Frequently asked questions

We work across East Anglia and the Southeast, operating from our base at Linton in Cambridgeshire. That covers Cambridge, Newmarket, Bury St Edmunds, Ely, Huntingdon, Saffron Walden, Haverhill and Royston, and we regularly work further out across Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Bedfordshire.

Both. We operate either as a subcontractor within a principal contractor's site, or as principal contractor in our own right, taking single-point responsibility for the package. Either way the priorities are the same: a programme that holds, levels that are right first time, and documentation that keeps Building Control, the NHBC and the warranty provider satisfied.

All sizes - from full-scale industrial and housing schemes through to private works, including eco-friendly projects. We work for housing developers, principal contractors and commercial clients across the housing, commercial and industrial sectors.

We hold ISO 9001 for quality management, ISO 14001 for environmental management and ISO 45001 for health and safety, alongside CHAS accreditation and UK Power Networks approval.

Four packages: groundworks (foundations, drainage, hard surfacing and eco-friendly works), roads and sewers (estate and link roads, adopted sewerage, pumping stations and highways adoption), fencing (site hoarding, security and boundary fencing, gates and decking), and specialist surfacing (jointless grouted macadam and UHPC industrial floors and heavy duty pavements). We undertake these works on a supply and fix basis.

Both. Globe Civil Engineering can take on the groundworks package as a subcontractor within a principal contractor's site, or act as principal contractor in our own right with full CDM 2015 responsibility. We'll fit whichever procurement route suits the project.

Our plant and crews work across the chalk, clay and variable ground typical of East Anglia and the Southeast. We plan the excavation and foundation approach around the site investigation and ground conditions rather than applying a one-size-fits-all method.

Yes. We work to NHBC standards and coordinate Building Control and warranty inspections at the appropriate stages, keeping the records needed to evidence compliance and protect the warranty.

Yes. We deliver traditional strip and trench fill, raft foundations, ground beams and piled foundation caps, as well as non-standard designs for insulated concrete frame and modular construction methods, working closely with the structural engineer and warranty provider.

We complete a CAT scanner survey across the working area before excavation. Where live electric, water or other services are identified on the line of the dig, we adopt hand-digging around them to remove the risk of a strike.

Through detailed forward planning and sequencing of demolition, excavation and substructure works, and close coordination with the client and follow-on trades. Each stage is signed off so the slab is handed over level and on time for the superstructure to commence.

We hand the site back at finished slab level, ready for the superstructure. Where GCE is part of a wider Globe Group package, scaffolding (Globe Cambridge) and roofing (Globe Roofing) can follow on under the same group of companies, keeping standards and accountability consistent across the build.

Foundations - block and beam, ring beams and pile cropping, rafts, suspended works, powerfloat and structural screeding; drainage - traditional systems, soakaways and storage, attenuation tanks, adopted connections and flow control chambers; hard surfacing - tarmac and concrete, block paving, slabbing, gravelling and permeable paving; and eco-friendly works including rainwater harvesting, SUDS, insulated block and beam, and wind turbine bases.

Yes. We work from the first dig through to a finished slab signed off and ready for the superstructure, to the programme and the standards your downstream trades depend on.

Significantly. Chalk, clay and London soils each behave differently at formation, and the ground investigation is what tells you which you are dealing with before the price is fixed. Getting that investigation done early is the single most reliable way to keep a groundworks budget from moving.

Yes. We deliver rainwater harvesting systems, SUDS, insulated block and beam floors and wind turbine bases, and we reuse material on larger schemes where it is suitable, which cuts both cost and the volume of muck leaving site.

Section 38 covers the adoption of new estate roads by the highways authority. Section 104 covers the adoption of new sewers by the water undertaker. Section 278 covers works to the existing public highway, such as new junctions or access. We deliver to the requirements of all three and coordinate directly with the adopting bodies.

Yes. We build estate roads and sewers to adoptable standards from the outset, with the inspections and documentation needed for the adopting authority to take them on without rework or delay at handover.

Yes. We integrate SuDS schemes from design through to handover documentation, including attenuation and the drainage features increasingly required as a planning condition on housing developments.

Yes, where the site levels or network require them, as part of the foul and surface water drainage package.

We coordinate directly with the relevant local highways authority and water undertaker, managing the inspection regime and keeping the records the adopting bodies require throughout the works.

Yes. We frequently deliver groundworks, roads and drainage as a coordinated package, sequencing the works around plot construction and the wider site programme. Where GCE is part of a Globe Group delivery, scaffolding and roofing can follow under the same group.

