Features

The Formwork Contractor of choice

18 Nov , 2019  

Based in Rathcoole, Co Dublin, Admore Structures are specialists in all aspects of Formwork offering solutions for all Reinforced Concrete Frame requirements. Building Ireland found out more from company Managing Director, Gary O’Reilly.

Having first been founded in 2006, Admore Structures was set-up to offer its clients solutions for all Reinforced Concrete Frame requirements.

Now, 13 years on, the company has built a reputation for excellence and innovation in Concrete Formwork, providing formwork solutions for most type of structures.

Admore Structures are now the Formwork Contractor of choice for many of the leading construction companies throughout Ireland.

The company is headed up by its Managing Director, Gary O’Reilly, and business partner Stuart Keaney. They employ anywhere from 60 to 100 staff directly throughout the year, as well as specialist sub-contractors.

The London native was good enough to take some time recently to fill Building Ireland in on the rest.

“We’re a formwork contractor and we provide the full formwork package for our clients – shuttering, steel fixing and concrete work,” he explained.

“We’ve done all scales of formwork package from the start, and now we have been fortunate enough to progress to bigger clients and projects. One of the biggest is being carried out for PJ Hegarty at Fitzwilliam Square, ESB HQ, which started for us in July 2018.”

As for Gary’s own background, his Irish roots come from his late father Gerry O’Reilly, a Cavan man born in the village of Mullagh.

Gerry’s work brought him to London and it saw his children born in the English capital, as Gary explained.

“I was born and raised in London and was always interested in the business,” he stated.

“I travelled a bit and having spent a year in Australia, realized that to get on, a few more years education were required. I started in London as a QS for a Main Contractor, and moved on, post qualification, to work for leading London Sub Contractor the McGee Group.

Stuart’s background is similar, born in Coventry, returning to Wexford to finish his education in Ireland. Starting out in the construction industry as a steelfixer for his late father Mick’s Steelfixing sub contracting firm.

“In 2006, having linked up with Stuart, we decided to go out on our own. We concentrated on the smaller Main Contractors and built a reputation for a no fuss attitude to all the projects we undertook. Then the recession hit and like everyone, we struggled through the bleakness and  thankfully, never had to liquidate. The market started to turn in 2012, and we started our first real big project in Sandyford in 2015.”

That project was Block H in Central Park, Sandyford, for Collen Construction, and saw Admore Structures completing, an original, pre-recession programme, of 52 week in just 28 weeks.

“That brought us to prominence,” Gary beamed. “We started to be approached by Main Contractors, like Sisk, and the size and scale of projects started to increase. We now had the pedigree required to be awarded projects that prior to Block H weren’t coming our way.

“We’ve always tried to build relationships, whether it’s with the supplier or with our clients, and I think it has stood to us over the years. If we can get to the table, at design stage , we can work through and simplify the construction process, to enable a fast and efficient RC Frame, whether it be utilizing slip-form core construction, or simply reducing/rationalizing the number of bar marks in the reinforcement detailing.”

Indeed the company has built a reputation for excellence and innovation in Concrete Formwork over these past 13 years.

Gary and Stuart ensure to provide their formwork solutions for most type of structures and their extensive experience and expertise include wall formwork, slab formwork, column formwork, climbing formwork, circular formwork, single-sided formwork, shell construction, lift shaft and stairwells, shoring, slipform, post tensioning, and basically anything that is requested in reinforced concrete.

Formwork is of course the process of providing a temporary structure (shell) to freshly poured concrete, allowing it to cure until it can fully support itself.

Admore Structures can offer multiple Formwork solutions from a lightweight system for smaller building projects to heavy-duty systems for the construction of larger buildings.

The company provides formwork solutions for many complex formwork applications; they ensure the efficient and precise forming of all concrete structures.

Admore are specialists in all aspects of formwork related services and endeavour to make sure that they stay competitive when it comes to their pricing.

As the Managing Director himself explained, this particular industry, revolves around competitive pricing and a challenging programme, when it comes to winning the big projects.

“This is a different marketplace to when we first started out – the cheapest price takes all,” he said. “A Main Contractor will bring you in to talk through a project at tender stage, and assist in the tender process, and that may be the last you here of the project, even if they are successful.

“Like I said, these are different times and the whole construction industry has changed from how it used to be.”

The change hasn’t necessarily been a bad thing for Admore as they have gained some former employees from forced movement abroad during the recessionary times.

They’ve come back with some valuable experience under their belt to, according to the boss.

“Lads that left during the recession have come back and we’re getting lucky in that department,” he said.

“They were forced abroad, economic necessity,  are starting to come back now. While you can get some amazingly academic people from out of college, they just haven’t got the experience.  It’s hard to beat those with the experience in this industry.”

Indeed Admore’s experienced on-site and management teams ensure all jobs are conducted with the highest level of quality and safety.

The Admore name is synonymous with delivering projects on time and to exact specification and the firm employs rigorous Health & Safety processes to insure the experience, competency and capability of their staff to maintain a safe working environment on every formwork project.

The ‘ethos’ of Admore Structures is to find the easiest, safest, and most cost effective way to provide clients with the finished product they envisioned and a service they will continue to use and recommend to others.

Admore Structures

Unit 502C, Third Floor, Grants Row,

Greenogue Business Park, Rathcoole

Co Dublin

Tel: (01) 401 6633

E-mail: [email protected]

Opening hours: Mon – Fri: 9:00 – 17:00

Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, August, Vol 5 No 8