Making Hay While the Sun Shines
There’s nothing quite as satisfying for us at Shufflebottom as when a longstanding customer just keeps coming back for more. It’s testament not only to the quality of our steel-framed agricultural buildings, but also to the quality of our customer service.
Such is the case with our lovely Buckinghamshire customer, Mr Philip McIntosh, of Radnage for whom we have recently (May 2024) supplied and erected, not one, but two new buildings for Lower Bottom Farm, where he farms cereals in the rolling hillsides of the Chilterns.
The first building is an extension to one of Shufflebottom’s existing buildings and is to be used for hay storage, and the second is a completely new non-load bearing building to be used for machine storage. Both are built to agricultural specification and CE Marked to Execution Class 2.
The extension is of considerable extent measuring 60ft long x 40ft wide x 18ft to eaves and incorporates 3 x 20ft bays. The steelwork is shotblast to B.S. SA 2.5. painted with 75 microns Zinc Phosphate High Build Primer – colour 14C39 (Green). The roof is clad in Natural Grey P6R Fibre Cement with Closed Ridges and the sides clad with Vertical 0.5mm Moorland Green Shufflebottom 1000/32 Plastic Coated Box profile with MetSEC side rails incorporating 1 x gable column.
The new building is extensive too, measuring 80ft long x 60ft wide x 16ft to eaves and incorporates 4 x 20ft bays. Again, the steelwork is shotblast to B.S. SA 2.5. painted with 75 microns Zinc Phosphate High Build Primer – colour 14C39 (Green), and again the roof is clad in Natural Grey P6R Fibre Cement with Closed Ridges. The sides in this specification are clad in Vertical Treated Timber Castle Boarding.
The whole experience of investing in, and having buildings delivered and erected on a working farm where life has to go on during the process, can sometimes be a challenge. We are therefore thrilled at Shufflebottom that Mr McIntosh took time out of his busy hay-making schedule to give us his feedback. And it’s music to our ears!
Not only is he pleased with the finished buildings, but has stated that the whole experience was ‘a pleasure.’ This meant that he could relax and focus on his own farm work knowing that the erecting team were ‘doing a proper job and not trying to cut corners’ and that the team were prompt and kept to schedules, being in the yard before him every day ‘cracking on with the job.’
Mr McIntosh also gave a big shout out to our #teamofsteel here at HQ in Cross Hands. He singles out Tony Phipps, a member of our sales team, for being ‘patient with [Mr McIntosh’s] evolving ideas as the project progressed’, and Steve Sharp, our valued surveyor, for ‘his attention to detail and precision.’ He doesn’t forget to thank the steelwork driver either, for his ‘can do attitude’ and his ability to negotiate the tight access to the site without mishap.
This story of Mr McIntosh’s project we hope illustrates that it’s not just what we do at Shufflebottom, but the way that we do it, which make customers trust us and return to us time and time again. Mr McIntosh indeed was able to make hay while the sun shone!
”Thank you to the whole team at Shufflebottom for getting the project done for me in time. Hay is currently (25th June, 2024) being stacked inside.“
Philip McIntosh, Farmer, Lower Bottom Farm
REF: E14779 and E14780