Busy Start to 2011

We can hardly believe it has been almost 2 months since the last CEI update. The whole CEI team enjoyed an uninterupted Xmas and NY break and came back at the start of January feeling thoroughly refreshed, if a little overweight!!!

We are pleased to say that so far in 2011 we have completed jobs as diverse as laying carpet tiles, paint stripping, building cleaning, pot hole repairs, groundworks, erecting 15 foot signs (don't ask!), gritting public pathways, pressure cleaning of public areas in our local town, replacing roof felt, re - laying factory floors, replacing hundreds of light bulbs at a very scary height, and as is sometimes the case - a lot of secret work we can't really detail here!

With the budget cuts now coming into effect and many people starting to feel the pinch, not least local and borough councils, CEI Services have stepped up our message. We believe we can save councils money on their current suppliers, we also believe we can get more done for the money and are willing to prove this given a chance! We also believe we have an innovative new revenue stream for councils which involves them doing absolutely nothing, is completely safe and can quite literally earn them "money for nothing". I have contacted every Cumbria authority to try and engage in discussions regarding our ideas but so far to no avail! Hopefully the idea of free money isn't something they can refuse to listen to for too much longer!

CEI are now providing facilities management services to some fantastic UK industry giants. We are pleased to announce our long term working relationships with:

CEI Services are able to offer our own extensive range of professional cleaning, maintenance and improvement services combined with the skills of our reliable network of local contractors to provide commercial customers with a complete facilities management package. This type of arrangement means your business has a one stop shop for all issues. A reliable company who are happy make all neccessary arrangements for any work you may require. We ensure you receive the best value for money, outstanding customer service and we guarantee all end results!

A quick mention to a website which is proving to be useful to CEI Services and many other business throughout the UK - www.freeindex.co.uk it enables commercial and domestic customers to place a description of the work they require, where they live etc. Local and reputable tradespeople can then respond and the client can pick and choose using company reviews, links to company wesbites etc to help them make the decision. A great idea and I am pleased to say CEI Services have some fantastic reviews on there already!

Finally, to help our valued domestic customers this year we are offering a 20% discount on the last cleaning work we completed for you. So if you had your driveway cleaned and restored 2 years ago for £495, this year that same work is only going to cost you £395. We wish we didn't have to charge you at all, but hopefully our offer will make it that bit easier to consider spending the money on keeping your property looking great!

Please do keep emailing us with comments, feedback, queries etc! Along with our website www.ceiservices.co.uk you can follow CEI Services on Twitter and Facebook!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

So...the mince pies are baked, the turkey is ordered, the tree is well and truly up! But CEI Services still haven't stopped working! It's amazing the things you can do in the snow and ice! This was our team last week down in the Midlands working at height at Atotech. They are so pleased with the way we went about our work, and the end results that we hope to secure a long term maintenance contract early in the new year!

As I write our Cumbrian team are hard at work on some groundworks in Workington. Back at the office were eating mince pies, it's even possible some sherry might come out later on! But don't worry we will save some for the workers when they eventually get back!

CEI officially breaks up on Thursday lunchtime but our valued customers know they can depend on us anytime of the day or night so we won't be surprised if we are called out for something or other over the next week or so!

We carried out a fantastic cleaning job in Trafalgar Square, London, a couple of weeks ago. Working there in the dead of night by floodlight was an experience and thankfully it couldn't have gone any better!

We believe our head office is based in the most beautiful county in the UK. On a recent CEI Services afternoon stroll around Buttermere one of our avid photographers captured the image below. How beautiful!!

So until 2011 all that is left to do is wish all our friends, customers, online visitors, suppliers and families a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful and prosperous New Year!!!

Cockermouth & A Quick Update

It has been another busy week for CEI Services up and down the country and the next few weeks promise more of the same. This week we have been working hard to complete a large cleaning, restoration and painting job in Ireby, Cumbria.

A truly amazing location with stunning views. Unfortunately in Cumbria, in December, open views = COLD & WINDY! So a big thanks to our team who continue to do an amazing job up there despite returning home freezing most days! Almost done and what a tremendous difference. Stay tuned to see some great photos and a full case study of the job will be up on the website within a couple of weeks!!!

