivered direct to the development site rather than to the factory although it does produce some unitised panels with the glass already installed.

The principal materials used in the factory are sheet metal, which is folded, cut and punched by CNC equipment to create panels, and extrusions, which are similarly drilled and cut to create frames.

“We try to do all sheet metal work ourselves so that we can control the quality,” says Mr. Gladwin.  “Everything is bespoke – that is what we are good at.”

As for the frames they are, he says, “a bit like a Meccano set, with all the holes in the right places.”

However, just in case that makes the company sound a little ordinary, he adds: “We are not a windows and doors company.”

Perish the though.

 

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