Colt have been building the highest quality timber framed houses for nearly 100 years and have outstanding expertise in this field. You can encounter their expert craftsmanship in over 16,000 houses in the UK as well as houses but they have also been built in all the countries of Europe including Norway and Sweden, the Seychelles, the Falkland Islands, the Faroe Islands and even Africa. 

The beauty of timber framed houses are that they are warm in winter, cool in summer and considered very economical in upkeep. Specially designed and pre-fabricated in the factory, when erected each has its own individual character and there is certainly no feeling of mass production or standardisation. Colt Houses are anything but “flat pack” with endless variation possible, architecturally and practically.

 

In recent years the natural expansion of Colt Housing saw a move to Woodchurch in 2012 where their continued growth in the bespoke design of timber framed houses and their focus on customer care has seen the Director re-think their Woodworking Shop/ Factory to accommodate this progression.

 

The processes used during the production of the timber frames such as sawing, shaping and sanding produce soft and hardwood hazardous dusts, these can cause asthma, respiratory disease and cancer. Colt have a legal requirement to control exposure to these airborne contaminants to statutory limits to safeguard their woodworking team’s health and wellbeing.

 

Colt’s existing solution to this problem was the use of a single bag extraction system which they connected to each and every woodworking machine whilst in use, which was simply slowing down production and becoming less and less effective.

 

In 2014 as business growth continued the Director of Colt Houses decided to invest in additional machinery to meet the demands of his customers, and at this point realised the extraction methods being used would no longer be appropriate or effective.

 

He knew he needed to increase production efficiency with more than one woodworking machine being used at any one time, continue to control dust exposure to the specified WEL’s (Work Exposure Limit’s) and reorganise the workshop to further enhance customer visits.

 

Following a search on the internet the Director located two Dust Extraction Companies to assess if either could provide the necessary Dust Extraction Solution to meet Colt Houses needs. The HSE expect the customer to ensure the competence of their selected LEV (Local Exhaust Ventilation) supplier, so this stage was key.

 

When P&J’s Technical Sales department received the call from Colt a mutually agreed date was arranged within a week for our LILEVE qualified Engineer to attend site. When he arrived to meet the Workshop Manager requirements were discussed and following a detailed inspection of the workshop our Design Engineer took his site survey back to head office to enable him to recommend the most suitable extraction unit for Colts workshop.

 

On the same day P&J recommended one of their manufactured modular system, a PJ 3 bag unit with 12 housed filters as the most suitable for Colt as when in use with both their existing and new woodworking machinery it would guarantee to control the exposure for all employees to the hazardous substance emitted to within the WEL (Workplace Exposure Limit), increase production by enabling multiple woodworking machines to be used at any one time and would vastly neaten/tidy up the workshop/factory’s appearance.