Old Red Sandstone

Well it's Friday again and nearly the end of another month, bringing us closer to the impending festive activities and colder, much colder, weather. Here in Cumbria we are starting to drop below freezing at night and our staff have begun wearing their long johns underneath their waterproofs again (they might not admit it but we know they do!). Down in the Midlands at our sub depot we hear the suns still shining brightly and our Midlands Operations Manager Lee is having a great time! I might put in for a transfer!!

Thankfully we havent lost a single days work due to weather yet. Fingers crossed for more of the same as we have been busy on all fronts over the past 4 weeks. After removing, restoring and refitting some 300 year old sandstone flagstones from a beautiful property in ST Bees, Cumbria, we received the following feedback from the customer:

"I cant thank Chris and his team enough, the service was proffesional and friendly and i was talked through the job at every stage. I had been so undecided what to do with my dining room floor after removing concrete only to discover 300 year old sand flagstones. I had several builders look at the job but most were reluctant to take it on, in case the stone was damaged on lifting and cleaning. Chris and his team didnt hesitate and the completed job was done in three days with minimal damage and my original stone floor is the envy of my neighbours and friends who are also delighted that such a fantatic original feature has been restored. I also want to thank Adele for making sure my house was fit to move into after months of building work, she worked like a trogen and my house was spotless to move into. C.E.I services are superb and they deserve lots of success in the future. Thank you"

You can see more photos and read all about what was involved in the restoration of this beautiful old material by visiting the Portfolio Of Work section at www.ceiservices.co.uk.

CEI Services have just begun the restoration, pressure cleaning and repointing of a stunning red sandstone cottage in Ireby, Cumbria. Our results here should be equally fantastic so please keep checking back to see how the job progresses. Along with the cleaning of the property we are also preparing and painting the fascias, repairing the sturdy oak door and making good the perimiter stone walls which are on the verge of collapse after many years of exposure to the Cumbrian weather, which I mentioned earlier in this post!

In the Midlands we have 2 extremely exciting projects in the negotiation stage which could really see us make our mark down their and establish our reputation as one of the UK's leading professional cleaning and property maintenance companies. Fingers crossed but hush hush for now!!!

As well as the external cleaning and maintenance services we provide we now have a healthy customer bases of provate landlords and nationwide letting agencies such as Belvoir to whom we also provide internal cleaning services. Please feel free to contact us anytime regarding all types of cleaning and property maintenance, we are sure we can help!!! Visit www.ceiservices.co.uk for further information on our range of services.

And finally, because it's Friday and we all love the weekend, we thought we would provide you with a little video to prove just how amazing nature can be! If you've never heard or seen the contents of this video then enjoy and be prepared to be amazed!

On behalf of everyone at CEI Services, pressure cleaning specialists, property maintenance experts; have a fantastic weekend!!!

Email To Councils

Below is an email we sent to around 10 local authorities around Northern England to see if we can try to work together on a simple sign cleaning project which would be beneficial to both the councils and the general public. We will wait and see if any of them decide to respond!! If previous efforts to engage them in constructive conversation is anything to go by I doubt we will even get a polite declining email. We will keep you posted!

Please follow the links below to some articles regarding the state of the road signs in our country. I have attached some photos of signs in Cockermouth, our hometown which we took it upon ourselves to clean because they looked so disgusting.

http://travel.uk.msn.com/news/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=151597822

http://www.thewellingtonnews.co.uk/content/new-team-targets-thousands-dirty-and-damaged-road-signs?page=1

Aside from the way filthy, unkept or vandalised road signs reflect badly on our villages, towns and cities, they also pose a serious hazard. Drivers straining to read what a sign says because of the dirt, or unable to read it because of overhanging trees, can and has caused accidents. Surely these 2 reasons alone are enough to make you sit up and want to do something about this issue? Add to this the fact that maintaining the signs themselves in the short term will save you money in the long term and I hope you will be willing to at least consider the contents of the rest of this email?

CEI Services work throughout Cumbria and Northern England in towns, villages and cities so we are able to see that this is a common problem, not just in our hometowns but throughout the country. We would like to help and we realise that this type of spending isn't top priority for councils at the moment however it is vital to retain good standards, even during tough economic times. Tourism, local pride and the safety of the general public are all at stake.

We believe we can work with you to set up reporting systems to log damaged, dirty, vandalised or unreadable signs anywhere in the North of England but particularly in and around Cumbria. We also believe we can work with minimal budgets to ensure these issues are addressed and rectified in a timely and efficient manner as we go about our regular work schedule. We are open to negotiations with regards to how this arrangement could work but we are sure it could be mutually beneficial and most importantly be extremely beneficial to the general public!!!

Graffiti removal & anti graffiti coatings
Pressure cleaning - removal of dirt, traffic film, algae, grime, stains etc
Trimming back tress, hedges, bushes etc which can block signs from view
Repairs - Tightening, straightening etc

These are the main issues with our road signs wherever they may be. Councils do not have the time to deal with this issue properly, that is clear for all to see, so why not let us take care of the issue at a cost that suits us both in a manner that also suits us both.

As a company we have many innovative ideas for councils to save money and to generate revenue but despite numerous letters, emails and phone calls to authorities throughout the North no one seems willing to listen. I hope that you can find a few minutes to engage me regarding this email and how we can improve our local areas together in a cost effective fashion.