Using technology and training to keep staff safe and productive was at the heart of the meeting this month (15 June) of members of the Worktop Fabricators Federation (WFF).

Representatives of companies as far afield as Glasgow, Worthing and Cardiff swelled a capacity audience at Bellagio Stone’s Leamington Spa headquarters, where the meeting was held.

The day saw Caesarstone launch its Master Of Stone on-line training and safety programme; the Department for Education introduce the government’s new T-Levels scheme for school-leavers; Stonegate and LPE go head-to-head on the merits of laser templating in the showroom and brand new sponsor Stone Industry Group (SiG) sample real-time dust levels as members walked through Bellagio’s impressive production line.

“It was a really great day,” said WFF director Simon Souter. “Plenty to think about, plenty to talk about and plenty of opportunities to touch base with fellow fabricators and suppliers – which is really what the WFF is all about.”

Further details about the WFF and future meetings from Chris Pateman: administrator@worktopfabricators.org.

See the new WFF website at www.worktopfabricators.org.

Natural stone is the natural complement to planting as attention turns to carbon reduction and mindfulness.

Demand for stone in hard landscaping continued to grow last year, but cost of living increases this year combined with the easing of Covid travel restrictions that are encouraging more people to fly abroad for their holidays could be among the factors that are now about to take some of the heat out of the market.

The Covid lockdowns and working at home, with householders not able to spend their money on family holidays abroad, was as good for the garden market on the residential side of landscaping as it was for the worktops sector. Larger private and public sector commercial projects have also showed little sign of abating following the initial lockdown in 2020.

The high cost of shipping and containers, as well as additional Brexit-imposed costs of buying stone from Europe increased the price of imported stone and helped indigenous stone producers.

Lower cost imported stone has undoubtedly raised the profile of the use of natural stone for hard landscaping ever since the 1990s, but many councils and clients like the idea of using more locally produced materials, a preference that has increased since emphasis on tackling global warming and working towards Net Zero carbon emissions has grown.

With Far Eastern stone supplies hit by the pandemic and shipping and container costs multiplying, the price difference between imports and indigenous stone reduced.

However, the graph below shows that the volume of imports of setts, curbstones and flagstones – the only category of stone imports that can be identified as being specifically for natural stone landscaping – continued to increase throughout the pandemic. The drop in value of that stone in 2020 can be accounted for by importers taking advantage of deferred VAT payments allowed by HM Revenue & Customs in response to Covid, because the figures come mostly from tax returns.  

Some of the indigenous stone advantage of higher price imports was lost in April this year when British quarries were no longer allowed to use red diesel. The duty paid on red diesel was 11.81p/litre when road users were paying 57.95p.

Although the Chancellor reduced the duty by 5p a litre to 52.95p in the Spring Statement in response to rapidly rising fuel prices, worsened by Russia, a major oil producer, invading Ukraine, the 5p duty reduction went mostly unnoticed. Quarries facing a sudden hike in the price of their fuel when it became liable to the full rate of duty of 52.95p were left with no option but to pass on that extra cost to their customers.

Contractors also lost the right to use red diesel on-site, adding to their costs, which were already increasing due to the rising prices of products and labour.

RAC fuel spokesperson Simon Williams said when diesel prices reached a new high in May (not yet included on the DBEIS graph below): “Sadly, despite the Chancellor’s 5p a litre duty cut, the average price of a litre of diesel has hit a new record high at 180.29p.

“Efforts to move away from importing Russian diesel have led to a tightening of supply and pushed up the price retailers pay for diesel. While the wholesale price has eased in the last few days this is likely to be temporary, especially if the EU agrees to ban imports of Russian oil.”

An indication of the confusion in the market to the various forces at work over the past few years comes from the fluctuation in the price of shares in Marshalls, a PLC supplying indigenous and imported natural stone (as well as concrete products) for hard landscaping, with sales of more than £500million a year.

In response to the Covid lockdown Marshalls’ share price fell from a high in January 2020 of 876p to 519.5p in April that year. In September last year it was back up to 840.5p and on 12 May, the day after Marshalls’ AGM this year, was down to 534.5p.

At the AGM Marshalls said it expects to be able to pass on price rises through the supply chain and remains confident about its own prospects for the year ahead, while acknowledging it expects “a more uncertain trading environment”.

In a trading statement just before its AGM Marshalls said revenues for the first four months of 2022 were up 5% on 2021 to £201million, in spite of “a very strong period” in 2021 that included record sales volumes for the months of March and April.

