News
For Sale
New four bedroomed house
Hillcroft, Goodwood Avenue, Bridgnorth
(nearing completion)
We have put our hearts and souls into building this extra special four bedroomed property in the beautiful town of Bridgnorth. With completion scheduled in the next few weeks we have decided to advertise the property on our own website before putting it in the hands of an Estate Agent. This could be your chance to make us an offer ahead of all other potential buyers.
What is so special?
- A unique architect designed property
- A fabulous heated indoor swimming pool complete with wet room
- A large three storey house
- Basement, garage and pool – external size: 1450 sq. ft.
- Ground floor – external size: 1330 sq. ft.
- Upper floor – external size: 1330 sq. ft.
As a result all the rooms are good sized
- A modern fully fitted kitchen – just see the photographs
- High spec finish throughout including fitted wet room, bathrooms and shower rooms
- Underfloor heating
- Terraced gardens
Price: Best offer in excess of £550,000
The photograph gallery will give you a feel for our property but you are welcome to visit. Just give us a call on 01299 826227 or 07753 879674.
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June, July and August 2010
The strengthening of the embankments of Wychall Reservoir for the Environment Agency and the erosion control measures on the River Anker for Tamworth Borough Council were both completed on time, on budget and with two happy clients. Both were quite photogenic, particularly the Tamworth contract in front of Tamworth Castle, and this now features on our homepage.
Since the completion of these two jobs we have had a whole series of smaller but technically interesting contracts. These have included four highways flood alleviation schemes for Worcestershire Council and a couple of Environment Agency contracts including one comprising a 900mm diameter pipeline and reinforced concrete headwalls near Oswestry.
A desilting job near Leicester, a lakeside erosion project in the Clent Hills and our first ever contract for the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust involving foundations for a windpump and a hide, round off our summer work. We would have preferred more but in the light of current economic conditions we cannot complain.
The house at Bridgnorth is nearly complete and goes on the open market next week. A quick sale would help finances as we line up a number of larger lake and pond works for the Autumn. We are sure there will be more positive news of these contracts next month.
May 2010
We have had a good month in strengthening Wychall Reservoir, Kings Norton and start the rock armouring in Tamworth immediately after the Spring Bank Holiday. More sunny dry weather please.
We were disappointed with the end results from two important tenders last month – the footbridge is on hold due to budgetary constraints and our price for the oil tank bases allegedly was used to persuade a favoured but overpriced contractor to lower their price by 25%. What happened to moral principles!!!
This month’s tenders are also extremely interesting including Flood Prevention and Alleviation Works, Silt Removal, Habitat Creation and Natural Effluent Treatment. We hope for better luck.
Oh and the house? Nearly complete. Just the drive and the swimming pool to finish off. Know a W.A.G. near you who wants a large modern house with all the trimmings in the beautiful town of Bridgnorth?
April 2010
That’s better!
A £130,000 reservoir embankment strengthening job for the Environment Agency and a £90,000 Riverbank Rock Armouring contract for Tamworth Borough Council make a pleasant start to the month of April. A few smaller contracts have also helped dispel the gloom since the autumn and we also have some interesting tenders in the office including a footbridge in Cheltenham and oil storage tank bases in Stourport.
Like most small to medium contractors, the past six months have been chronic but the April sun has brought a change of fortune.
Although not a house builder, we do have the expertise and in Bridgnorth are nearing completion, of our first ever house. Over three years ago we bought a single building plot that needed civil engineering to make it work. Our skills have resulted in a sloping driveway and gardens with retaining walls, an undercroft garage and more importantly an underground swimming pool. Even the writer’s wife is impressed which is unusual after viewing miles of sewers and acres of sewage treatment works over many years, without too much enthusiasm.
We plan for a late spring early/summer sale as we are currently installing the staircases, granite work surfaces, walk in wet room etc. Grand Designs eat your heart out.
February and March 2010
I have a question. Why do potential clients insist on Constructionline Compliancy (which we have) and then require us to complete a Pre Qualification Questionnaire virtually duplicating the Constructionline Questionnaire? It is so annoying and so time consuming.
Also, why do certain clients have an open tender list for each of their contracts and require a completed PQQ for each? With a high number of tenderers the wasted effect by each contractor is mindboggling.
The above comments sum up our estimators’ last two months – many tenders and many PQQs. Most of the tenders were for Councils via e-procurement or for the Environment Agency. We are still awaiting some results.
On the work front we have been quite busy on a number of small schemes primarily headwalls for the Environment Agency and pavings for West Mercia Constabulary and have a number of similar schemes to be completed by the end of March. An E.A. habitat creation near Kidderminster, a footbridge near Bromsgrove for Worcestershire County Council and a Dudley MBC handrailing requirement are also scheduled for completion in the month.
We are certainly busier than a few months ago but it is noticeable that there are not many £100,000 + water related projects around.
December 2009 and January 2010
The shortage of work continued through December and then lo and behold when we had work to start, down came the snow.
As I write this the thaw is underway and we shall be able to kick off the Environment Agency jobs that have been delayed.
I am pleased to report that we have been busy on the tender front with projects for Solihull and Cotswold Councils and have had a number of new decent opportunities arrive in the office.
Hopefully with decent weather and competitive tendering we will have better news next month.
November 2009
As forecast, October was quiet and November is set to be even quieter although we do have a few small contracts waiting to start including two river weirs at Ledbury and a dam strengthening in Telford.
We thought that we had an extremely strong tender base but with this countrywide recession, budget cuts all round have demonstrated our need for more potential clients. It does not help that these days a lot of civil engineering work is tied up in Construction and Facilities Management Frameworks. Our head office and site teams are geared up for main contract work rather than the subcontracts resulting from frameworks and so we have set about establishing some new long term contacts. If you are a government funded body with a civil engineering budget you will have probably heard from us during the past few weeks.
In recent years we have had a sequence of £100,000-£250,000 schemes upon which to build our business. This year it has been a series of much smaller schemes, many of which take the same amount of setting up input as a £250k job – oh for a larger scheme!
This quiet time has enabled us to bring forward our training plans and I’m pleased that four of our foreman successfully attended a Site Supervisor Safety Training Scheme (SSSTS) course and have started along the route to their Gold CSCS Supervisors Card. The next planned course is for the three yearly Confined Spaces review in January.
Hopefully better news next month.
September / October 2009
Where did September go? Sorry for the lack of news but with the writer actually acting as setting out engineer/agent on two sites as well as ISO Audits to prepare for, the month seems to have flown by.
We have been busy but still I’m afraid on small but interesting contracts.
The creation of tidal wetland on the Severn Estuary for the Environment Agency/Gloucestershire Wildfowlers Association has been one of the highlights, undoubtedly helped by good autumn weather and no major high tides.
River bank works at Newtown, Wednesbury and Bedworth; landscaping drainage and paving works at Worcester RFC; a vehicle washbay and office foundation work at Brentford; a weighbridge slab at Bristol; the completion of the Highways drainage scheme in North Worcestershire and a number of small West Mercia Police contracts. It’s been a busy period.
Unfortunately October is shaping up to be quiet despite our best tendering endeavours. The larger contracts are just not happening. Here’s hoping for more.
And the ISO yearly audits? No problem – all three, namely ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 successfully completed with complimentary remarks received from the auditor.
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