Roger Bullivant on eco-friendly piling

Roger Bullivant says the secret to any successful project starts with solid foundations. He tells James Stagg that it needn't come with any environmental cost.

"I have a motto: don't believe anything anybody says to you. Check, check and check again." Roger Bullivant, owner and chairman of the company that bears his name, believes it's the elements you can't see that matter the most, which is why he says his company's comprehensive work forms the foundation of a successful project.

Having been a recognised name in civil and structural engineering since 1971, the firm is now the largest foundation engineer in the country, with a turnover in excess of £120m. It began with small diameter mini-piling and has expanded into all types of piling packages. And since last year's acquisition of Buchan Concrete Solutions (see box), it now offers a superstructure package to complement its foundation solutions.

"Buchan and Bullivant now sell as a team," Bullivant explains. "We take on the liability and risk by tying together the total package in a fixed price per metre squared. We don't want to be the main contractor, but we do want to do the shell and main foundations."

He says that providing a fixed price means that contractors know exactly what to expect. "I'll stand up and be counted and say 'that's a package and I'm responsible'. We do various checks before quoting a fixed price and if there's a mistake we're responsible."

As well as the investment at Buchan, Bullivant says he spends £2m on research and development each year in order to keep his firm at the forefront of the industry. Its latest innovation is a foundation system designed to comply with the upper levels of the Code for Sustainable Homes.

"Nobody else offers a Code level six foundation at a fixed price," adds Bullivant. "We've done away with dig and dump. There's no excavation involved with this system."

SystemFirst is a combination of galvanised steel beams and high density polystyrene to create a lightweight and highly insulated floor slab. Bullivant says that in research, its method created just 20% of the carbon dioxide and used 12% of the water required of a traditional trench fill foundation. It also used considerably less concrete.

Foundation system

For installation, the beams are secured onto concrete pile caps before steel reinforcement is added to provide additional support. Polystyrene panels are then put in place, along with another thin layer of polystyrene followed by a thermal break. Magnetic steel brackets are used to secure temporary shuttering in place, before concrete is poured to create a solid base and complete the foundation.

Bullivant director John Patch says SystemFirst is a versatile foundation. "It can be used for a single dwelling or a commercial foundation, irrespective of the number and variety of the buildings," he adds. "Depending on the size of each plot, a team of three people can lay the foundations for about three or four buildings each day."

An early use of the system was completed last year, when the foundation was installed for a property in Chatham, Kent, but Bullivant is keen to stress it is not restricted to housing.

"At the moment, it is being used to build houses, but there is no reason why it cannot be used for building other much larger structures such as schools or offices," says chief engineer Nigel Rake. "Our own two- storey office was built on a SystemFirst foundation."

Buchan was acquired from Amec in April 2007. It was in what Steve Parker, Bullivant group production director, describes as "a poor financial state" with "no management structure" and "an orderbook that wasn't confirmed". Since then, the management team has been changed and "the pride has come back and so have the orders".

"It took some time though," Parker adds. "The first three months was convincing potential clients to work with us. Within the first fortnight I was down a tunnel in London trying to win a £5m job.

"I met the guys from Amec to convince them 'OK, it's not your company any more but we're going to give you the same service'."

It now looks like a farsighted move. Buchan gives Bullivant a route into sectors where it previously had no presence just at a time when its core sectors - housing and industrial - are struggling.

"We looked at the opportunities because we had the same client base," Parker continues. "The driving force was they were already there in schools, stadiums and prisons, and had the name and reputation. Instead of starting from scratch and making mistakes we would rather put the investment into Buchan."