History

Steeple jacks
I am pleased to welcome you to browse our new website; hopefully it will give you an insight into our company and the services we provide.

Our company’s roots can be traced back to the middle of the 20th century when S.A. Brailey (the writer’s father) first formed a steeplejack company called “E. G. Brailey Steeplejacks and Painting Contractors”. The business, albeit, slowly but surely grew from strength to strength and during the sixties and seventies became one of the country’s leading steeplejack companies with clients such as the British Steel Corporation, Central Electricity Generating Board and Monsanto.

During this period the works mainly involved industrial chimney re-construction and church spires, although lightning protection was beginning to gain momentum and prominence within the industry with Architects, Engineers and Designers applying more interest in the protection of tall structures against the effects of a direct lightning discharge.

1986 saw the introduction of the British Standard 6651 which contained a more practical approach to lightning protection and formulae in order to calculate the risks of buildings being struck by lightning.

The decline in heavy British Engineering during the seventies and eighties lead to the disappearance of tall industrial chimneystacks from our country’s skyline. It was at this time that the present management team made the decision to concentrate in investing in the rapidly expanding lightning protection industry, this included training for both field engineers and management and the set up of a design team using the new computer technology, especially computerised aided design.

The British Standard Code of Practice 6651 was amended several times until a complete new European Standard was introduced. This new Standard BSEN 63205 consists of four parts viz.

1. – General Principals
2. – Risk management
3. – Physical damage to structures and life hazard.
4. – Electrical and electronic systems within structures.

Modern lightning protection schemes will now have to be designed and installed to comply with this Standard.

Once again here at Braileys® we have invested considerably in order to re-train our design team and fitters so that as a company we are fully aware of our responsibilities and duties in order that we may satisfy our customers’ enquiries and needs.

Our Daniel Turner, Commercial Director is an accredited Assessor for BSEN 62305