What Our Clients Say

ALIMATS is the best product on the market for spreading load from the crane outrigs. They’re lightweight and handleable – easy for two people to carry. And because the panels interlock, the load is evenly distributed across the mats – even with large loads. They do the job.

We also use some of their other construction products. A Slapp Clamp which our hauliers use. It’s a lightweight option for unloading pallets of blocks – it’s a much safer option than using a block grab and takes up less space. And their Pole Driller – it allows the site team to drill holes into the hollowcores from ground level; so it’s a safer option as there’s no working from height. It’s quicker too, because we don’t have to spend time setting up platforms and moving them around. It reduces the time on site.

With Brilliant Ideas what you’re getting is a family-based service on a national scale. When you ask for something, it’s done. They’re a nice team to work with.

We use ALIMATS – we only ever use these crane mats.

ALIMATS create a very good base. We use them for all our contracting work across our housing projects and rebuild work. They do the job. The product is so good; it is the correct product for the sites – I’ve never had any negative feedback or complaints from site, so they must be correct and right for what we need and that’s important to us.

Every single time without fail, ALIMATS are delivered on time. When you ask for a delivery – it’s there – and that’s what I like about the team and the product. They have never not turned up when promised. We’ve worked with Brilliant Ideas for about three years, probably longer. I usually deal with Mark and Adrian – but the whole team are very easy to deal with.

We use ALIMATS because the loadings are proven, which is a critical factor. They’re a lightweight system too – they split out into carriable panels so they’re easy to move about and easily transportable in a van. Using solid plates are heavier to move around site– so you’d need a crane to move them. It defeats the object really – so that’s why we use ALIMATS.

We use Brilliant Ideas Stacker Packers too. These are lightweight, there’s no slippage so they’re safe to use and they’re easy to carry around site. A bag full of steel packers on the other hand, are heavy to carry around, plus they rust. Brilliant Ideas products really are very good.

The service we get from the team at Brilliant Ideas is excellent. They’re all easy to talk to. Their product knowledge is very good, and they deliver the products to us when they say they’re going to deliver. They’re competitive on price too. Their service sets them apart from others – you want to buy and hire their products again.

For us, at B & K Structures being the UK’s leading sustainable frame contractor we are committed to building a greener environment and cutting emissions – so knowing that most of Brilliant Ideas products are manufactured in the UK, is a valuable selling point for us and working with a local supplier is helping us to cut down on carbon emissions. Plus, we are proud to support UK businesses.

We’re using ALIMATS on our HS2 project in Birmingham because they come with an impressive load comparison chart – and they can be unloaded and placed into position without mechanical aids.

Easy for two people to pick up

The mats are lightweight – they come as interlocking panels, they’re easy for two people to pick up/move around and easy to use.

Brilliant Ideas deliver on time every time. ALIMATS is a great idea and excellent product, backed up with an extremely supportive team.

We’ve used ALIMATS for as long as I can remember – they are fairly unique; we can’t fault them.

ALIMATS do exactly what it says on the tin. They’re a massive improvement on the timber mats. We use them for most of our projects to reduce ground bearing pressures – across schools, colleges, hospitals and car parks.

There’s no-one better than Brilliant Ideas – we wouldn’t want to work with anyone else. They’re reliable. They’re faultless. From the contracting side to the invoicing side – they do what they say they’re going to do. When they agree to do something, they do it – it’s not always like that with other suppliers.

They really are exceptional. Whoever does the hiring at Brilliant Ideas has a great talent for spotting the right people. We usually deal with Adrian and Colin – but when they aren’t there, it’s just as easy and effective speaking to every other member of staff – they really are a great team.

ALIMATS®

We operate on a nationwide basis. Most of our sites utilise mobile cranes and when ground conditions determine crane outrigger mats are required, we always recommend ALIMATS®, as they’re handleable and strong.

They also interlock which ensures the setup is more robust and mat modules stay in place during adjustment and operation. The detailed loading information is always popular with temporary works engineers along with the material certification.

With systems that do not interlock there can be issues with site debris preventing proper set up. The heavier systems in the market are not handleable, so the crane may require short rigging, which in many instances is not recommended.

In fact, all the construction safety products invented and manufactured by Brilliant Ideas have been tried and tested before they become available on the market.