Section 38 of the Highways Act 1980 covers new roads inside a development that the developer intends to hand over to the highway authority for adoption. Section 278 covers works carried out within or adjacent to the existing public highway. Most housing schemes of any meaningful size involve at least one, and often both.

Estate and link road construction, cut and fill operations, surface treatments, lamp columns and street furniture, mains service trenching, and the full testing and compliance regime. On drainage: main line sewerage systems, rising mains, open cut systems, work in existing highways and adopted roads, adopted sewerage connections and pumping stations.

Yes, and on phased schemes that coordination is usually what determines whether plot releases land on time. Sequencing the infrastructure against the plot programme is part of how we plan the package rather than something dealt with as it arises.

It is a cost comparable alternative to concrete. Where it usually wins is programme rather than headline rate: the surface is trafficable within 24 hours against seven days of curing for a new concrete slab, so the area comes back into use far sooner. On refurbishment it also saves the excavation and disposal of the existing surface, because the existing construction can often be overlaid rather than dug out.

Normally within 24 hours of laying at 20C ambient temperature. On the Gatwick Stand 50 refurbishment that meant the aircraft stand reopened 24 hours after the surface went down, helped by the mortar typically gaining 87 per cent of its 28 day flexural strength within the first 24 hours.

Yes. The finished slab is impermeable and resistant to fuel, oil and chemical spillage, which is why it is used on aircraft stands, bus depot refuelling and washdown areas, filling station forecourts and waste transfer stations. It is also chloride resistant, so salt cannot penetrate the topping and reach the base concrete beneath.

It is designed for it. The material has high bearing capacity and resistance to point loads, which is what allows it to carry rack leg loads in high bay warehouses, and it withstands solid tyre traffic and forklift movements without puncturing, rutting or deforming. At the Waitrose National Distribution Centre in Bracknell the floor was designed to carry 100kN rack leg loads.

Yes, and frequently both on the same site. The waste recycling facility at King's Lynn covered 2,600 square metres across internal and external areas in one scheme. Internally it is dust free and inhibits bacterial growth because the dense structure gives nothing for it to take hold in, and no membrane is required because the surface stays open to water vapour diffusion.

It can be left in its natural finished state for light industrial use, and a variety of surface finishes are available including a terrazzo finish for internal and retail areas. It can also be coloured, which is how the bus bays at the Newham holding area were picked out permanently in red rather than relying on paint. Where slip resistance is critical the surface can be grit blasted, as it was at Gatwick.

It depends on the area and how much reconstruction is needed underneath, but it is fast track work. A 400 square metre bus holding area at Newham was completed in four to five days including the 24 hour cure, against circa six to seven weeks for the jointed concrete alternative. At the other end of the scale, 5,500 square metres of refurbishment at the Arriva depot in Thurmaston took three weeks, delivered in four phases so the depot stayed operational throughout.

Yes, and that is one of its most common uses. The existing slab is planed off to tie in with levels, then cracked and seated to de-stress it, which turns a rigid structure into a semi flexible base and minimises the risk of reflective cracking through the new surface. Undulations are regulated out before the overlay goes on.

Yes. We supply and install secure timber and steel site hoarding for new developments and construction sites, including solid and branded hoarding, designed to secure the site for the duration of the build.

Site hoarding, security fencing for industrial and commercial premises, sports and playground fencing for schools and recreational facilities, and permanent perimeter and boundary systems for completed schemes, along with vehicle and pedestrian gates.

Our focus is commercial and construction fencing - hoarding, security, sports and perimeter systems specified to a site brief, rather than domestic garden work.

Yes. We deliver design, supply and installation as a single package, so there's one point of responsibility from specification through to a completed, handed-over installation.

Yes. We work to the programme set by the principal contractor or developer and sequence the fencing or hoarding around the wider site activity, including around scaffold and roofing works where GCE is part of a Globe Group package.

Site hoarding, garden fencing, chain-link and security fencing, acoustic fencing, and sports and playground fencing, along with fence posts and gravel boards. We also install security, decorative, wooden and iron gates, and decking.

Yes. We handle design, supply and installation as a single package, working to the programme set by the principal contractor or developer.

Yes. Site hoarding secures a development during construction and protects the public, and we supply and install it as part of the same fencing package that delivers the permanent perimeter and boundary systems at the end of the scheme.

The location, the scope of the package, an approximate value and the programme you are working to. That is usually enough for us to come back with a considered price rather than a placeholder.

One of the team will be in contact following your enquiry. If it is urgent, call us on 01223 910888 between 8:00am and 5:00pm, Monday to Friday.

Unit 3, The Grip Industrial Estate, Linton, Cambridgeshire CB21 4XN - just off the A1307 between Cambridge and Haverhill.