Colonial Buildings, Bradford

Built in 1889, this attractive six-storey building was designed for the storage of woollen bales following wool sorting and blending. It has been converted into 75 luxury apartments with an additional mezzanine floor to create duplex apartments within the clear span, arching roof structure.

The private road at the rear has been relaid and landscaped with sandstone setts to provide individual parking bays. A central lift and two flights of stairs provide access to each apartment. Thomasons organised special testing of the timber floor beams to identify the species and grade of timber used. This testing justified the use of higher timber stresses in the appraisal calculations which proved that the proposed strengthening steelwork to every beam was no longer required.

Thomasons provided the structural inspection and appraisal reports and has provided all the structural engineering services throughout the contract to completion.