GRP Handrails
Universal Industrial Services supplies, specifies and installs GRP handrail and stanchion systems as standalone edge protection, UK-wide from a Rotherham base.
What we deliver.
If a health and safety audit has flagged your steel handrails as corroded, or your project specification calls for non-conductive GRP, you are weighing more than a price. You are deciding who carries the risk. Buy loose tube and fittings online and the cutting, fixing and compliant installation all stay with you. We do the lot ourselves: we survey the site, specify the correct fibreglass profiles and fixings for the environment, fabricate the system to fit, and install it with our own teams, so we are accountable from the first survey through to the signed-off handover and the aftercare that follows.
We recommend GRP where steel or aluminium would corrode or conduct, and steel where steel belongs.
From survey to fitted handrail.
We survey, design, fabricate and install the handrail with no hot works on your live site.
Survey and specification
We visit the site, confirm the environment and the engineer's loadings, and specify the correct GRP profiles, stanchions and non-conductive fixings. For a retrofit into existing access steelwork, we carry out a geometrical survey and 3D scan and overlay the proposed handrail onto the scan in CAD, so the fabrication matches the structure you actually have.
Design, detailing and quotation
We detail the system to the relevant standards, BS 4592 for industrial GRP and BS 6180 where the rail guards, and return an itemised quotation. We return quotations on larger commercial packages typically within 2 weeks, and what we quote is what you pay, because single-source delivery removes the surprise costs that come from subcontractors and coordination failures.
Supply and fabrication to fit
We supply the GRP sections and cut and assemble the handrail and stanchion system to fit, ready for site. The pultruded and moulded sections come from our material supplier; we specify them, fabricate the system from them, and prepare the mechanical fixings that keep the assembly non-conductive at every joint.
Installation with zero hot works
Our own CSCS, SSSTS and PASMA teams install the system with mechanical bolt-together fixings, on live or occupied sites and on night shifts where the site cannot stop. There is no hot works permit to chase and no welding near your plant, and the supervisor keeps you informed against the agreed programme throughout.
Handover, documentation and aftercare
We inspect and sign off the installation and issue the operation and maintenance pack, with the BS EN 16165 pendulum slip-resistance values and the per-project fire classification. The work carries a 12 month defect liability period in line with standard JCT terms, and we stay available afterwards: if something is not right in the first year after practical completion, we come back and sort it.
Where a GRP handrail is the right material.
Glass reinforced plastic resists corrosion and chemical attack, carries no current, and weighs a fraction of steel. That makes it the right handrail material in chemical and water treatment plants, on rooftop plant decks, in coastal exposure, and anywhere near live electrical apparatus where an earthed steel rail is a hazard rather than a safeguard. Outside those settings steel is usually the better answer.
Tour our workshop
Project & sample images.
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Why the whole package sits with one team.
One team owns the survey, the fabrication and the fit, with the documentation your audit will ask for.
About UIS-
01
One team owns the whole package
The suppliers that dominate this market sell you GRP tube and fittings and stop there, which leaves you to find a fitter, coordinate the cut-and-fix on site, and own any gap between the off-the-shelf parts and the building you actually have. We work the other way. We supply the GRP, specify the profiles and fixings for your environment, cut and assemble the system to fit, and install it with our own teams under one point of contact and no subcontractors. Our own teams do not mould the GRP; we specify it, fabricate it to fit, and install it, which is where the single-source accountability you are buying actually lives.
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02
GRP recommended only where steel would fail
We are a steel fabricator by trade, so we will tell you plainly where GRP belongs. Glass reinforced plastic resists corrosion and chemical attack, carries no current, and weighs a fraction of steel. That makes it the right handrail material in chemical and water treatment plants, on rooftop plant decks, in coastal exposure, and anywhere near live electrical apparatus where an earthed steel rail is a hazard rather than a safeguard. We will also tell you that outside those settings steel is usually the better answer, because the right material matters more to us than selling more steel.
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03
Installed on live, occupied sites with no hot works
Our teams bolt the system together with mechanical fixings rather than welded joints, so the whole installation proceeds without a hot works permit and without the fire risk and fume that welding brings onto a working site. They install on operational facilities as standard, including night shifts where the site cannot stop trading or running, and every installation is covered by method statements and risk assessments. That means edge protection going in around live plant or a trading floor without a shutdown, and without a welding torch anywhere near your apparatus.
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04
An accreditation pack that lifts into your pre-qualification
For a main contractor the credentials matter as much as the rail. We fabricate to BS EN 1090 Execution Class 2 with UKCA marking, run a certified ISO 9001 quality system, and hold CHAS Elite, Alcumus SafeContractor and ConstructionLine Gold, the top-tier government-backed pre-qualification level. Every operative carries a CSCS card, an SSSTS-qualified supervisor runs every project, and site teams are PASMA and IPAF certified. We publish GBP 10m public liability and GBP 10m employers' liability because your procurement team needs the figures for the submission, not because they look impressive on a banner.
"I've worked with UIS for several years on some high profile and very complex projects. Their attitude and work ethic are second to none - providing high quality services and products which are delivered safely and on time every time. Overall they are a pleasure to do business with and wouldn't hesitate recommending UIS for any steelwork or metalwork packages."
Questions clients ask us.
GRP resists corrosion and chemical attack, carries no current, and is far lighter than steel, so it is the right handrail material in chemical and water treatment plants, on rooftop plant decks, in coastal exposure, and near live electrical apparatus where an earthed metal rail is a hazard. Outside those environments, steel is usually the better answer, and we will tell you so.
Yes. The loadings are set by your structural engineer, and we design and fabricate the system to meet them, referencing BS 6180 where the handrail also acts as a guarding barrier and BS 4592 for industrial GRP. The system is engineered to the specified loadings rather than bought to a generic catalogue rating.
Yes. GRP handrail bolts together with mechanical fixings, so there is no welding and no hot works permit, and our teams work on operational facilities as standard, including night shifts where the site cannot stop. Every installation runs under method statements and risk assessments by CSCS, SSSTS and PASMA carded teams.
We supply, specify, fabricate to fit and install as one team, with a single point of contact and no subcontractors. We do not mould the GRP ourselves; we specify the correct pultruded and moulded profiles and fixings, fabricate the system from them, and install it.
You receive the operation and maintenance pack, which includes the BS EN 16165 pendulum slip-resistance values and the fire classification for the GRP grade specified on your project. The work also carries a 12 month defect liability period in line with standard JCT terms.
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