The increase in revenue was helped by price increases already imposed this year and came from the public sector and commercial markets, which account for two-thirds of the group’s sales, led by a strong new build housing market, where Marshalls expects demand to continue.

The domestic market fell 9%, which Marshalls said was “largely due to more holidays being taken in 2022 compared with 2021 when the country was in lockdown”.

Having just spent £535million on buying concrete roof tile company Marley, Marshalls says in future it will report under three separate categories of its business – Marshalls Landscape Products and Building Products, and Marley Roofing Products.

For the 2021 annual report presented at the AGM in May, the company reported Group revenue for the year ended 31 December 2021 of £589.3million, an increase of 26% compared with 2020 and 9% more than 2019. Pre-tax profit was £69.3million.

Vanda Murray OBE, Chair of Marshalls, says: “Here we are in 2022, after a challenging couple of years and with much global focus on how we shape our world and the places around us. The evolution of our purpose is to create better net positive futures.”

She explains that means putting more into society, the environment and the global economy than the company takes out, and understanding the impact of its actions.

Last year’s COP26 meeting of the world’s governments to discuss global warming had served as a timely reminder of the need to take climate change seriously and, she says: “I’m proud to say that Marshalls is well placed to take on the challenge. Last year, we committed to being a net zero business by 2030 as part of our plan and we are well on our way to achieving this.

“We’re already making changes, with focus on reducing plastic packaging, using lower emission fuels in our manufacturing sites and installing more solar panels.”

She said the global pandemic had “reminded us of the value of our public services – and why it’s so important to pay our fair share of tax.” It had also shone a light on ethical issues, where Marshalls were “supporting and upholding human rights at home and overseas in our supply chains”.

She says: “As focus on ESG rightly continues to gain momentum, we ensure we have structures in place so that our environmental, social and governance processes are at the core of our decision making and reporting.

“In 2021, an ESG internal audit was undertaken by a third party to look at our processes and controls. It also looked at our preparedness for the future and our alignment to reporting frameworks. The feedback was positive and we are in a strong position to embrace the changes in this space.”

Other changes in the hard landscaping sector include Talasey’s move into new headquarters in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire.

Talasey was once called Natural Paving Products and supplied mostly natural stone. It is still proud of its range of ethically sourced imported natural stones but changed its name as it expanded its product offering into other areas.

It says strong and consistent sales growth over the past few years meant it outgrew its head office near Doncaster, so it moved to the new four-acre site in Scunthorpe, where 1.5 acres of mature landscaped gardens showcase the company’s landscaping products.

The head office includes nine en-suite rooms for visitors staying overnight, because part of the company’s ambition is to make the site a UK centre of excellence for the landscaping industry.

Another move comes from Fitzgerald Contractors, which has transferred ownership to an employee trust. Managing Director Nick Coley, who bought the business from Bouygues UK in 2013, completed the transaction to the trust in February, so Fitzgerald employees now own 100% of the business.

Nick and his fellow directors retain their positions, but employees influence decisions through an employee council.

Employee Ownership Trusts are growing in popularity as they offer benefits for businesses, their employees and owners looking at succession planning.

The art of paving

The growing familiarity of the stone processing industry with increasingly sophisticated computer-controlled saws, miller-routers, five axes waterjet cutters and even lasers in a few cases is leading to more designers appreciating that stone can be given an element of artwork affordably, often with inlaid contrasting materials that might be other stones, metals or hard-wearing man-made materials. Landscape materials supplier Hardscape has even set up a separate company, called IP Surfaces, specifically to supply the artwork to such schemes.

The granite paving pictured above came from CED, a leading supplier of hard landscaping materials nationally from seven outlets across the UK, including Scotland and Northern Ireland. The project pictured is in Milngavie, a suburb of Glasgow. CED’s Commercial Division supplied the granite paving with its bespoke engraving and the company’s Scotland depot supplied Steintec bedding, primer and jointing compound for the installation.

60m dry stone wall helps Graduate Gardeners win a BALI Grand Award

Although Graduate Gardeners, based in Stroud, Gloucestershire, are no strangers to winning BALI awards for their landscaping, Ian Morrison was not expecting to receive the Grand Prize when he entered a project for a private garden in Cheltenham in the awards last year. But that was what happened.

