Glass service modernised

Press, 29 April 1981, Page 10

Glass service modernised

Hurst and Drake, Ltd — on 488-799 — has launched its 24-hour emergency glazing service.

It has involved the purchase of six new vehicles including two specialised trucks.

Much more thought has gone into the choice and design of the vans. Costing more than $20,000 each, they are built as mobile glass workshops that allow the glaziers to work safely on the top of them at 3m high. Both are equipped with two-channel radio transceivers.

Seekers Answering Services is used as part of the 24-hour contact network through which Hurst and Drake’s vans will be able to handle all but a major.disaster. >■ .

With the growing incidence of vandalism and the danger of burglary, it is important to replace -immediately both

broken security windows in business premises and broken sheet glass in homes. Now, when a manager is telephoned in the middle of the night by the police or his security firm, he can call Hurst and Drake to an emergency job as soon as he knows the extent of the damage.

Replacement work includes, of course, various types of safety and security glass, ranging right up to heavy, bullet-resistant material. This sort of protection may be 72mm thick and very heavy, so suitable equipment and skill are essential.

• Glazing is still very much a tradesman’s preserve, although Hurst and Drake also cut glass to size for people wanting to do their own glazing. There are even cathedral and other types of glass for those wishing to create their own leadlighting.

Hurst and Drake has been a glass firm since 1921, although the company is best known today for paint and wallpaper which is sold from 11 stores.

The glass side of the business has received less publicity over the last few years,' but is particularly strong in the' commercial field. Hurst and Drake recently completed the glazing for the Department of Statistics’ building in Christchurch and the firm is now installing Armourfloat glass in the Ohau B power-house.

Hurst and Drake's own stable glazing team has been augmented by that of Bradley Brothers, Ltd, another long-established glass firm, bought out recently. There are thus plenty of skilled tradespeople to tackle major contracts.

Versatile equipment in the bevelling department allows wide scope for trade skills

and Hurst and Drake is one of the few companies in New Zealand making windows for caravans. It also makes unbreakable polycarbonate windows for Cresta Craft gazebos.

Another business Hurst and Drake has acquired is. the application work done until recently by Solar Control N.Z., Ltd.

This side of the operation, is in the process of installing $15,000 worth of solar control film at the Kaiapoi freezing works, where excessive temperatures have resulted in several shut-downs this season.

The glass storeroom at 39 Riccarton Road is now equipped with new glasshandling machinery designed by the managing-director, Mr John Hurst, and based on overseas designs. Large sheets of glass are held and carried on suction pads, then released gently on

to the moveable cutting table, rolled alongside the appropriate glass rack. This means much less risk of breakage and avoids the periodic need for up to five men to lift a large sheet on to the table.

A massive new crane is among the other equipment to be installed in conjunction with modern materials-hand-ling techniques. The old stocks of glass, some of it dating back to the end of the war, are to be disposed of and, ultimately, new handling techniques will allow three times the present volume of glass to be held in a reduced storage area. In line with the expansion of the glass department, Hurst and Drake is setting up a showroom to display glass fashion products in realistic, in-house settings. '‘'There will also be a display of . glass products for commercial use.