On Engineers Week we are celebrating the technical expertise of our talented engineers. Steve Higginbottom, Senior Technical Engineer at Keystone Lintels reflects on his favourite project, the Church Farm Barns and shares his advice for aspiring engineers.
What inspired you to become an engineer?
Engineering is something I’ve grown up around. The majority of my family currently work or have worked in engineering across various disciplines. I started in the construction industry working as a bricklayer, it’s definitely a lot warmer now working as an engineer though!
The Church Farm Barns project has always been a firm favourite of mine. There were several styles of special brick slip feature arch lintels required and it was interesting to see a prefabricated product blend seamlessly with the old style barn dwellings.
Tell us some background information on this particular project?
The schedule originally came to us through TG Builders Merchants. Keystone’s Area Sales Manager, John Kinney, won the order visiting the site on a number of occasions and reassuring Chamberlain Developments the Keystone products supplied would be of a high quality, consistently produced and fairly priced.
What was the challenge in this project?
There were numerous brick slip feature lintels to design and manufacture, so we had to communicate with the merchant and contractor frequently to ensure all the details were correct. From lintel and brick dimensions and brick availability to lead times on site in line with the project build schedule.
What one piece of advice would you give to any aspiring young engineers?
Think outside the box! Don’t think that just because something has always been done a certain way, that is the only option. Look for new innovative ways to solve a problem.