Steel Erection Middlesbrough

What we erect on Teesside

Mezzanines and internal platforms are the ones people assume will be difficult, because there is no way to get a crane to them. That is routine work for us using gantries and jacking equipment. See lift and shift in Middlesbrough.

Where we work in and around Middlesbrough

Steel work on Teesside comes from a mix of new build and alterations to buildings already in use.

Industrial units and distribution

Skippers Lane, Riverside Park, Preston Farm and Teesside Industrial Estate. New portal frame units and extensions to existing ones, usually on a programme set by the groundworks ahead of us. See our industrial sector page.

Mezzanines and internal alterations

Floor space added inside existing buildings across the Tees Valley, where the steel has to come in through a door and go up without a crane. The building usually stays in use while it happens.

Process and chemical sites

Access platforms, pipe supports and plant support steel at Wilton, Billingham and Seal Sands, where the work runs on the operator’s permit system and hot work is often restricted. See our chemicals sector page.

Offshore wind and the energy supply chain

Fabrication halls and workshops along the estuary being extended or fitted out, where the steel goes up around work already under way. See our power and renewables page.

Commercial and retail

Smaller frames, canopies and structural alterations in the town centre and around Middlehaven, where access, road space and working hours are the constraints rather than the steel.

Food, drink and packaging

Support steel and platforms inside production buildings, planned around hygiene areas and a line that does not stop for long. See our food and beverages page.

Access and planning for steel erection in Middlesbrough

The steel arriving is the easy part. These are the things that decide whether it goes up on programme:

• The lift plan, written before the steel is ordered. Where the crane stands, what it can reach at what radius, and which members it can place from each position. Done early it shapes the delivery sequence. Done late it is a constraint everyone else has to work around.
• Temporary stability. A frame is only stable once the bracing is in, so the sequence has to leave a safe structure at every break. Where it does not, temporary bracing or guying is designed in as part of the method.
• Crane standing and ground. On Teesside that means made and reclaimed ground on a lot of sites, plus buried services on the older estates. Pads get designed to the bearing pressure they will actually see.
• Deliveries and lay-down. Steel is best lifted from the trailer where the site allows it, which needs the loads to arrive in erection order. Where there is no lay-down area at all, the delivery sequence becomes the programme.
• Wind. Large panels and light members stop being liftable well before the crane reaches its limit. We work to the load and the rigging on the day, and we would rather stand a job down than take a chance with a big surface area in a gusting easterly.
• Road closures. Where a crane or a delivery needs road space we arrange the traffic management and road closure with Middlesbrough Council, or with Redcar and Cleveland or Stockton as the site requires.

What we take on

Steel projects go wrong at the boundaries between trades, so it is worth being plain about ours.

What we take on

Erection of the frame, bolting up, lining and levelling, fitting bracing and secondary steel, and erecting light gauge framing. Dismantling of existing steel. The lift planning and the lifting equipment that goes with all of it, with an appointed person planning to BS 7121.

What sits with other trades

The groundworks and holding-down bolts come before us and the cladding follows us, and on most projects those sit in separate packages. Where a specification calls for something outside the erection package, raise it at enquiry and we will tell you how we would cover it, rather than leaving you to find out at tender return.

Who our operatives are

CPCS and CSCS carded, working to the lift plan and the method statement, with the same people doing the lifting who do the erecting. That is the practical advantage of a lifting contractor erecting steel: the crane and the gang are not two separate companies with two separate views of the sequence.

Postcodes and areas we cover

We cover every TS postcode. Steel work comes from across the area:

• Middlesbrough: Riverside Park, Skippers Lane, Cargo Fleet, Mandale Park, Middlehaven, South Bank and Grangetown
• Redcar and Cleveland: Wilton, Lackenby, the South Tees site and the Redcar estates
• Stockton borough: Preston Farm, Teesside Industrial Estate, Thornaby and Eaglescliffe
• North of the river: Billingham, Seal Sands, Haverton Hill and Hartlepool
• Wider Tees Valley: Newton Aycliffe, Aycliffe Business Park, Darlington and the A1(M) corridor

We erect steel across the UK from the same depot. See all the areas we cover.

