With the current recession seeing new warehouse construction at a virtual standstill the UK temporary buildings market has also been hit, but from the vendors’ point of view these structures’ versatility means customers can be found to take up the slack in other sectors like sports and leisure, events and education.
Frame-supported fabric structures of the kind Rubb Buildings produce seem to be the most popular choice for temporary buildings for warehouses, just as they are for sports and leisure facilities.
These rentable structures offer better security and longevity, typically lasting over 20 years, and can be installed in days and easily relocated. The second type of temporary construction is the pre-fabricated kind, comprising metal frames with steel cladding or steel clad sandwich panels as produced by Spaciotempo, coincidentally Britain’s leading supplier of this construction method to the sports and leisure facilities market. Pre-fab units are more permanent, flexible and secure, but little civil work needs to be done owing to the fixing system, which means the structure can be fixed to existing ground. Fabric structures typically require a concrete ring beam or base to be made before fixing. Spaciotempo has noticed a trend towards wider spans and higher eave heights, allowing additional and higher racking/shelving in warehousing applications.
The third temporary buildings option is air domes. Humidity needn’t be a problem with these structures, which can withstand strong winds and heavy snow loadings. Yeadon Domes is probably the largest supplier of air domes in the UK, if not the world, and its domes can be made to almost any size.
At one time air domes were popular for temporary storage but are now less sought after, despite being the cheapest solution by far, typically costing around £100/m2, versus £250/m2 for frame-supported fabric structures and £800 m/2 for more permanent pre-fab structures.
John Wright of Covair Domes cites poor security as one possible reason, and also businesses’ reluctance to invest in standby generators to remedy the dome deflating if the first generator fails. Even so, domes are acceptable for low value goods storage, though existing customers are making their structures last longer than usual as recession bites. The customer’s immediate storage needs will inevitably hold sway in deciding which construction method to use for their temporary building. If a business has suffered a fire, for example, and cannot feasibly rent offsite storage, the need for a rapid response will make an air dome first choice, frame-supported fabric structures second and pre-fabricated ones last. But whichever method is picked, customers now have the added advantage that because all temporary construction types are rentable, they can be removed if they fall empty, or folded up in the case of air domes, and thus circumvent the Government’s recently imposed rates tax on empty buildings.
Warehouse & Logistics News
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