Brilliant Ideas are one of Bison’s trusted suppliers. All their products are proven and their customer service is excellent.

Pole Drilling

‘We use the Pole Drilling service because it improves safety – it means drainage holes in hollowcore can be drilled without having to work at height. And because the system is lightweight, it provides the flexibility to easily move around site, speeding up the drilling process. The adjustable telescopic pole can reach 5m which allows height adjustments to be made quickly, depending on the level you’re working at. It’s proving a cost-efficient option as we no longer have a need for access towers’.

The SLAPP Clamp works brilliantly for us as our crane is fitted with a specialist finger grab for offloading flooring beams; and we needed something to offload pallets without dropping the grab off. We now attach the SLAPP Clamp using a short chain with the beam grab still in place.

From a health and safety perspective, the SLAPP Clamp is certainly safer for lifting pallets than slings. It works very well. It’s a good lightweight alternative to a full hydraulic block grab and is compact meaning it doesn’t take up much deck space. There’s nothing else like it on the market. We’re very impressed with it.

We operate for some of the largest main contractors in the UK and when sites require outrigger mats for mobile cranes, we always recommend ALIMATS® as they’re handleable and don’t require any short rigging that can be required with other systems.

As ALIMATS® are delivered on small vans, this also reduces the congestion on and around the site compared to mats that are delivered on larger vehicles. This is a huge advantage on tight city centre sites.

The interlock also ensures a robust solution and the supporting documents you get can be included within the temporary works design and lift plan.

The hole covers are also very popular and a great alternative to drilling and fixing a timber board. The small hole cover does not require any tools to install and are also re-usable – a great solution.

All Brilliant Ideas, products are tried and tested and often provide a simple but safe solution to various on-site Health & Safety challenges.

Hole Covers

‘Brilliant Ideas Hole Covers are really handy. You can put them down, lift them up and reuse them. In the past we’ve cut up timber, but these don’t last and they’re a trip hazard. The Hole Covers are bright yellow, so you can’t miss them and they’re pretty much flush with the floor, making them a much safer option’.

ALIMATS®

‘ALIMATS® are very easy for two people to move around and put into place. Steel pads are heavy and have to be craned into position which is an expensive option – whereas ALIMATS® is a cost-effective solution. For some of our projects we have to hire different crane sizes, but with ALIMATS® we can use the same size mats to create different configurations. We would definitely use them again’.

‘I found the hole covers to be extremely useful not only because they cut down the amount of time to install by up to 50% but they are easily identifiable due to their bright yellow colour. This is a quick fix product for what is usually a labour-intensive job with an added benefit that they can be re-used’.

‘We use Hole Covers on most projects where we have to drill holes in slabs to pass the services through. These are quick and easy to install and remove and a much better option than covering off the whole area. Open service holes on site pose trip hazards and injury, so we use these covers for their safety aspect on precast and cast-in-situ floors. Whenever we place an order, the team are always easy to deal with.”

‘We use Brilliant Ideas Hole Covers when core holes have been drilled. They’re very quick and easy to install – we just squeeze the two pegs together and push them into the hole. They sit low on the floor and there’s no trip hazard. Using the hole covers eliminates the need for plywood and the expense of employing a joiner. Plus, they’re reusable, so when we’ve finished we just pick them up and move them. When our Safety Manager visited site he was so impressed with them that he put out a recommendation that other Kier sites use them’.

‘The ALIMATS® system works well – we use them on 9/10 jobs. Our temporary works team look at the ground, do the calculations and there’s never a problem with specifying these mats to spread the load. They interlock and are easy to set-up without heavy plant. That’s why we use them, they’re straightforward to work with. The Brilliant Ideas team are easy to deal with, their quotations come through quickly and are within budget. We can rely on them for a quick turnaround too – sometimes jobs come through without very much notice, but they always deliver’.

‘ALIMATS® is a really good product. It’s a clean, lightweight system that’s very easy to use – you can’t get it wrong. The Brilliant Ideas team send the mats with detailed loading information, it’s fool proof. Their service is excellent. They deliver and collect on time and have even offered to offload for us. We depend on this system and use it a lot – there has never been any issues. ALIMATS® is well worth the hire cost’.