Admittedly the project was in the over £250,000 category and took almost a year to complete with six or seven people working on it most of the time, but the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) Grand Prize more commonly goes to even bigger landscape schemes in cities. So the Grand Prize was an unexpected welcome surprise for Ian.

The project was the garden of a large house on the side of Cleeve Hill, with views across Cheltenham to the Welsh Hills. It did not have a flat lawn and was to undergo a total renovation that involved digging into the clay-rich soil of the hillside to provide flatter areas for parking, an enhanced entrance, and more usable space in the garden.

There were a number of significant areas of construction, most notably and by far the most impressive being the 60m long traditional dry stone retaining wall using Cotswold limestone from Cotswold Stone Quarries’ Tinkers Barn Quarry.

A structural engineer was brought in as Cleeve Hill is notorious for movement. A mortared wall was not an option because a solid structure on concrete foundations would simply have cracked. The foundations used for the dry stone wall were the stone beneath the ground. Dry stone walling also allows moisture to migrate through the wall rather than being trapped behind it.

Some 600 tons of material was excavated and more than 300 tons of walling stone was used to build the wall, each piece placed by hand to create a wall 1.5m wide at the base (500mm below ground level) and 600mm at the top, with the finished height averaging 1.8m.

The BALI Award judges said: “The attention to detail, outstanding finish, and wonderful workmanship in evidence in this scheme represents excellence at all levels. The in-house designer has fulfilled the client’s brief with imagination, courage and panache and the contractor’s build team have surpassed themselves, delivering a beautiful, breathtaking setting for the refurbished property.”

Last chance to enter Landscape Institute's 2022 international awards

The 7 July deadline is approaching for entering the Landscape Institute’s 2022 international awards for landscape architecture.

There are five open categories, 15 professional categories, two for students and the President's Award for the best overall landscape scheme from all the categories combined.

Entries can be submitted online at https://awards.landscapeinstitute.org/award-categories/ and must be received by Thursday 7 July.

Those chosen as finalists will be announced in September and the winners will be presented with their awards at a ceremony at the prestigious Troxy in Commercial Road, London, on Thursday 24 November.

For the past two years the awards have been presented as a virtual event online only. Last year’s presentation attracted 1,600 viewers, so with the knowledge gained from the previous two events, this year will also see the presentation streamed online, so those who can’t make it to the Troxy can still take part.

The hybrid format will allow people from all over the world to join in, promoting discussions and showcasing projects that combat climate change, support health and wellbeing, promote biodiversity and ‘level up’ local spaces at a global scale.

The open categories celebrate excellence in landscape projects and include the Landscape & Parks Management category.

The Building With Nature category is open to recipients of a Building with Nature Accreditation for their residential, commercial, or community infrastructure scheme.

Submissions from any individual, organisation, employer, government, university or combination of groups across the globe can enter the open categories, which are:

Landscape and Parks Management: celebrating excellence in the management of a place or landscape.

Innovation and Research: an innovative product, service, publication, or piece of research or guidance that has influenced the industry or has the potential to positively transform landscape practice.

The Dame Sylvia Crowe Award: for landscape excellence around the world.

Landscape Legacy Award: for a person, organisation or group that leaves a lasting landscape legacy to the world.

Partnership and Collaboration: for excellence in partnership and cross-discipline collaboration.

Jane Findlay CMLI, President of the Landscape Institute, says: “The 2021 Landscape Institute awards were a great success – we received over 200 submissions. These were whittled down to 73 finalists by our esteemed judges from organisations such as Historic England, National Lottery Heritage Fund and Public Health England.

“In the UK, the government published its long-awaited Levelling Up White Paper, outlining its mission to ‘level up’ the country. The paper reflects the fact that landscape, green spaces and the built environment will be instrumental to this agenda. We know that landscape professionals across the globe are already implementing this holistic vision and the awards will celebrate their exceptional contributions."

Discussing the importance of the Landscape Institute awards, Edward Green, landscape architect at Southern Green and last year’s winner of Excellence in Public Health & Wellbeing, says: “Winning awards is always special, but the Landscape Institute Awards represent the pinnacle of achievement in our profession, especially for projects that benefit the physical, mental and environmental wellbeing of our communities.”

He says the awards highlight how green spaces and parks can help to improve the health and mental wellbeing of communities and drive the agenda for improving funding for a sector that believes it has been underfunded for years.

