What structural carpentry do you do in Reading?
Across Reading (RG1) it is mostly commercial roof structures, apartment first fix packages and steel and timber erection on town centre schemes. Reading is the largest place on our patch and the structural carpentry there leans commercial: long span roofs over steel portal frames, apartment first fix packages and deck boarding rather than domestic pitched roofs. Every job is priced off your architect and engineer drawings and a look at the site access, because a rate per square metre for structural work is a guess dressed up as a quote.
Do you charge extra to come out to Reading?
No. Travel is in the price. Reading is about 24 km from our Farnborough base, well inside the patch we cover as a matter of course, so you are paying for labour and materials rather than for the van. What does affect the price is access: whether a crane can get in and stand, and whether the deliveries can be taken on site or have to be double handled.
Do you cover Reading regularly?
Yes. Reading is the largest place on our patch and the work there leans commercial, with long span roofs over steel rather than domestic pitches. We are based in Farnborough and cover London, Berkshire, Surrey and Hampshire as standard, so Reading is well inside our normal patch rather than a favour. Call and tell us where the site is, roughly what the structure is and when you need it, and you will get a straight answer on whether we can hit your dates.
Does the property in Reading change how the job is done?
It pushes the work towards steel and panels. Higher density schemes in Reading mean longer spans, more openings and loads that have to be carried on structural steel rather than masonry, so a typical job there is beams and columns erected first and the timber structure framed off them. The other thing that changes is logistics: crane positions, lift plans and delivery windows have to be agreed early, because on a tight site those decide the programme far more than the carpentry does.
How long would the structure take on a job in Reading?
For a single house in Reading, a timber frame is usually one to two weeks to wind-tight, a truss roof is a day or two once it is craned in, and an extension roof cut on site runs to two to four days. A steel goalpost and the timber framed off it is often the same visit. Larger schemes get a programme rather than a rule of thumb, worked out off the drawings before you commit to anything.
Can you look at drawings for a Reading job before we commit?
That is the order we would rather do it in. Send the architect and engineer drawings over and we will come back with a broken-down price and, more usefully, with the questions. Details that are awkward or expensive to build are cheap to change on a drawing and expensive to change on site, so it is worth having that conversation before the kit or the trusses are ordered.
Do you work as a subcontractor for developers in Reading?
Yes, and a good share of our work is exactly that. We are used to working to a main contractor programme, to site rules and method statements, and to being one of several trades on a live site. Insurance certificates and the usual subcontractor paperwork go over with the quote so nothing holds a start date up. We are equally happy dealing direct with a self-builder handling their own plot in Reading.
