Diving into your first Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) construction project can be daunting and for many contractors the great unknown or perceived risk of failure is just too much.
But did you know Wagners Composite Fibre Technologies (CFT) has a core-group of travelling tradies that help contractors get that first FRP job under their belt?
Pictured – Wagners CFT carpenter Ben Brooks-Veivers providing advice and support on the Oxfordshire Country Council ‘Willow Walk’ pedestrian bridge project installed by Milestone Infrastructure.
Wagners CFT’s fully qualified carpenter Ben Brooks-Veivers reckons the best part of his job is travelling the globe and sharing the tips and tricks of working with FRP.
“I did my trade in new housing on the Gold Coast between 2014 and 2017, so when the work dried up in 2019 and I moved to Toowoomba and got a job at Wagners CFT it was all new to me,” Ben Brooks-Veivers said.
“But I soon found the build with FRP is pretty much the same, it’s just the techniques are a little different to steel and timber,” Mr Brooks-Veivers said.
“There’s a lot more diamond blades and drill bits; you only used to use them when you went near tiles, but it’s the main thing I use now, it’s diamond everything,” he said.
“You still get a set of plans you’ve got to follow and once someone shows you a few things about connections and stuff like that it’s just really easy.”
The longevity of structures built from FRP and pride in your workmanship knowing that it is going to be around for a very long time are also key positives for Ben.
“Yeah in the residential housing industry we were putting up frames every other week so the work was consistently flat out and not very varied at all,” Ben Brooks-Veivers said.
“What I really enjoy about the commercial stuff we are doing at Wagners is that we are mainly working on custom built pedestrian boardwalks and bridges but each one is very unique and different with different needs being met for the client,” Mr Brooks-Veivers said.
“Because these are commercial projects and major infrastructure that will be around for a very long time you can take your time and take care of what you are doing; you get to be very pedantic and complete a project to the best of your abilities producing top quality structures,” he said.
“But it’s probably the size of the project we get to do in boardwalks and the complexity of the jobs that I really enjoy: from the perfectly straight, uniform boardwalks to these really cool s-bed boardwalks that snake their way through the landscape.”
“Technically these are the ones I really enjoy doing because from a chippies perspective they require talent and thought.”
Pictured – Pelkana Boardwalk at Warana showcasing the s-bend style Ben Brooks-Veivers favours.
Ben has travelled extensively throughout Australia and overseas as one of Wagners’ travelling tradies helping first-time FRP installers kick-off their projects or providing advice on more complex jobs.
“I was told when I started that there would be the opportunity down the track for travel, but it didn’t cross my mind that it would actually happen; I thought they’re not going to send me to a job for a week just to teach, but that’s exactly what’s happened and I really love it,” Ben Brooks-Veivers said.
“The training and mentoring side of the job is great and for most of the contractors I have worked with they have the knowledge of building and are really solid professionals but they just haven’t had the exposure to FRP so you only know what you know, and it’s easier, especially when you’re busy, just to do what you know,” Mr Brooks-Veivers said.
“So here in Australia I worked with the installers that did the boardwalk at Flynns Beach in Port Macquarie and Bicentennial Boardwalk in Airlie Beach; but probably my favourite job was a combined FRP and timber boardwalk in Warana on the Sunshine Coast ’cause I just really like those technical, s-bend boardwalks and I love the versatility of FRP when combined with traditional materials,” he said.
Pictured – Popular Flynns Beach in Port Macquarie featuring a Wagners CFT Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) boardwalk.
Earlier this year Ben travelled to the United Kingdom to provide advice and technical support to contactors installing a 15 metre bolted truss bridge in Oxforshire.
“We did the pre-build for this job in Australia to ensure the prefabrication was spot on and video-taped the entire assembly so that the construction crew in the UK could physically watch and see how we put it together,” Ben Brooks-Veivers said.
“Then we marked every profile so that it matched the Bill of Materials and disassembled the bridge, packing it into a shipping container before sending it to the UK,” Mr Brooks-Veivers said.
“Almost five months later the site was ready to accommodate the bridge and the UK crew started putting it together dialling in every now and then to check some details, or ask questions about the best way to do something; then after several weeks of postponements owing to flooding I flew out to the UK to double check the crew was on track and offer any advice and support that they needed to deliver the project,” he said.
“By the time I landed on site the crew were pretty well nearly finished because they were able to just crack on with the job referring to the hard copy Installation Guide and the video assembly we had done for them.”
“There were just a few tidy up things that I worked with them on and I think just knowing we were there at the end of the phone and all the pre prep work we did with them really just gave them the confidence to get the job done…and it wasn’t a bad effort for a crew that had never built a bridge and this was their first time building with composite.”
Pictured – The 15 metre bolted pedestrian FRP truss bridge was a first for installer Milestone Infrastructure.
The ease of working with FRP and how light it is are the two most common surprises for contractors.
“Yeah the UK crew were surprised at how easy the bridge went together and it blew their minds that they could pick up the entire 15 metre structure with just an excavator as they had no idea what to expect with the weight, it was just so light,” Ben Brooks-Veivers said.
“Given that these guys normally construct roads and asphalt bitumen it was a real buzz for them and just goes to prove how simple FRP can be to work with if you have the right support and advice and that confidence of knowing you’ve got a highly skilled support crew in Wagners CFT carpenters backing you up,” he said
Pictured – The Coastal Pathway near Palkana Park in Warana is part of a 73 kilometres long route from Bells Creek in the south to Coolum in the north. For more details on the Coastal Pathway visit Tea Tree Wetlands.
Wagners CFT General Manager Ryan Leeson said one of the greatest hurdles for contractors wanting to transition to construction with FRP was knowledge, know-how and confidence.
“We identified some time ago that contractors, from one man bands to national general contractors, are keen as mustard to construct with FRP knowing that it’s the material of choice for challenging environments like marine or coastal projects; but for many, limited exposure to the product or lack of confidence has prevented them from giving it a go,” Ryan Leeson said.
“So Wagners has developed a program whereby contractors can get the exposure to FRP and access the knowledge they need through tours and workshops of our manufacturing facility at Wellcamp, training both here at Wagners CFT or on-site at a job and support either informally or formally built into contracts like Ben described with the UK project,” Mr Leeson said.
“We’ve also developed an Installation Guide for contractors which walks them through key techniques like pile driving and splicing or riveting connections; and we’re currently building a library of ‘how to’ videos, which contractors can watch on demand at our YouTube channel as a reference source while on the job,” he said.
“As FRP becomes more and more commonplace in construction, contractors are becoming more and more interested in working with FRP and what we’ve found is that by providing teams with the opportunity to upskill and the support to get the advice they need when they need it, Wagners CFT is bridging that gap for contractors that do want to dive in and kick-off their first FRP project.”
If you’re interested in become a Wagners Installation Partner click here
For Wagners CFT Installation Guide click download now
To access the Wagners CFT ‘How To’ library on YouTube visit https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpfAuck0J_i3M6TyPAW8XFx8xG2-ibI25
And to discuss an upcoming project you’d like to construct using FRP contact your local Wagners CFT Business Development Manager Contact Us
