Carnehill Contracting offers complete fit-out solutions including joinery, furniture and specialist ceilings and partitions – to clients throughout Ireland and the UK and is also a pioneering market leader in light gauge steel frame construction. We met founder and managing director Niall O’Kane to learn more about the exceptional range of high-quality, innovative services provided.
Carnehill Contracting was established in February, 2003 and has enjoyed steady growth year on year, offering a broad range of services to clients and contractors in all construction sectors. By delivering complete, bespoke fit-out solutions within programme and on budget, they have established lasting relationships with key clients in the retail, education, leisure and commercial sectors.
Carnehill Contracting offers a full joinery service, including fire rated doors and screens, staircases and fitted furniture and also manufacture bespoke joinery items such as reception counters. All works are carried out in-house, where a skilled workforce engages state-of-the-art technology, tools and systems to guarantee top-quality craftsmanship and outstanding finishes.
Carnehill Contracting also boast extensive experience in all aspects of partitions, suspended ceilings and plastering. Typical partition installations include stud partitions, external wall lining systems, column fire encasement shaft wall construction and structural steel stud systems. Only the best suppliers in the business are used, including Gypsum, Lafarge and Knauf.
A full of range of plasterboard and metal stud partitions, which are lightweight and versatile, are offered for use in commercial developments, retail outlets, recreational, educational and pharmaceutical projects to meet all performance requirements.
Furthermore, Carnehill offer a full range of ceiling specifications from plasterboard ceilings to decorative suspended grid ceilings. These include metal panelled mineral fibre and glass fibre ceilings and manufacturers include Armstrong, SAS Ceilings, CEP Ceilings.
MD Niall O’Kane is confident that light gauge steel construction represents the future of residential and commercial building in Ireland and the UK and Carnehill Contracting has positioned itself as a pioneering force in this innovative sector. Carnehill specialises in providing a fast-track, certified steel frame system. Their skilled workforce has experience in erecting steel frame onsite or offsite and this system will minimise waste, increase quality and increase programme speed.
As a carpenter / joiner by trade, Niall started out doing residential and small, bespoke commercial fit-outs. When the recession struck, the company never broke stride. “We knuckled down and tightened the belts,” he reflects. “But the whole way through the recession our turnover rose year on year because nobody else was able to offer the service we were offering.
“We didn’t build up any debts and we owed no money. We worked hard and kept down the overdrafts and loans. My father always told me ‘if you can’t afford it, don’t buy it’ and that bit of advice served the business well. We just worked hard and paid our way.”
In recent years, the structural steel framing has been an exciting addition to Carnehill Contracting’s joinery, furniture, ceiling and partition services. Light gauge steel construction – which was originally developed for interior partitions in offices – is a practical alternative to wood framed construction, with many added benefits.
These steel structures are light and can be built quickly, they are stronger than wood frames, can be shaped to any form and clad and insulated with a wide range of materials. Light gauge steel structures are also non-combustible and do not rot, shrink, warp or decompose.
“They’re fast, strong and recyclable, true, straight, galvanised and resistant to fire,” Niall confirms. “We have developed this system over the past three years and have invested over €400,000 in R&D to get SCI (Steel Construction Institute) and NHBC certs, and we have opened an office in the UK.
“We can build a full eleven-storey building using that system, with no structural steel, no blocks and no concrete. It’s big business in the UK and we’ve already completed a seven-storey apartment building in Portstewart called The Ebb, which is the first of its kind in Ireland.”
Carnehill Contracting is the only company in Ireland with its own in-house design, supply and fit system in place for metal frame systems and Niall has successfully used the system on interior partitions at various Lidl outlets including their Nutts Corner Distribution Centre. “We’re putting a lot of money into it,” he continues. “This year, we are going to be investing €2.5m between that and the new joinery and metal frame workshops in Ashbourne, County Meath, which we’re developing on a greenfield site and hope to open by September to replace the existing facility in Cookstown, County Tyrone.”
Regarding the commercial joinery and bespoke furniture aspect of the business – where €900,000 has recently been invested in new equipment, including a new CNC drilling machine – Niall reveals: “About 85% of that work is carried out for main contractors such as John Sisk & Son, Walls Construction, JJ Rhatigan. ABM and Western Building Systems. There’s a core of people there who we work for regularly … we trust them and they trust us. The other 15%, which is our own main contracting work, is done for Dublin City Council and the OPW.”
Employment is generated at present for a crew of approximately 100, including 25 direct full-time employees. In house, the smooth running of the business is coordinated by two contracts managers, two quantity surveyors, an estimator and a purchasing department, while Niall is very much the hands-on MD, moving from job to job and site to site. “I make sure every project is completed successfully. Especially if there is a change required on site, we are in control and can change it instantly. We offer complete flexibility to the client and that’s why they use us over and over again. We take away their problems and are available around the clock to make sure they are completely satisfied.”
Some current projects include fit-outs at Powerstown Gaelscoil, Carrigaline Post Primary School, BMS, Beacon South Quarter ten-story apartments in Sandyford and assorted rapid-build housing schemes for DCC. Recently delivered projects include fit-outs at Ballyroan Library, the new Lidl HQ in Tallaght, the FAI’s head offices, Kildare Civic Offices, Ashbourne Educational Campus and St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra
With €7.75m worth of jobs ongoing at the time of writing, Carnehill Contracting has clearly earned an unrivalled reputation for excellence. “We offer clients a rapid path from design through to delivering on site,” says Niall. “Having one point of contact on site leaves things easier for the main contractor. We can streamline it and bring it ahead of programme and within budget. You have to work efficiently and offer them a reason to appoint you over somebody else and this often comes down to something other than price. We can speed things up on site because we are in control of the entire fit-out. We can coordinate everything, whereas if they didn’t have us they could have five different specialist subcontractors all pulling in different directions.”
In conjunction with the light gauge steel frame construction, Niall’s ultimate goal is to be able to provide a full one-stop shop for both build and fit-outs. “Steel frames are competitive with traditional methods with the added benefit of vastly reduced programmes. They offer longer life expectancy than timber frames and are 90% recycable,” he concludes. “This is the system of the future. It’s already massive in the EU and I’m expecting it to catch on here, too.
“We had a turnover of €12m last year of which metal framing accounted for Eu3m. 2017 turnover projectors are Eu18m. We have taken that system internally as well for internal walls and ceilings and it’s highly durable, efficient, load bearing and can’t be damaged.”
These are exciting times for Carnehill Contracting, who have already proven themselves as the fit-out contractor of choice and are now broadening their horizons in the brave new world of light gauge steel framing.
Carnehill Contracting Ltd.
Unit 5D, Kilowen House,
South Link Business Park,
Naas,
County Kildare.
Email: [email protected]
Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, April 2017, Vol 3 No 3
