CASE STUDY — RESIDENTIAL
Period Property Exterior Painting, Tunbridge Wells
Full wrap scaffold across all elevations of a large ornate period house in Tunbridge Wells, Kent
The large period houses in and around Tunbridge Wells represent some of the most architecturally detailed residential scaffold work in our service area. Rendered facades, classical stone dressings, decorative balustrades, curved bays, columned porticos, and chimney stacks on multiple elevations — each one of these features has to be accessible for the painting team to work from, and the scaffold has to reach all of them without causing any damage to the building in the process.
This job involved a large private residence in Tunbridge Wells requiring full external repainting across all elevations. The property sits in generous private grounds with a garden elevation, a side elevation over a hard court, and an ornate front elevation with a columned entrance and curved render bay. Every face of the building needed scaffold access. Every lift had to be designed around the architectural features it was providing access to.
The Challenge
A property of this scale and complexity does not have a standard scaffold solution. The wrap needs to cover multiple elevations — garden, side, and front — each with different architectural features, different access constraints, and different ground conditions beneath. Garden elevations require ground protection on lawns and planted borders. The hard court elevation has a retaining wall between levels that affects base plate placement and the scaffold's vertical route. The ornate front elevation, with its columned portico and curved render bay, requires individual planning for every tie point to ensure nothing damages the decorative stone dressings or the rendered surface.
The curved bay is the most demanding element on a property of this type. Standard scaffold design assumes a flat facade. A curved elevation requires individually positioned standards and boards at every lift to maintain a consistent working distance from the surface — close enough for the painting team to work without overreaching, far enough to avoid the scaffold boards contacting the render. Getting this wrong damages the very surface being prepared for painting.
The property is owner-occupied. Residents are living in the house throughout the contract. Access to gardens, terraces, and the front entrance has to be maintained, and the scaffold has to be managed in a way that is appropriate for a private home, not a building site.
Our Approach
Pinnacle carried out a full site survey before erection, assessing all four elevations, confirming ground conditions and base plate positions, and designing the scaffold structure around the specific architectural features of each face of the building.
Ground protection was laid across all garden and planted areas before any standards were positioned. The hard court elevation was designed to bridge the retaining wall level change, with the scaffold structure rising from the lower court level to provide access to the full upper elevation. The curved bay was scaffolded with individually set standards at each lift, maintaining the correct working distance from the render throughout.
The front elevation — with its columned portico, decorative stone dressings, and rendered curved bay — was erected with soft strapping at all contact points near decorative elements. Tie placement was selected to avoid the stone dressings and cornice details. The residents retained access to the front entrance and garden throughout the contract.
RAMS documentation and method statements were provided before work began. Every operative held a current CISRS card. The scaffold was inspected at the required intervals and signed off before the painting team arrived on each section.
KEY CREDENTIALS
What We Delivered
Large period properties require a scaffold contractor who has actually done this type of work before. The curved bays, the decorative stonework, the ground protection across maintained gardens, the occupied-property access management — none of this is standard and none of it can be improvised on erection day. We carry out a site survey on every job of this scale and design the structure around the building before we give a price.
If you own or manage a large period property requiring scaffold access for exterior painting, render repair, or any full-elevation external works, call us for a free site survey.