Advice

At the moment it seems like every architect and designer wants to specify glass for their current office planning project.  It compliments the sleek clean lines of modern office buildings and the way it reflects light whilst being transparent  really opens up an office space.
But the problem with glass meeting tables or desking is that they do not work well will cables and computer equipment.
Everyone knows of offices where above desk level everything looks fine but look underneath and there is a mass of wires, a CPU or two, transformers, extension sockets and even spare shoes and bags.
These aren’t that noticeable when the desk has a opaque surface – the dark area below is hidden from view, but with a glass top all of your mess is revealed in detail.

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It may sound strange  but now more than ever is the time to avoid buying cheaply, as this invariably means worse value for money in the long run.
It has always been a false economy to make your buying decision purely on price, although most people will agree that, at the time, the cheapest does seem to be the most attractive.
This is true even more so now than in the past, with the internet and EBAY giving you the same product from different suppliers, all with their best prices. 

So the only thing to go on is price, as there is not much to differentiate between the suppliers other than the price.

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Although there seems to be some respite in some areas of the UK, the winter weather is still with us and continuing to cause many problems for everyone.

Our office furniture fitters have been having real problems meeting their delivery schedules, not just because of the extra time it takes to get round, but because when they do finally get there the person who ordered the desks or chairs hasn’t made it to work. 

 But whilst listening to our fitters moaning about how difficult driving a van load of heavy office furniture in 20 cm of snow is, they have come up with some  tips which may be of use to you.

Apart from the standard ones of taking enough outdoor clothing as if you are walking to work, and making sure you have water and snacks on board, ( plus an app on your iphone which points you to the nearest Macdonalds)  they also have the following to say:-

 If you drive a 4 x 4 please remember that you probably have tyres which are primarily designed for dry weather and high speed grip. So you may have more traction (ability to pull away in slippery conditions) but you wont have more grip ( ability to stop) if the road is icy or covered in snow.

The added traction from 4 wheel drive may make you feel more confident than you should be, resulting in you travelling faster than you should.

If you want more grip then you need to get tyres which are specially made for snow and ice.

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This is just a precautionary tale to any of you who have taken images from the internet for use on your own website or promotional material and nothing to do with our business of providing office furniture.

You may think that no copyright exists ( the pictures may even be on a free picture site , but you must make absolutely of the status of the pictures. If you don’t, then there is a good chance that you will be slapped with a £1,000 bill by Getty Images, who seem to be very active in this respect.

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It’s easy to get confused with warranties in general and trying to work out what is and what’s not covered can be very difficult to work out. You can be left in the same situation with office furniture if you are not careful. So hopefully the following will clear up some of the grey areas.

First of all most office furniture guarantees are for 5 years but many of the furniture “pile it high and sell it cheap” dealers, exclude any moving parts and upholstery from this warranty, if not from the beginning, then after one year.

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Deciding on what will fit your office space is a daunting task which is best left to a professional office furniture dealer. Whilst you can download a basic drawing package from the internet, these will at best only contain generic furniture shapes and will not be able to show you what is available in the market today. 

You need to call on the experience and expertise of someone who works in the industry and has resolved similar problems to yours, many times before.

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Many offices nowadays suffer from excessive levels of noise, caused by a variety of factors, some of which can be easily addressed.

We have produced a questionnaire which allows us to numerically evaluate your noise problem and give you a score as to how effective our solutions will be.

In the past the biggest problem with paying for a quieter office was that it was difficult to quantify what sort of improvement you might expect for your investment. Too many factors which could not be changed would affect the overall result, and the client risked the possibility of spending a substantial amount of money for very little discernable improvement.
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Significant changes have been made to the First aid at Work Regulation with effect from the 1st of October 2009.

Businesses needs to familiarise themselves with these changes to avoid falling foul of the new regulations.

Although safety records in offices  have improved significantly over the last 10 years there is still much to do.  Many businesses comply in spirit only to the current regulations, not realising that there is a current legal requirement for first aid training, risk assessment  and to appoint qualified personal within their offices.

Full details of the changes to be implemented can be found on the St Johns Ambulance site ( where there is also a very useful online questionnaire to help you find out if you are meeting your responsibilities).

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Swine Flu could be a computer virus.

Well not quite, but recent research has shown that the average keyboard carries up to 4,000 different germs, and swine flu could be one of them. Don’t forget that the virus can live outside of a warm body for up to 20 hours so it could be lurking there to catch you in the morning. 

A while ago we told you  about the health risks associated with dirty keyboards, computers and office telephones; you may remember that the average office desk top has been shown to have more germs per square inch than your average toilet seat.

A frightening image no doubt, but logical if you consider that most public conveniences are professionally cleaned twice a day, whereas the most a keyboard can expect is a dusting every few days, but hardly ever a good deep clean.

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Tambour Cupboards

A Buyers Guide to Office Storage Products

CH Workspace stocks all the office storage products that you are likely to need! Our best seller is the versatile Tambour Cupboard range, there are many different variants, most of which are held in stock and available for delivery in as little as five working days.
The modern tambour cupboards have slatted doors which ‘roll’ into the side of the cupboard. Unlike earlier models, which rolled vertically, modern tambour mechanisms are reliable and maintenance free Taking up very little space in the side of the cupboard, they free up a lot of space at the front of the cupboard, unlike traditional swing door systems. Unlike some competitors cupboards, our tambours come with a full set of adjustable shelves. All of our shelves include fittings for standard lateral filing systems, so no optional extras are needed to fully equip our cupboards for standard filing. Naturally, specific shelves are available for specific purposes, for example the storage of computer media. We also have pull-out filing frames for vertical file storage, and special pull out library-type shelves for examining file contents. Our extensive tambour cupboard range has a wide variety of sizes, frame finishes and door finishes to match almost any office environment. Most of our Tambour cupboards have a pre-welded steel frame for maximum stability and security, but we do have flatpacked and wood variants available as well. Continue reading »