In our experience renovation is often better than replacement for these reasons:

• much lower cost. It's hard to generalise but a typical replacement of a two storey fire-escape will cost about £9,000 whereas a renovation might cost £3,000

• less disruption. The renovation process is quieter and less disruptive to the building and its users

• quicker. A renovation can often be organised within a couple of weeks whereas replacement may take 2-3 months

If you are considering renovating your fire-escape you will want to know that it is to the standard that the fire-officer or buildings surveyor requires. We are happy to liase with them for you and meet them on-site to check exactly what they want and how they want it done. Please let us know who you have contacted and we can make sure they are happy with our proposals.

Most buildings surveyors do not have the specialist skills to make a thorough assessment of the state of a steel fire escape although some do. We would be happy to recommend surveyors who seem efficient and reasonable in price. However, you may prefer to have us do a survey for you. We will do a written survey with recommendations. Sometime we charge for this; in these cases the cost is £195 but if you decide to have any further work done by us we will set this charge against the bill for the work done.

We are used to working with surveyors and architects so if you already have a surveyor/architect please give us his/her name and we will make contact.

You can just use a local welder or a specialist in security grilles but in our experience, it is far better to work with a specialist because:

• a fire-escape specialist will be able to handle all aspects for the job from drawing up the plan of what needs doing, to fabrication of new parts off-site to welding on-site and finish with the most effective protective paints

• a fire-escape specialist will know what the fire-officer standards on, for example, strength of material to use, fixings to use, width of treads etc

The proprietor of the business has been in steel work for over 20 years and concentrating on fire-escapes for the last 10 years. We've been at our current premises for 17 years.

Yes. We have public liability insurance of £5,000,000. It's expensive for us but working with steel can be dangerous and renovating semi-public structures is a big responsibility so we want to be sure that any risks are minimised and also insured.

The sort of work that often needs doing on a fire-escape includes:

• replacing treads on the stair way

• replacing bars

• wire-brushing rusted parts and repainting with primer and specialist paints

• removing fatigued or rusted fixings and replacing with new

• putting in new safety balustrades

• strengthening railings

• recovering non-slip platforms

• Upgrading structural supports