Barriers and bollards

Stainless steel bollards and steel posts

Stainless steel bollards are the usual choice outside offices, shops and blocks of flats, where the metalwork is on show. We make them in 76mm, 101mm and 114mm tube, 900mm to 1000mm above ground, with a domed or flat cap and a brushed or polished finish. Grade 304 is fine for most sites. Go to 316 beside a salted road, on a gritted car park or anywhere de-icer is used, or the surface will tea-stain. Mild steel bollards and posts cost less and take a colour: hot-dip galvanised, then powder coated in any RAL shade, black and dark grey being the usual ones. Steel posts for signs, lighting, height bars and gate stops are made the same way, in the tube size the load needs rather than the lightest one on the shelf.

Fixed, removable and telescopic bollards

How a bollard is fixed matters more than what it is made of. A root-fixed bollard has 400mm to 500mm of tube below ground, set in a concrete plug, and is the only fixing that will take a knock from a car and stay upright. Base-plated bollards bolt down with resin anchors into sound concrete. They are quicker and can be moved later, but they are only as strong as the slab, and we will not bolt one to tarmac or block paving. Removable bollards drop into a ground socket and lock with a padlock or a hex key, so a driveway, a fire route or a delivery bay can be opened when needed. Telescopic bollards sink into their own sleeve, flush with the ground. Both need a drained socket, or they fill with water and seize.

Anti-ram bollards and vehicle protection

An anti-ram bollard is a much heavier job: 168mm or 219mm thick-wall tube, filled with concrete, with a deep root tied into a reinforced foundation and often a second tube inside the first. Set at 1200mm to 1400mm centres, they are what most shop fronts, cash machines and loading yards need to keep a car or a van out. A crash-rated barrier to PAS 68 or IWA 14 is something else again: a tested system, bollard and foundation together, and if your insurer or a planning condition asks for that rating you need a certified product, not a heavy bollard. We will tell you which you need. For the rest, we fabricate and fit heavy-duty bollards and draw the foundation where the council or the insurer wants to see it.

Pedestrian barriers, guardrail and hoop barriers

Pedestrian guardrail is the tubular barrier you see along a school gate, a bus stop or the edge of a loading bay: 48mm or 60mm tube with infill bars, 1000mm to 1100mm high, root-fixed or on base plates. BS 7818 is the standard for it, and the one a highways engineer or a school will ask for. Hoop barriers are the simpler one-piece version for keeping trolleys and cars off a footway or protecting the corner of a building. We also make trolley bays, cycle stands, knee rails for car park edges and height restriction bars for car park entrances. All of it is mild steel, hot-dip galvanised, with powder coating on top where you want a colour, and the joints are welded in the workshop rather than clamped together on site.

Spacing, height and access rules

Bollards on a public route have rules. Approved Document M and BS 8300 want them at least 1000mm high, in a colour that contrasts with the paving, and never linked by chains or ropes that a white cane will miss. The clear gap between them should be at least 1000mm, and 1200mm is better, so a wheelchair or a double buggy gets through while a car does not. Where bollards protect a pedestrian walkway in a car park the same spacing applies. We set out the run on the survey so the gaps are even and the ends land where they should, rather than leaving a half-gap at a wall. If the run needs to stop a vehicle and still let a fire engine in, one removable bollard with a fire brigade padlock is the usual answer.

Estimates, surveys and price

For a simple run, a photo of the spot and a rough count is enough for a written estimate within the working day. The free survey checks what the bollards are going into, because that decides everything: the depth of concrete, whether there is a slab under the paving, what services run underneath, and whether a base plate is safe or a root fixing is the only option that will hold. Price comes down to the material, stainless costing more than coated steel, the size of tube, the fixing type and the number. The quotation is fixed unless the design changes. A run of standard galvanised bollards is one of the quickest jobs we do, as the tube is stock and the finish is simple. Stainless and anti-ram work takes longer, as the fabrication and groundwork are heavier.

Straight answers on barriers and bollards