We have read with interest an article about Cockermouth in the Guardian today. You can read the article in full by following the link below:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/nov/19/cockermouth-floods-one-year-on

It's great to see this type of report in the national press and it backs up what we have said about Cumbria's resourcefulness and resilience! Buy your bags now!

CEI Services have this week secured a facilities management contract up in Cumbria which we are very proud of and a large contract at an equally large factory and office block in the West Midlands. Great news!

Theres a small addition to the Portfolio of Work section of the website this week and much more to follow in the near future!

Finally, if you want to catch a glimpse of the CEI team hard at work then next week head to Trafalgar Square on Thursday....We've got something interesting going on! But thats all were saying! Have a great weekend!

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.

Big Society

September has been a great month for CEI Services in terms of the work we have completed but also with changes in the business it has been great to see the team pull together in training and in terms of the work we have had to complete.

It looks like our involvement with flood damaged properties in Cockermouth has finally come to an end, almost 12 months after the floods hit. We think our end results look fantastic but like everyone else in Cumbria we hope to never have to do this type of work again! It has been a tough year for Cumbria and we hope this Winter is much happier and less eventful then the last!

As well as laying block paved driveways, pressure cleaning buildings and driveways, graffiti removal, monument cleaning, internal cleaning, some landscaping and other repairs, we have been working on our secret side quite regularly this month aswell! This is a side to our pressure cleaning business we are unable to discuss in any specific detail however we are working with some of the biggest names in the WORLD all over the UK and hope to continue doing so for many years to come! Send us an email and we might tell you more! Then again we might not!

Finally we have watched with interest for more details of David Camerons big society to materialise. We hope that it will put an end to centralised services so that councils are given the freedom (or are forced) to choose the best priced local contractor for a particular job. Small to medium businesses in this country would be boosted enormously by securing work from their local authorities. A lot needs to change before this happens however and to me there is still nothing firmly in places to really help us! You can visit http://www.thebigsociety.co.uk/ to keep upto date with developments and put your ideas forward. We have recently submitted a few of our own innovative ideas/suggestions and we wait with baited breath to see if we get a response!

Finally, you might remember Lee Parr has become our Operations Manager for the Midlands; and our move down the country has proved fruitful already securing some high profile industrial cleaning and painting in December. A big welcome to Lee, we hope he continues his positive start for many years to come!!

Power Washing New York Style and CEI News

Take a look at this fantastic photo of a pressure cleaning company in New York getting high and dirty in Manhattan, New York City. Having spent quite a lot of time in the USA the CEI team is envious of this cleaning companies potential future work, as a large percentage of the cities buildings are in the condition of the left side of this photo! If New York decides to really clean itself up then we may have to think about immigration!

CEI Services planned expansion has gone well and we now have an established base in the Midlands with our Midland Operations Manager Lee Parr very proud and excited about the potential ahead. A big congratulations to him on securing the role and on behalf of everyone at CEI Services, we wish him all the best for the future!

We are now ideally positioned to service current and new clients throughout the whole of the UK on a contractual or one off basis. We hope to be able to provide our customers with added value for money, quicker response times and of course we hope to reduce fuel costs which is good for us and the environment!

Would you believe we are still working on restoring flood damaged houses in Cockermouth? Thats right, approaching10 months on from the awful floods the town is still very much recovering although it appears as if it will bounce back stronger than ever! The Cumbrian way! We are helping to restore block paved driveways, patio's, decking which all had to be ripped up and relayed after the floods tore through.

We have also recently completed a lovely job in Liverpool on a terraced house. The job involved pressure cleaning the building, preparing some surfaces for painting, relaying some external floor tiles, capping the perimiter brick wall with decorative bricks and painting the perimiter walls and the window sills and columns. The property looks fantastic and there will soon be a short case study from the job available to view at http://www.ceiservices.co.uk/ but for now, here's what the owner had to say about our work:

"CEI made every attempt to meet our needs and were excellent not only in the standard of the final completion of the job they undertook, but also in the positive and responsive manner they conducted supportive communication from 3,500 miles for us here living overseas. A very professional outfit that give high quality value for your money. We would have no hesitation re-hiring them again for similar work."

Always nice to hear positive feedback and we are very glad he and his wife were happy with the end results!