Headline sponsor of the Awards this year is Hardscape, which has supplied natural stone for projects featured in Natural Stone Specialist magazine such as Elephant Park in London, and the Glade of Light in Manchester commemorating the victims of a suicide bomber.

Category sponsors are: Vestre, Furnitubes, Building with Nature, Maylim, Civic Engineers, GrrenBlue Urban, AG, Green-tech, McParland Finn, Selux and Wildflower Turf.

Nigel Stubbings, who worked with Stone Federation Great Britain for many years organising the Health & Safety Forum and progressing its health & safety publications, as well as acting as the point of contact with Roy Bush and the Health & Safety Executive (HSE), has died.

He had been a positive force in the construction world for nearly 40 years. He started out with the family construction firm in his native Birmingham and went on to hold a number of positions in various trade federations, including the Construction Confederation, National Federation of Builders, and latterly the Federation of Master Builders.

He had just been appointed the Chairman of CHARGE, the HSE group that represents Glass & Glazing, Ceramics, Cement, Stoneworkers, Concrete, Heavy Clay & Bricks and Refractories. He also liaised with the Stone Federation’s lawyers, Ward Hadaway, and undertook various other projects for SFGB.

He was a personal friend of Stone Federation Chief Executive Jane Buxey for more than 30 years.

His funeral service will take place on Friday 1 July at 11:00am at The Vale Crematorium, Pershore. Donations in lieu of flowers are asked for to the British Heart Foundation.

Mark Priestman is a Director of a training consultancy whose mantra is: Qualify the Workforce! Here he congratulates one of his former trainees for winning an award.

I received a call from one of our past learners – Aaron Lumsdon. Aaron achieved his level 2 NVQ with us and was a learner on the CITB’s Specialist Applied-Skills Programme (SAP) in Façade Preservation. He proved himself to be exceptionally skilled in stone restoration, and he received our nomination for a programme award.

We’ve kept in contact with Aaron, and he’s done the same with us since he successfully achieved those qualifications.

At the time, Aaron worked for and was mentored by Stone Co Ltd, and then moved to Westcountry Stonemasons. In 2020, Aaron set up his own company, AJL Stonemasons.

So when he called with some great news, it came as no surprise to us. He explained he was both nominated for and then presented with the accolade of Fix Radio’s Stonemason of the Year Award.

Hearty congratulations from us all, Aaron!

I hope the award is an additional springboard to your already progressive journey in the Stonemasonry specialism. Best wishes for your future plans for developing your career.

Aaron’s success focused my thoughts again on the importance of setting personal goals for professional development.

Ideally, we need to view our professional development needs as a programme of work. And the most successful programmes are managed by plotting milestones on a schedule.

Of course, plans change, but that’s the beauty of a programme of work, it bends and twists and peaks in response to the reality around it.

On the flipside, if we fail to plot our plans, or even fail to identify the route we desire to take, then sadly the only planning we are doing is planning to fail.

I recall as soon as Aaron had completed one module, he was quizzing me over the contents of the next. Frequently he would send me photos of his work, which he took great pride in. He was always quick to gain experience from his work-based mentor on up-and-coming off-site training subjects and to ask questions about the work he was doing to make his training as relevant as possible.

During off-site training, following the giving of instruction and demonstration, we naturally wanted learners to have a go and eventually undertake practical tests. Aaron was always the first to say: “I’d like to have a go!”

What a great attitude. It’s the sort of enthusiasm we want to bottle for others on their journey.

Why is enthusiasm for the learning process so important?

Working backwards from the goal of personal development, which has to be success. Success only results from changed behaviour (and appropriate behaviour at that). Changed behaviour can only result from the learner buying into the benefits of the method being instructed. And, of course, benefits will only be seen where the message presented is proven.

Ultimately, we all have to come to a realisation that we are on a learning journey. We might have arrived at a certain destination, but none of us has concluded the journey yet.

www.priestmanweb.com

On Form is an exhibition of garden sculpture – all of it stone. It takes place in the rural idyll of Asthall Manor in Burford, Oxfordshire.

After going online only in 2020 due to Covid, it returned to the Manor last year and is back there this year from 12 June to 10 July, although you still have to book your tickets in advance, which you can do on the On Form website.

There is an open invitation to stoneworkers and carvers to submit their work to be included in this selling exhibition. Many have found it an excellent opportunity to develop a career in sculpture and carving. It's too late for this year, but anyone who would like to submit work for future exhibitions can find out how here.

You can see who is exhibiting what this year here.