Why Middlesbrough firms choose Synergy Lifting for steel erection

• Lifting is what we do for a living. Most steel erectors hire a crane in and work to whatever the hire company sends. We plan the lift ourselves, with an appointed person, and the plan drives the erection sequence instead of trailing behind it.
• One gang for the lifting and the erecting. The people rigging the steel and the people bolting it up are the same team, so there is no handover point for the sequence to fall through.
• We tell you early where a job does not suit us. If a project needs something outside the erection package, you will hear it at enquiry stage and not after a tender return.
• The awkward ones suit us. Mezzanines with no crane access, extensions tied into a frame that is still in use, and platforms threaded around live plant are the jobs where lifting competence counts for more than gang size.
• Qualified and accredited. CPCS and CSCS carded operatives, lifts planned to BS 7121 by an appointed person, equipment inspected under LOLER and PUWER, SSIP approved, Constructionline Gold Member, certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, and members of the Construction Plant-hire Association.

Related services

Steel work usually arrives with one or two of these:

• Crane hire in Middlesbrough
• Lift and shift in Middlesbrough
• Industrial plant dismantling in Middlesbrough
• Cladding and roofing
• Labour supply and site services
• Electric pick and carry crane hire
• Traffic management and road closures

On mezzanines and internal steel the electric pick and carry machine earns its place, because it works inside a building with no fumes and gets into spaces a mobile crane cannot reach.

How a steel erection job works

1. Send us the general arrangement drawings and the steel schedule, with the site address and the programme dates. If the steel is not ordered yet, so much the better, because the erection sequence can still shape the delivery sequence.
2. We look at the site: crane standing positions, ground, access for deliveries, lay-down, and anything overhead. On a straightforward portal frame we can quote from drawings and photographs the same working day.
3. We produce the lift plan, method statement and risk assessment, including temporary stability and any bracing or guying the sequence needs.
4. We agree the delivery order with your fabricator so the steel arrives in the order it goes up.
5. We erect, brace, line and level, and hand over a frame ready for the trades that follow.

Common questions

What do you need from us to price it?

General arrangement drawings, the steel schedule and the site address get us most of the way. Photographs of the site, plus anything you know about ground conditions, delivery access and where a crane could stand, let us price the method instead of pricing a guess. If the steel is not ordered yet, say so, because the erection sequence can still shape the delivery sequence.

Who plans the lift?

We do, with an appointed person planning to BS 7121. That is the part most steel packages leave to whoever the crane comes from, and it is the reason our sequence and our lifting tend to agree with each other. The plan covers the crane positions, what can be placed from each one, and the temporary stability at every break in the work.

Can you erect steel we have had made elsewhere?

Yes, and that is the normal arrangement. Send the general arrangement drawings and the steel schedule. The one thing worth checking early is that the connections and holding-down bolts match what is actually in the ground, because that is the most common reason a first day on site is lost.

What size of job do you take?

We have the lifting capability for large frames and we do take that work. In practice the jobs that suit us best are portal frame buildings, light gauge steel framing, mezzanines, extensions and platform steel, where one competent team plans the lift and gets on with it. If you have a very large multi-storey frame it is worth a conversation about whether we are the right contractor for it.

There is no crane access to where the steel is going. Is that a problem?

Not usually. Mezzanines and internal platforms are routine for us with gantries, jacking equipment and the electric pick and carry machine, which works inside a building without fumes. It is one of the few things a lifting contractor brings to steel erection that a general erector often cannot.

Do you dismantle steel as well as erect it?

Yes. Frames coming down for reconfiguration or reuse, with the sequence planned around residual stability as members are released, and steel match-marked where it is going back up.

Get a quote for steel erection in Middlesbrough

• Phone: 01642 843 216
• Email: middlesbrough@synergy-lifting.co.uk

Send the general arrangement drawings, the steel schedule and the site address, and we will come back the same working day. We also provide crane hire in Middlesbrough and lift and shift in Middlesbrough, and steel erection across the UK. See the steel erection and dismantling service.

See all the steel erection locations.