Like most other businesses in the construction industry, 2021 has brought us several challenges – navigating our way through lockdowns, adapting to changing covid safety site procedures, maintaining motivation across our teams, managing our projects through material shortages and keeping up the momentum for growing our company.
None of this has been easy but, because of the fantastic support Sheriff received from its team and business associates, we’ve overcome those challenges and kept our company on the path of success. Read on to see some of the highlights from 2021, including how Sheriff celebrated this success by bringing back the Christmas party!
Globally, in every town and every city, concrete is used to give our buildings shape and strength. But the huge scale of the concrete industry comes at a cost – it’s estimated that around 7% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions come from the manufacture and use of cement, which is the main component of concrete.
Now, a team from the University of Tokyo have come up with a new kind of concrete that has the potential to reduce emissions from the construction industry! Read on to find out more about this concrete of the future.
If you’ve ever wanted to get into property development, you might start by reading a book, listening to a podcast, taking some training or heading straight to the bank to check out the finance options. Or you could begin by asking someone who’s done it before and seek to follow their example.
In this week’s blog, we’re showcasing one example of our property development projects, Kingham Way, and sharing our start-to-finish video which really shows how a project like this takes shape over time. Read on for more details and to watch our video.
When the use of flat-roofing in construction hit its first wave of popularity (roughly from the 1950’s to 1970s), most of the properties that were built during that time offered little or no insulation. This approach, known as ‘cold roof’ construction, is now only rarely used as modern day property developments are far more likely to use ‘warm roofing’ methods which help to ensure rooms in the building are warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, thereby reducing energy usage, bills and environmental impact.
In this week’s blog, we’re putting the spotlight on roofing insulation, its benefits and what’s changed between the older and newer generation systems.
Between July and September this year, the number of vacancies in construction soared to around 43,000 *. That’s double the amount of unfilled jobs the sector saw this time last year and the highest level ever recorded in the 20 years since the data was first collected back in 2001!
While this (alongside other issues like the rising costs of materials) might seem to be cause for concern as we head into the winter, some industry and recruitment experts believe things may be about to change. Find out more, including news of current vacancies at Sheriff, in this week’s blog.
With the news headlines moving slightly away from the coronavirus pandemic into an almost daily dose of woe about the energy market crisis, in today’s blog we’re looking at what effect this might have on construction.
While Sheriff Construction and other building contractors like us do not use very much natural gas in our day-to-day work, the problem is that our suppliers do. Manufacturing the materials we use is often energy intensive and, with the hike in the price of gas, it’s inevitable that those costs will start to pass through the procurement process. One leading economist is warning the industry to be prepared for a ‘phase of rising prices’ in bricks, cement and concrete. Read on for more information.
For construction site workers, every day tends to start with a work gear checklist that looks something like this: Helmet – check, Boots – check, Hi-vis – check, Jetpack – check.
Hold up a minute, what was that last one – a jetpack? OK, so it may not be on the list right now but, with the launch of a new jetpack prototype that’s designed to support maintenance and inspection work at hard-to-reach sites, perhaps the jetpack will become one of those essential items soon! Who’s ready to fly?
Calling on the world’s built environment to focus on delivering sustainable buildings for everyone, everywhere, World Green Building Week is the largest campaign of its kind.
So, although the official campaign, which is organised annually by the World Green Building Council, was officially last week (20th – 24th September), perhaps something this important deserves our attention every week! Read on for all the detail.
Did you know that, in the UK, even under our usually cloudy skies, up to 80% of dangerous UV rays can still get through. And, because of their heightened exposure to the sun, five outdoor workers a day in Britain get skin cancer and 60 people lose their life every year as a direct result. We hate to spoil the mood on this lovely, warm September day but, with the sun shining down on our outdoor workforce, it’s a good time to remind everyone of the dangers of the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays and it’s relation to what’s sometimes called the ‘invisible killer’. Find out what you can do to minimise the risk in today’s blog.
For any company to be successful, good leadership is essential. This is true across many different industries and the main issue for construction businesses is achieving this at all the various leadership levels across their organisation. Among other things, we need great leaders in the office to provide direction on the business strategy, principles and procedures; we need great leaders on board at the very beginning of every project to engage with clients and oversee safety, costs and budgeting; and we need great leaders on the ground at each site to manage schedules, monitor progress and motivate the team. With so much riding on it, we’re taking a moment this week to reflect on what good leadership in construction actually looks like.