How we work
Every dome, ceiling and screen we make goes through the same eight steps, in our own workshop and under our own site team. This is the sequence, shown with the museum domes as they happened.
01 · The sequence
From the first site visit to the clear coat.
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01
Site visit
We measure the opening or the existing element, check access for a crane or a hoist, and agree what the drawings must show.
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02
Design and detailing
Shop drawings, panel layouts, the steel frame, fixings and weights, coordinated with the client’s architect and engineer.
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03
Pattern and mould making
The ornament is carved by hand as a master pattern. A mould is taken from it and checked against the drawings.
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04
Casting and framing
GRG and GRC elements are cast from the mould; FRP shells are laminated in segments or in one piece, and trial-assembled on their steel frame.
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05
Painting and finishing
Primer, base coat and finish coat in the workshop, where the surface can be inspected at arm’s length before it leaves.
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06
Installation
Elements are lifted, fixed to the structure and aligned. A dome can go up in one piece.
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07
Joints, touch-up and clear coat
Joints are filled and sanded flush, colour is touched up where the lift marked it, and the clear coat goes on in place.
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08
Handover
We walk the work with you under the final light, make good anything on the list, and hand it over.
02 · Pattern, mould, cast
Carve it once. Cast it true.
This is what the specialist division does, in three moves. The ornament is carved as a pattern. A mould is taken from it: the same shape, turned inside out. The mould is filled, and the cast lifts out matching the pattern exactly.
1 of 3 · Pattern
The carved pattern
The ornament is set out from the drawings and carved by hand, raised from a board. Everything that follows is taken from this one piece.
1
Pattern
The ornament carved by hand, raised from a board.
2
Mould
The same shape turned inside out.
3
Cast
Filled, set, lifted out and turned over: the cast matches the pattern.
03 · The workshop
Made under our own roof.
Patterns, moulds, casting, painting and steel fabrication all happen in our workshop, which is why we can promise a surface finish and a programme at the same time.
- Patterns and moulds
- Hand carving, and a CNC router for repeating profiles.
- Casting and lamination
- GRG, GRC and FRP, from single panels to whole dome shells.
- Steel
- Cutting, bending, pressing and welding plant for frames, canopies and platforms.
- Site
- Concreting plant, compaction and a backhoe loader for our own groundwork.
04 · The check before handover
A lamp held almost flat.
Before handover we check every joint with a lamp held almost flat against the surface. Light that low throws every ridge and hollow into shadow, so a bad joint has nowhere to hide. Try it yourself on one of our panels.
Start with a site visit.
Step one is ours to take. Tell us where you are and we will come and measure.