How do I make sure we get the best school buildings?
Richard Crawford, the managing director of PF Modular, went to school with us to share some new ideas that can help you make your educational building more enjoyable and open. As well as our FAQs, Kevin can answer more questions for you. He’s covered some popular ones, including “What will I get with a modular school building?”, “Are they environmentally friendly?” and “Would they be a long-term solution?”
Space is a major issue and it couldn’t be more true. This is where modular comes in: delivering extra space with little disruption, plus so many other benefits to help grow your business.
Improved quality
What’s a modular building? When we think of modular classrooms, we may have certain images come to mind: classrooms in cold and drafty buildings where leaks seemed to appear out of nowhere.
But today, modular buildings are commonly chosen for clean rooms, hospitals, laboratories, and clinics. And our new buildings are built to a long-term standard: definitely a long-term solution
Why should I choose modular for my school?
There is a modular solution for quick building and providing the facilities you need. This modular approach can help answer your needs quickly and conveniently. Modular buildings are manufactured in modules and delivered to the site on wheels. A modular building can be made up of several segments – because they’re built in the factory, all floorings and interior decorations get combined into a single product that can be easily assembled on site
One of the most important benefits of our accommodation is that they’re fully fitted with a wide range of facilities. They come equipped with everything needed, from electricity, heating, and plumbing to state-of-the-art classrooms and IT suites.
In a nutshell, a modular building offers you:
- The space you need, delivered, built, and finished quickly
- Savings in both time and cost
- This design and layout flexibility can help you create a unique space
- Minimal build time on site
- No interruption to your work or to those around you
- Sure, we all want a safe working place and better health.
- One of the advantages of building with steel is that it is often possible to move the metal construction from one site to another.
We’ve found that modular construction is about 50% cheaper and the building time is at least 70% faster than traditional builds. The cost will depend on the specifications you have, but we think it’ll come in around 50% cheaper.
Click below to find out more about the different materials used when constructing modular classrooms, and how much it will cost you.
PF Modular is different from other modular companies because we offer one point of contact to oversee your project from start to finish. You only need to speak with the same person throughout your project and that person will know exactly what you want.
This makes it easier for you to get what you want from us and reduces the chance of mistakes and misunderstandings. Even with the speed and efficiency modular offers, achieving the best possible outcome for your school will take time, but we’ll get there.
Your countdown to summer
Many schools take advantage of modular’s ‘speed’ to build new classrooms over the summer break. That makes sense, and it’s great for the modular building industry because this is a very busy time for them.
What if I told you that booking a nail slot now would be like locking in your spot for this upcoming season?
Autumn Term
1 – Where shall I put my new building?
We’ve been building and designing schools for years and we have a lot of experience with finding locations that work. Rather than trying to figure it out on your own, let us help you find the perfect space for your school.
2 – Do I really need planning permission?
Yes, it will. Even with no issues, planning typically takes at least 13 weeks plus the time to the next meeting which is often 4 weeks. Which is why you really need to start before Christmas. We create customized plans to help you be successful. If you want some guidance with this process, we’re here to help!
Spring Term
3 – Can we have…?
If you’re in the next step, you finalize the detailed design. It’s now that you can determine the level of detail and spacing in your school buildings to best suit your pupils and teachers. With careful preparation, you can make your teaching area come to life with various features. These include the design of the walls, the lighting and color scheme, the location of sockets, and so on. We need your formal sign-off just after Easter, to give us time to submit our draft plans for Building Regulation approval; we have to give the Local Authority time to check and approve them before we get started on construction.
Summer Term
4 – When are you coming to the site?
Whilst you’re working through your busy summer term, we will help you complete the build of your module at our manufacturing facility. This is the last time we will be working together before your modules come to the site. We’ll be on-site too: we’ll be setting up the site, and the boundaries and setting up services below the ground so that work is ready to continue when it’s time for you to host your big Christmas party.
Summer Holidays
5 – When will you be finished?
We’re very excited to deliver your modules to the site – in some cases, it’s quite a process. We work with you and your teams to link the modules, complete the interior fit-out and fixtures, exterior finishes, landscaping, and coordinate building services like IT wiring and fire alarm systems. When we say we’ll deliver your project on time and on budget, we really mean it. We don’t just set up the modules and hand them over. We also build terraces and mend difficulties that may come up so that everything’s in order when you’re ready to start work.