There are around 40,000 cases of people suffering from musculoskeletal disorders in construction every year, according to the Health & Safety Executive (HSE). That’s aches and strains and painful joints, sometimes to a point at which it is debilitating.

There’s no getting away from the fact that sometimes working in the stone industry can be punishing, but there’s also no getting away from the fact that there have been a lot of devices created over the years – and many of them not so many years ago – that can take at least some of the strain out of moving stone around a factory and on to and into a building.

As D Zambelis says, traditional handling tools that have been used daily in factories, such as forklift booms, slab lifters and suction cups, are usually considered to be the first choice when it comes to lifting a piece of stone for processing.

But, says the machinery tools and equipment supplier whose range includes many materials handling products, with technology improving and more technologies being available, and with HSE expecting companies to be more responsive to how stone is handled safely, jib cranes and overhead cranes with vacuum lifters are a popular solution to moving materials around a factory. And D Zambelis supplies both.

They can be used for moving slabs into a factory from a store area, loading slabs on to a machine and unloading finished work pieces, as well as manoeuvring pieces around the factory for processing.

Jib cranes are used for moving pieces of stone between machines or placing them on A-frames, while an overhead crane is a safe solution to unloading slabs from vehicles rather than using slab lifters on forklifts. And there are bundle slab lifters, which can be attached to a crane and used to unload more than one slab at one time.

But D Zambelis says there is a growing interest in integrating material handling with the machines that are cutting stone on a production line, so that carrying the slab and processing it are part of the same system or structure.

For example, conveyor belts with automatic loaders can be used to feed slabs into the Italian five Axes OMAG saw that D Zambelis sells. The saw uses the suction pads on the head of the machine to position the workpiece. Once one job is finished, it can be moved off the table on a conveyor and the next slab put in place.

Such solutions require a more permanent installation or structure, but D Zambelis says they are considered an investment in safer operating procedures.

One of the benefits of such systems is that it reduces the amount of handling, which reduces the opportunities for people to get hurt and the workpiece to be damaged.

Digital inventory is also playing an increasing role in reducing handling and lifting, says D Zambelis, who supplies one of the systems available for this.

This involves setting up an area so slabs can be photographed as they are delivered. Slabs are individually photographed when they are unloaded and are given a unique QR code, with the data and photograph stored in a database. The information can be used when designing projects, making it easy to determine where the cuts will be made to make the most of veining, which really comes into its own for vein matching on waterfalls, back splashes and for book matching.

Having a digital inventory of slabs means that fabricators are aware of the slabs they have, what projects those slabs have been allocated to, and how they are to be cut for those projects, as well as having the drawings associated with them.

As a result, slab lifting and manoeuvring becomes more efficient. Slabs that are most suitable for vein matching are more easily identified, rather than an individual having to comb through the slabs to find them.

When cranes with vacuum lifts, automatic loaders and digital slab inventories are used in combination, the result is a factory that minimises manual handling, creating a safer fabricating environment, says D Zambelis.

Another Italian machinery company leading automation is Breton, and it has now introduced an automated slab storage unit called Breton Vertika, which is being sold by LPE Group – and LPE also offers a photographic slab inventory system. It is called Slabsmith.

The Breton Vertika is similar to storage systems used in archiving and in some warehouses outside of the stone industry.

Stones are stacked on separate frames for storage. The frames are on rails so they can easily be slid into a closed or open position (see the photographs below) by the motors operated from a simple control unit.

The control unit is separated from the moving parts, so the operator cannot be in danger of being hit or squashed by the slabs as they are moved.

 It is self contained, so needs no special foundations or structures as long as the floor can support the weight of the slabs. A single unit is 8.8m long and 5.15m wide. Units can be added together to increase the storage space.

Vertika allows stones to be stacked close together to minimise storage space (or maximise the amount of stock that can be stored in that space). To access the slabs, the simple electronic control unit operates a rack and pinion movement to separate the slabs that are required so they can be lifted easily from the frame. When the gap is closed, mechanical clips automatically join the units together.

You can see Vertika working on a video on You Tube at youtu.be/2-HmOKG9mKI.

It is ideal for use with the kind of slab inventory systems offered by LPE and D Zambelis, and Breton says it can be integrated easily with any warehouse system.

Materials handling equipment has not suffered too much from the shortages that have impacted many construction material supplies in the past couple of years, with many of the companies supplying the goods saying they had already increased their stockholding of faster-moving goods ahead of the Covid lockdowns in case there were any problems associated with Brexit.