‘We’ve been using ALIMATS® for about five years. They are by far the best distribution of outriggers – they bring the loadings down significantly. It’s a far better system than Ekki mats and other conventional systems.

ALIMATS® come with handles, they’re lightweight and easy to move around.

Brilliant Ideas are competitive on price too, it’s a good rate when you consider the product you get. There’s lots of flexibility around hiring them – from one-day to longer-term hires.

Their customer service is very efficient and they’re good to do business with – they always deliver when they say they will. If I need ALIMATS to be on site at 5am, that’s when their driver will be there. We’ve never had to wait for them to turn up.’

‘The Shutter Clip is much easier for our installers to use – it’s a quick process because you don’t have to wait for the concrete to stiffen to put into the ends of the units, making it a cost-effective solution. Using the Shutter Clip means we’re compliant with Building Regs – we’re not using products that we shouldn’t be to create a shutter at the ends of the precast. It also allows us to follow the design of the homogenous floor and that the shear key concrete works as it should. The Clip actually improves the quality of workmanship which benefits the follow-on trades as it’s easier to build walls off and that the correct loads can be applied. It definitely speeds up the process because we don’t have to send someone to clean concrete from around and in the cavities – so secondary works aren’t needed. One of our housebuilder clients stipulates that we use the Shutter Clip as this gives them a greater standard of finish. It’s a great product’.

‘We’re using Stacker Packers to shim up 300-pre-made bathroom pods on a multi-storey development at 250 City Road. Each one weighs 2 tonnes and measures 2.5m.

To position the Stackers, we’re working with a short gap of 80mm to 90mm, plus there are walls to two sides of each pod. There are six positions under each pod where the 65mm to 85mm high stacks need placing. Some of the stacks have to be pushed to the back of the pods, so one of the advantages of these plastic shims is their inbuilt dowels which creates an interlock to form a safe and stable stack. It means when we lower the pods down on the jacks if it compresses in one area it’s very easy to hook out one stack to add a 2mm or 3mm shim to make up the shortfall on the concrete floor, before repositioning it again. It saves a lot of time, and our site team aren’t having to manoeuvre heavy pods.

Being able to mix up the 2mm, 3mm, 5mm and 10mm shims to suit the task in hand, is very beneficial. The flexibility of Stackers also allows us to clip together adjacent shims – we interlock four shims to form a bigger bearing area of 140mm x 140mm square. And because Stackers are load tested it means we can be confident that the pods won’t sink when people start to move in. The alternative would be metal, but steel shims are heavy and expensive’.

‘The Instant Pipe Shutter gives us a nice, neat finish around service pipes – it’s a much better option than placing plywood around them. It’s a cost-effective product – they’re not expensive to buy and they’re reusable. They also save us time because the Pipe Shutter is easier and quicker to fit than plywood, plus they’re easier to get off once we’ve poured the concrete. We use them around soil pipes and between floors – they do a good job and are perfect for what we need.’

‘We’ve already used thousands of them on a premier league football club development project and we intend to use them again on our forthcoming projects. Stacker Packers is a great product’.

‘We approached Brilliant Ideas because we wanted a load transfer solution for our Barr’s Hill School project in Coventry.

We were working with a beam and block floor system which would not have withstood the weight of MEWPS prior to insulation and floor screed so we needed a working platform that would enable us to use the lifters on it to enhance the beam and block floors structural integrity.

Dan Westgate came to site and met with us, took some measurements and very quickly came back with a proposal that was reasonably costed. What Dan designed for us worked exceptionally well and enhanced the integrity of the floor slab so we could carry out some high-level fire protection work.

I’m familiar with ALIMATS® – it’s an excellent product that provides structural support, but we hadn’t used these mats in this particular scenario. There wasn’t a lot for us to do. The Brilliant Ideas team turned up when they said they would and set everything up. The aluminium interlocking mat modules go down quickly and come out quickly – the solution worked brilliantly.

It was a challenging project which we got over the line with the help from Dan and the team. We would definitely use the ALIMATS® solution again’.

‘Our project involved lowering a dismantled compact spider crane from a suspended floor, at Finsbury Square, London.

Due to the complication of placing a wheeled 6.5 tonne crane onto 100mm composite concrete slab, a great deal of temporary works was needed. The initial thought for a solution was to spread the point loads with the use of bog mats and road plates, but this would have created its own issue with manual handling and the weight of the matting.

