Bespoke steel and glass canopies for commercial buildings. Entrance canopies, covered walkways, link canopies and roofs over external ramps and steps, designed around the building rather than picked from a range of standard modules.
We have been making architectural metalwork and structural glass in Sheffield for 35+ years. Canopies are made in our own workshop and installed by our own fitters, for end clients directly and as a subcontract package for main contractors.
What we make
- Entrance canopies over main doors, from a single cantilevered glass blade to a framed structure on posts
- Covered walkways running along an elevation or between buildings
- Link canopies joining two separate blocks
- Ramp and step canopies, often with guarding and handrails made to match
- Courtyard screens and enclosures, glazed or in polycarbonate
- Feature canopies where the structure is meant to be looked at rather than ignored
Typical settings are schools and nurseries, surgeries and health centres, offices and business parks, apartment and retirement schemes, and industrial units.
How they are built
The frame does the work and the roof is a choice made on top of it.
Frames are fabricated steel, in whatever section the span and the look call for. Tubular where a light, rounded structure suits the building. Flat plate and fin brackets where the canopy cantilevers off a wall with nothing underneath it. Posts where the wall cannot take the load or the projection is too great to hang.
Outdoors, hot dip galvanising is the baseline. It can be powder coated over the galvanising in any RAL colour where the building calls for one, and stainless steel is used where the fittings are on show or the site is coastal. Paint applied straight onto bare steel is the reason so much outdoor steelwork is rusting within a few years, and it is not how we finish anything.
Glass, polycarbonate or solid
Glass looks the best and lasts the longest. It stays clear, it does not discolour, and it is the right answer where the canopy is part of how the building presents itself. It is also the heaviest, which the frame has to be designed for rather than scaled down around.
Polycarbonate is lighter and cheaper, and it is a reasonable answer over a long walkway or a play area where impact matters more than appearance. It is honest to say that it ages: over a long period outdoors it yellows and becomes brittle, so it is a different lifespan to glass rather than the same thing for less money.
Solid roofs, in sheet or standing seam, are used where full shelter matters more than daylight. Translucent and coloured panels sit between the two and are worth considering on school and nursery work.
Fixing to an existing building
Most commercial canopies are retrofitted to a building that is already there, and that is where the real questions are.
The wall has to be able to carry what is hung off it. What it is built of, what condition it is in and what is behind the face of it all matter, and they are established at survey rather than assumed from a drawing. Where the wall will not take it, the canopy stands on its own posts instead, and the base detail then depends on what the posts are landing on.
Settling that early is the difference between a canopy that arrives finished and goes up in a day, and one that turns into a problem on site.
Working with main contractors
Subcontract packages on a contractor run programme are routine and we do a lot of them. Commercial terms are agreed job by job, so raise them with the enquiry and we will tell you straight away where we stand.
Dio-Met Fabrications Ltd holds CIS gross payment status. Our structural steelwork is covered by UKCA BS EN 1090-2 factory production control certification, independently audited by Alcumus ISOQAR, with coded welders, calibrated equipment and documented quality control.
On almost every bespoke framework we build, the whole thing is bolted together in the Sheffield workshop, checked and photographed before it is taken apart and sent for galvanising. Trial build photographs go to anyone who asks for them, and you are welcome to come and see it at Arc Works. Galvanised steel cannot be cut or welded afterwards without wrecking the coating, so finding a problem on the workshop floor is considerably cheaper than finding it on site.
Installation is by our own fitters, never subcontracted out.
What to send us
Enough to price it properly from the first email, rather than three rounds of questions:
- A photograph of the elevation and whatever the canopy has to fix to
- Approximate width and the projection you need
- What is underneath it: doors, a ramp, steps, a walkway
- Roof preference, or tell us what it is for and we will suggest one
- Finish, if there is a specified colour
- Programme dates, if it sits inside a wider job
- Any drawings or a specification, if they exist
Send it to sales@diomet.co.uk and we will come back with what is possible and what it costs. Site surveys are chargeable and are quoted separately.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have a price list or standard sizes?
Not for commercial work. Every one of these is made to the building, so the price comes from the span, the projection, the roof, the finish and what it fixes to. Our stock glass door canopies are the standard sized domestic range and those do have prices on them.
Can you work to an architect's detail?
Yes. We fabricate to supplied drawings and specifications, and we also design from a brief where there is no detail yet. Either way the setting out is confirmed from a survey of the building as built before anything is cut.
Do you do the groundworks and foundations?
No. Where a canopy stands on posts, the bases and any foundations or slab work are by others, and we supply the setting out they need. On a contractor run job that normally sits with the groundworker already on site.
Can the canopy match railings or balustrades elsewhere on the scheme?
Yes, and it is worth doing. We make the guarding, ramp handrails and balustrades too, so a canopy over a ramp can be made with the railings in the same section, same finish and the same hand.
How long does one take?
It depends on the size, the finish and the approval stage, so the lead time is confirmed with the quote rather than quoted in advance. The clock generally starts at drawing approval, and galvanising and powder coating go out to subcontractors, which adds to anything with a colour on it.
Do you work outside Sheffield?
Yes. We make in Sheffield and install nationwide.
Is a canopy covered by the warranty?
Yes. Our standard product warranty applies, and the details are on the terms and conditions page.
Related
Talk to us about a canopy
Email sales@diomet.co.uk with the building and roughly what you need covering, or call 0114 243 9009 and talk it through. We are at Arc Works, 150 Worksop Road, Sheffield S9 3TN.