Prices of transport and raw materials, particularly metals, have put pressure on margins and there have been some price rises, but all the suppliers are trying to keep prices as steady as they can.

One change at LPE, which sells ranges of materials handling equipment from Omni Cubed in America, Weha in Germany and Elephant in Italy, is that Kelly Wood has been recruited to sell the materials handling equipment. LPE Director Carl Sharkey says she is doing a great job and sales are up again this year.

She replaces Ash Butler, who has joined Simon Bradbury’s Stone Industry Group (SiG). 

Among the products introduced by SiG is the No Lift Install System for transporting and installing worktops. It tilts through 90º, so it carries the worktop vertically for transporting and getting into the kitchen, then tilts to horizontally at the right height to slide the worktop on to kitchen units. It is especially good for tight spaces.

Because it is easy to use, it speeds up the installation. And because the worktop can be slid straight off the No Lift on to the cabinet it is always supported, which reduces the risk of cracking or damage.

It means minimal awkward lifting for installers and makes it possible to fit large worktops without having to get more people involved in lifting, saving backs and time.

When it comes to the welfare of your staff, there’s no room to question quality, says Stonegate, which supplies an extensive range of products to help people lift and move stone and finished products safely.

Stonegate says it independently tests all its lifting and handling equipment to ensure it is well built and safe. It says stocking tried and tested brands, such as Hercules, with its heavy-duty, professional products that have undergone extensive testing, means its customers can feel secure they are in safe hands.

Stonegate says: “Underperforming lifting equipment is every stone fabricator’s dread.  Our cutting-edge range of stone magnets, clamps and lifters are designed to handle all types, sizes and finishes of stone.

“From polished granite and marble slabs to porous concrete, rough-cut boulders, and sandstone blocks, we have a variety of stone lifters to get the job done right. 

“Take, for example, the Stonegate Heavy Duty Scissor Carry Clamps, which are constructed using only the highest quality materials, including vulcanized rubber pads for added grip and protection. 

“Or try our Sky Rider, an automatic lifter specifically developed for lifting thin materials such as porcelain – it’s fitted with extra wide pads for increased surface area. 

“We know first-hand how back-breaking even the smallest of installations can be, not to mention the numerous difficulties that can crop up on site during installation (gravel drives, steps – need we list any more?). Take the hard work out of the job and ensure it gets completed in one piece with our extensive range of handling equipment, including A-frames, dollies and carts, sink bars and winch carts.

“Our A-Frames are particularly popular for fitting out vans for ease of transportation. And, true to our quality-first policy, all Stonegate A-frames are powder coated for an extended lifespan and come with options of wheels, support bars and lifting eyelets.” 

Stonegate also sells the EZ Pro Winch Cart, which is designed for raising, loading, and unloading finished slabs safely and with minimal labour. It has four solid rubber tyres on a sturdy frame, with remote control for additional versatility.

Another supplier of handling equipment is Waters Group. It has been the distributor of Righetti vacuum lifters in the UK and Ireland for more than 15 years and says the Righetti P3A625, a three-pad lifter with a 625kg lifting capacity and pneumatic tilt, is by far the most popular in the range as it perfectly suits the needs of the kitchen worktop fabricator lifting granite and quartz.

The easily replaced non-marking gasket pads are one of the reasons the Righetti lifters are so popular. Michael Nicholas, Director of The Marble Group in Hatfield, says: “I purchased our first Righetti vacuum lift around eight years ago to load our saws. This vacuum lift is still going strong, working in the harsh conditions of a worktop factory. We have since purchased another five units to service our edge polisher, CNC machines, waterjet, masons area and face polisher.

“The pneumatic system makes the loading and unloading of fragile materials accurate and effortless. We simply attach the unit to our jib cranes, plug in an airline and off you go.

“The Righetti vacuum lifts are a solid piece of handling equipment. The non-marking gaskets are easily replaced. All in all, very happy with this system.”

And with the increasing popularity of large ceramic slabs, Righetti saw a need for a new range of vacuum lifters specially for handling them. Righetti’s Sales Director, Olga Kaliska, says: “When we started to develop a new line of vacuum lifters entirely dedicated to big porcelain and ceramic slabs, we immediately understood that this material could not be handled in the same way as marble and other stones.

