BUYING PROCESS

The Process

  1. You contact our sales team
  2. You agree that, in general terms, this is the right product at the right kind of price
  3. One of our sales team will come and discuss the best option for you at the best price! You get a written quote within a couple of days.
  4. When we receive your order, we fix a date for installation. This varies between 2 and 6 weeks depending on the time of year, so plan ahead!
  5. Most installations are completed in a day. It is helpful if we can get a digger to the site and place a skip nearby. A tap helps us to make sure the site is left tidy. Where possible, the surface finish is matched up. Because the galvanised steel poles are sunk a minimum of 1.5 metres into the ground, it is helpful to know where drains and cables etc run!
  6. The final measurements are taken after the poles are installed and the fabric is made to measure, so the whole thing is finished off 3 - 4 weeks later.
  7. You pay us when we are finished, please!

Normally no planning permission is required and the structure is engineered to be left all year round.

SOMETHING TO CONSIDER WHEN MAKING YOUR PURCHASE!

  1. Our footings and posts are designed in accordance with British Standards. Soil conditions, terrain, climatic, geographic and topographic changes all have an effect on the final outcome of the design. Are these items being considered by other businesses and can you trust them to provide you with a structure that is designed appropriately?
  2. It is possible to apply all sites within the UK to a worst case scenario and design footings and posts accordingly. If this is the case then the design sizes reached by different engineers should be relatively similar. At the very least any significant differences should be easily explained within the design criteria and assumptions. The undeniable point of it all is that a structure supported on smaller diameter posts and smaller footings will not have the same capacity to resist loads impacted on it as a structure with larger ones.
  3. Our company is in the business of selling "peace of mind". Our structures are designed for conditions when nature is at its most severe such as destructive winds which cause large trees to be blown over and roof tops severely damaged. We don't design structures for sunny, windless days. Some people think that if a structure looks and behaves well in still or light wind conditions, then is able to resist anything. This is plainly not the case and hence very risky to disregard.
  4. Post and footing sizes vary depending upon the number of shade panels connecting to them and the direction of the resultant force. If a competitor thinks that the height of the post is the only factor to be considered in the design of these items our suggestion is to preclude that company from any future involvement in your project.
  5. Uplift is the major design consideration for these types of structures. As wind passes over the structure negative pressure cause a suction effect on the fabric from above which in effect billows the fabric upward. The major resistance to this is the dead mass of the footings. If they are under-designed the post and footing can be torn out of the ground
  6. The size of a foundation must take into account water sodden soil conditions which in effect makes it easier for the footing to rotate, or move, than if the soil is hard and dry. A rule of thumb used by engineers when designing bored pier foundations, is to disregard a depth of the soil from the top of the foundation. They assume the soil for a certain depth offers no resistance to the rotational moment caused by a force at the top of the post. The rule is to disregard a depth equivalent to 1.5 x the diameter of the pier. For example a 450mm diameter pier equates to a 675mm depth to be disregarded. If the design depth of the footing is 1m then by this method the design is for 325mm depth of soil is resisting the load. Its difficult to imagine anyone accepting a panel of 100sq.m supported by 4 posts 2.4m high each sitting on footings with a design depth of just 325mm (around 1 foot) is it. Well lets hope not anyway!
  7. Posts can deflect a maximum allowable distance determined by the design. The smaller the deflection, the larger the post section must be. In other words if you wish to have the smallest possible post sizes you must be prepared to accept posts which deflect more. Some companies hide the post deflection by leaning them backward dramatically to prevent the "banana" in the post being noticed too easily. So it may be that customers are not aware that posts bend under load which may cause them concern.
  8. Any structure can be designed to the slimmest of safety margins. Our design has appropriate factors of safety to ensure adequate levels of protection exist for circumstances beyond what can be regarded as "right on the upper limit"
  9. Risking children's and people's safety in general is not in our interest. Nor should any institution providing services to the community, risk building structures that can potentially compromise basic levels of safety. If company's involved in the construction of shaded areas don't fully understand the potential for personal injury when they specify post and footing sizes then they shouldn't be in the business.