Brilliant Ideas gave us a much greater solution and resolution to the issue with ALIMATS®, a product versatile enough to complete the task. Also, the product can be manhandled without the use of another mechanical aid, which was a preferable option.

Dan Westgate at Brilliant Ideas drafted up a drawing whilst offering plenty of guidance. Despite an unforeseen change to the floor layout, which changed the effectiveness of the first design solution by Dan, he offered to come and do a site visit personally, after which a second design solution was given in quick and effective fashion. This rectified the fresh problem that had risen.

Brilliant Ideas service, support and follow-up was excellent. ALIMATS® is a great lightweight and durable product which our team could assemble and dissemble on their own. This powered access load spread solution got us over the line’.

When Brilliant Ideas started to sell ALIMATS, we were the first to purchase a set of 24 – that was twelve-years ago, and they’re still going strong because we’ve looked after them. We bought them because they’re lightweight and easy to position without the need for short rigging. And because they interlock they’re also very quick to set-up making them extremely time saving – which is why a lot of sites prefer them. Transportation costs are low because they can be delivered on a small van – we use a small recovery vehicle because of the lower bed. The mats are also painted in Berry Cranes corporate colours.

The investment was well worth it – I’ve had my money back a few times over. They paid for themselves very early on. It’s fair to say they’ve done us proud.

We’ve been trialling the small and large hole covers across our sites and they’re a good option for us. From an efficiency perspective, we’re cutting waste. With timber, you’re buying it, throwing it away and then buying it again for the next project – whereas Brilliant Ideas hole covers are robust and reusable. From a productivity perspective we’re speeding up the installation because the hole covers are very quick and easy to install and remove, making them cost effective.

A huge thank you once again to Dan Westgate and the team at Brilliant Ideas who helped us out at very short notice, to accommodate the unforeseen circumstances we faced. This helped us with another happy customer. I’ve been using the ALIMATS® system for over 10 years on projects up and down the country and always find it to be extremely versatile.

The weight makes the mats easy to transport and handle once they’re on site. The new variations that are now available make the product even better to work with and the clip together element of the design is always the preferred choice in my option. I highly recommend working with and using the ALIMATS® system from Brilliant Ideas wherever you can.

Billington Structures are currently installing steelwork and precast terracing units for a new stand at Wakefield Trinity Rugby Club where we are using all our expertise and trusted supply chain members to produce a high standard of installation. We are using Stacker Packers as we have total confidence in the performance of this product.

The Packers are made from a durable high-grade plastic which is ideal for levelling the heavy loads of precast terrace units, walls and stairs we are placing. The interlocking dowels mean that the packs are completely stable when stacked vertically – they also add stability when a larger area of packers is required.

At Billington Structures we believe in quality across all of the products we supply, and we are pleased to have Brilliant Ideas as part of our supply chain for this particular type of product.

I’ve appreciated the benefits of ALIMATS® for ten years – that’s why I bought a set last year.

ALIMATS® are versatile. I can create small and large mat configurations when I add them to my one-piece aluminium mats or use them independently for smaller cranes and tighter set-ups. Because ALIMATS® are made of aluminium they’re lightweight. This means I can transport a set of twelve to site in a small van or on a trailer. They’re also easier to man-handle into restricted positions because the mats have handles.

The great thing about ALIMATS® is that they’re strong because of the aluminium extrusion, this compliments the extrusion of my one-piece mats and allows for an even stronger mat when combining sets to give a larger surface area. The equivalent nylon mats just don’t offer the strength required over the larger surface areas.

The safety net recovery system was a solution to a problem where floor heights and obstructions meant that we couldn’t get a MEWP to the underside of the safety net for rescue. The net was installed by rope access technicians, but we needed an alternative method of rescue from below. At the time, there wasn’t a system that would work to the height we were looking for, so we approached the team at Brilliant Ideas.

They custom-built a larger airbag system for us, giving us recovery from a floor-to-floor height of around 4.5m. We used it on a challenging project with very strict safety measures in place.

Our operatives in charge attended a training day at Brilliant Ideas training centre, so that they were fully prepared should they need to use it – which they didn’t. The simplicity of this net recovery system solved and overcame a problem on this project.

We would definitely look to implement this solution again.