“What we learnt from the handling natural stones was useful but not enough. We were approaching a completely different material. The vacuum pads used for stones were not performing perfectly on ceramic, so our R&D division had to start projecting something distinct.

“After several experiments and plenty of material tested, we developed two types of suction cups specifically for porcelain. One is for smooth, standard slabs and the other, with softer gaskets, for irregular surfaces.”

Since porcelain slabs can be thin, to avoid them bending and breaking, especially when they are being lifted horizontally off a machine, the slab must be grabbed at various points, using several smaller vacuum pads. So, Righetti decided the standard central beam couldn’t be shorter than 2500mm.

Also, the frame had to be modular in order to be adaptable, with the arms moving along the central beam, and the suction pads had to move along the cross-arms. It would be necessary to be able to shut off individual pads so the vacuum lifter could be used for kitchen tops and semifinished products and the lift had to be able to tilt.

All this has been incorporated into the standard P8 and P12 ceramic Righetti lifters, which have a 0-90° powered tilt system driven by a joystick beside the handle. And they can be operated by compressed air or electricity.

P8 and P12 suit most of the needs of ceramic handling, but Righetti can also build customised vacuum lifters if customers have any specific requirements.

Righetti also saw a space in the market for a portable, customisable, single pad vacuum lifter aimed towards specialist architectural masonry companies.

Gone are the days of requiring a special size vacuum lifter for a one off large project. The Righetti Serie S1 has a range of eight easily replaceable suction pads. Custom made pads are also available on request.

And if there is no access to electricity onsite, the battery powered Serie S1-B, with an easily removable and rechargeable integrated battery, is the answer. It incorporates a visual and acoustic alarm warning of low vacuum levels as an essential contribution to health & safety on a noisy construction site.

HSE site for stone workers www.hse.gov.uk/stonemasonry

The Construction Industry Council (CIC) has launched an e-learning Health & Safety Certification course that can be used to gain a CSCS card by professionals who need to access a site but are not site-based.

Successful completion of the course, including the final exam, has been accepted by CSCS as a route to obtaining the CSCS Academically Qualified Person (AQP) card or CSCS Professionally Qualified Person (PQP) card.

CSCS says the successful completion of the course is an acceptable alternative to the CITB Health, Safety & Environment test.

This course was designed in collaboration with training company Accredex to plug a gap for a test for those who are required to visit a site (or sites) as part of their role but who are not site-based.

The course can be accessed on any internet-connected device at any time, so the modules can be completed wherever and whenever suits you.

There are six modules, including some not in the current CSCS routes to a card (such as staying safe on sites not controlled by a principal contractor).

The modules include legal requirements on site, safety on site, health & welfare on site, risk management issues, design of risk management, and environment protection.

The modules have a ‘teach me, test me’ approach that enables users to practice their understanding of the content as they work through the course.

Successful completion of the final exam gives the individual three years certification.

The course costs between £29.99 and £39.99 per person (it costs less per person the more people taking it within a company). The price allows for two attempts at the examination.

To purchase the course click here.

Restore London is anticipating its best year yet as it celebrates its 10th anniversary, giving it plenty to celebrate and look forward to, says MD John Rushworth.

From a window in Restore London’s offices in Queen Victoria Street you can look out and see St Paul’s Cathedral. John Rushworth, Restore London’s Managing Director and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building, believes that location is part of the reason for the company’s success.

Restore London wanted offices in the centre of the city to be close to the projects the company undertakes. Having them has enabled it to establish a reputation for responding rapidly if the need arises.

Although other specialist contractors now also have offices in central London, Restore London is proud of having led the way and is flattered that others have followed suit.

Of course, just being able to do something does not always mean it gets done. A second essential element is having a team that is willing and capable of responding in a way that customers want. And John Rushworth is proud of having just such a team.

“Because we’re not a big beast, the level of involvement from the directors is great. Clients like to have access to the directors and we have a hands-on, personal approach.”

Part of this is a 40-minute CPD presentation that Restore London offers consultants and professional teams. It includes a video of work the company carried out in Bedford Row that received 25,000 views when it was posted on LinkedIn.

Refreshingly different

It is factors like these that are enabling Restore London to look forward to the next 10 years as it celebrates the successful conclusion of its first decade of trading.

The celebrations will take place in September in Drapers’ Hall, in Throgmorton Street, where a considerable amount of Restore London’s Stone Award-winning work can be seen (see below).

