Contract Furniture
Range
We manufacture a wide range of contract furniture for the Heathcare and Leisure markets. Our Healthcare markets include – care homes, nursing homes, hostels, hospices and the NHS while on the Leisure side of the business we service hotels, restaurants, cafes, bars, guest houses and student and key worker accommodation
We provide seating for reception, lounge, bedroom, dining and cafe areas and cabinet furniture for bedrooms.
For informal reception seating we think our pods fit the bill while for more formal receptions and lounges we have a wide range of lounge chairs, tubs and sofas in both classic and contemporary designs.
For restaurant areas we can provide a range of show wood dining chairs or for cafe’s our bistro furniture provides a simple, inexpensive solution.
Bedrooms are catered for by a number of our ranges of cabinet furniture with the Manhattan the most striking. Guest desk chairs can be found in the tubs and dining and side chair sections of the site. It’s also worth noting that nearly all of our sofa’s can be manufactured as sofa beds
An overview of the product range can be found on the products page of the website.
Manufacturing
Contract bedroom cabinet furniture is manufactured from high grade MF MDF and MFC. Tops are either vinyl wrapped or have polished or banded edges.
Our contract chairs are manufactured from air or kiln dried European hard woods from sustainable sources. Mostly this is beech, but we also use ash, sycamore and birch.
Upholstered chair frames are constructed using glued, screwed and dowelled components while show wood frames use comb and mortice & tenon joints for strength.
Bespoke
Bespoke contract furniture is available in both seating and in cabinet products. We are happy to produce furniture from a customer's drawing or sketch for large projects.
We can customize our contract bedroom furniture to produce fitted furniture for any scheme but can also produce bespoke sizes of non fitted furniture if required. We can accommodate colour finishes outside our standard range on large schemes, while handles can also be changed at a minimum of additional cost.
We are also happy to modify any of our existing range of contract chairs to suit a customer's particular requirement. On chairs changes in leg type, foam or fibre specification, lumbar support, stapling, and seat height are all easily carried out at a minimum of additional cost and for products in small quantities.
We supply most contract chairs at a seat height of 460mm, but 410 and 510mm seat heights are available on most chairs. A chair that is too low can be difficult to get out of, while one that is too high will be difficult to get into and uncomfortable to sit in.
The other critical factor in the comfort of contract chairs is the arrangement of the back. Ideally the seat depth should be short enough for the customer to sit up against the back of the seat without extra cushions. Lumbar support helps produce a good, comfortable sitting position and is available either as standard or an optional extra in all our chairs. Ask our sales office for further information.
The rake of the back is also important. A rake that is too inclined makes it difficult to get out of the chair. A rake that is too steep makes the contract chair uncomfortable. All our chairs are designed with this in mind to combine comfort with usability.
Quality
The Furniture Industry Research Association (FIRA) is the main test body in this area in the UK and tests contract chairs to BS EN 15373:2007, bedroom cabinet furniture to BS 4875-7/4 and tables to BS EN 15372/2. Craftwork has carried out representative testing on all types of furniture against this standard.
Craftwork holds ISO9000 : 2008 for the 'design, manufacture and supply of fine contract furniture'. Our quality credentials are further enhanced by the 100% inspection carried out by a dedicated quality control inspector on all furniture before it leaves the factory. We deliver on our own transport to ensure no damage occurs during delivery.
Wood Shades and Polishing
Most contract chairs are manufactured in light coloured hard woods so are stained and polished to give them the correct finish. We produce 6 standard wood shades – natural, light oak, beech, teak, walnut and dark mahogany - by staining the wood prior to polishing. We can also stain the wood to match an existing sample provided by the customer. This colour matching service incurs a small additional charge per colour matched. So if only one matched colour is required on an order only one charge will be made regardless of how many chairs are needed in that colour on that order.
We use an anti-microbial polish called Medicote on all our furniture. This resists the spread of infection in a contract environment.
Our polishing system meets severe contract standard as defined by BS6250, making the polish highly resistant to chipping. This is an important factor in the furniture looking good over time, particularly where a dark stain has been used and any chipping reveals the lighter wood underneath.
What Fabrics can I have on my contract chairs?
Customers can choose from a wide range of fabrics to cover their contract chairs. Fabrics are increasingly available with a range of propriety anti-bacterial / fungal / microbial coatings. This is something that has come across from the healthcare industry into more general leisure use.
Most fabrics have been extensively tested for strength and wear resistance. The most commonly quoted performance figure is the Martindale test. This measures a fabrics resistance to rubbing. Any fabric quoting a Martindale figure above 40,000 rubs is classed as severe contract.
Most contract chairs are manufactured to order with the customer choosing which fabric the chair is covered in. Craftwork, like many manufacturers bases its pricing on a number of fabric bands. Our sales office can provide swatch packs of a range of fabrics designed for the contract market while most fabric companies have excellent websites where the fabric choice can be viewed on line.
Links to some of our fabric suppliers can be found on the fabric section of the website
Fire Regulations
Under BS7176 most public areas are classed as medium hazard and require contract furniture that has been tested under BS5852 to 'crib 5' fire retardancy. All our contract furniture complies with this requirement and is clearly labeled as suitable for medium hazard areas. Sometimes the fire officer for a building will ask to see furniture fire certification as part of his inspection. In this case we are very happy to provide full certification of fabrics and foams. Some furnished areas, most notably prisons, are classed as high hazard under BS7176 and require 'crib 7' furniture. We are able to provide furniture to this increased standard.