John says Restore London now regularly appears on the same tender lists as companies that have been around a lot longer. He believes that’s because “we’re doing something refreshingly different” which comes from “a team with the right philosophy: that nothing is too much trouble”.

It is a philosophy John has nurtured and developed. “We do develop people to help them achieve ambitions when they see themselves being somewhere. We try to encourage their ambition and train and support them in that. We have two of the guys going through Chartered Institute of Building training at the moment. We are a Chartered Building Company and a training partner of CIOB.”

One of the people on a CIOB course is Arturs Legzdins, who received the ‘Rising Star’ Award in the Stone Federation Great Britain Natural Stone Awards 2020, although the winners were not announced until last year because of the Covid lockdowns in 2020.

John Rushworth said when Arturs received the Award: “He is without doubt a rising star within both our business and the wider industry.” It was John who entered Arturs for the Award in recognition of his contribution to Restore London’s success.

Another member of the team, Gill Parselle, who started in admin, was particularly interested in health & safety and has since become the company’s in-house health & safety officer, having successfully completed a Tech IOSH course.

She carried out risk assessments and developed safe working practices during the pandemic, which enabled Restore London to keep working throughout most of the various lockdowns.

A team ethos

Team is a word that comes up frequently when John talks about the rise of Restore London. “We value our people. Without them the last 10 years would not have been possible. Investing in our people (and technology), employing a dedicated health & safety manager early on (not something all companies would have done) and establishing the right culture is something clients recognise and appreciate. The business continues to actively champion apprenticeships, training and development to bridge the skills gap.”

Restore London was helped to a roaring start by being incorporated in October 2012, when the industry started growing strongly out of the recession that followed the credit crunch crash of 2008.

John had no doubt about how severe that crash had been because throughout the recession he had been a Director of other specialist contractors before starting his own business, the success of which now makes him wish he made the move 10 years earlier, although he admits “it was scary at the time”.

Award-winning projects

In its first year, Restore London, then consisting of five people, turned over about £500,000. It started working as a sub-contractor but John’s background meant he was no stranger to the restoration sector and he had plenty of contacts among clients and specifiers, and before long the firm was working as the principal contractor on projects. There was an impressive growth curve as the company regularly out-performed its business plan... at least until Covid struck.

The first significant project it won was the conversion of the former Liberal Democrats headquarters in Cowley Street into super-prime private residential accommodation (see box right).

It helped establish the company’s reputation and Restore London started to win regular work from major developers and contractors working in London, such as McLaren, CBRE, and ISG.

“The multi-disciplinary team we assembled meant we hit the ground running and delivered a challenging scheme,” says John. As a result of that project Steve Morgan, now Operations Director,  joined Restore London.

Steve’s multi-trade background and understanding of M&E led to Restore London being appointed as Principal Contractor at Harrods on £1.5million heritage roof works. Restore London joined the ‘contractors village’ at Harrods that remains a satellite office, although John says it is “not quite as genteel as it sounds”.

Harrods gave Restore London the secured turnover that allowed it to be more selective about the projects it took and the clients it worked for, and it went on to work on other prestigious award-winning projects that further enhanced its reputation – projects such as the London First Award-winning Bow Street Magistrates Court; Camden Town Hall, which was concrete restoration but John says brutalist structures cannot be ignored; Dixon House in the City; and The Royal Academy.

Then came Covid

Covid did take its toll on Restore London’s  growth. In 2020 the company looked lined up to break through a landmark turnover level but with projects shutting down and being put on hold, it did not happen.

Restore London itself did shut down for a couple of weeks, but thanks to Gill Parselle’s work, systems were quickly developed to allow the offices to re-open, with three people in at a time in three separate offices. Most of the by now 30 people working for Restore London stayed out on site and everyone got used to Zoom and Teams meetings.

“I think what it taught us,” says John, “was that as a team we had the right people. We bonded even more through the Zoom and Teams meetings. Turnover was certainly affected but we worked leaner and meaner and nobody was laid off. In the end, we had to take on two more people – a contract manager and someone on the pre-construction side.

“The pandemic was just a blip in an otherwise upward growth curve. Our secured turnover for 2022/23 is looking healthy and we would expect to be looking at turnover in excess of £10million in our 10th year.”

And John and his fellow Directors believe the prospects for Restore London’s second decade look bright. John: “The enquiries we get now are for the top, iconic buildings in London. We’ve hit that sweet spot with clients where working together is a pleasure. We have never been happier than we are now.”

restore-london.co.uk