CASE STUDY - RESIDENTIAL
Render Repairs, New Malden, Kingston
Full height scaffold to a curved five storey residential block on a main road, occupied throughout
A straight elevation is the same job repeated. Set the first bay correctly and the rest follow it. A curved elevation is a different job at every bay. The standards have to step round the radius, the ledgers shorten, the boards have to be set to follow the curve rather than cut across it, and the tie pattern changes as the face turns away from you. It is slower, it takes more thought at the survey, and it is where inexperienced scaffolding shows.
This block in New Malden has a curved frontage running through its lower storeys, wrapping the corner where Wellington Crescent meets the main road. Pinnacle was appointed to provide full height access scaffold to the elevations for render repair works, on a building where every flat was occupied and the pavement below carries a bus stop and a pedestrian crossing.
The Challenge
The curve is the first problem and it runs through everything else. Following a radius means the scaffold cannot be set out as a repeating bay. Each lift has to be worked round the face, with the boards laid to the curve so there are no gaps at the inside edge and no overhang at the outside. Get that wrong and you either leave a trip hazard or you leave the render contractor reaching, and reaching is how render work ends up patchy.
The balconies are the second. This block has projecting balconies on multiple levels, some of them on the curved section. A scaffold has to pass them without blocking them, because the balcony belongs to the flat behind it and the resident is still living there. That means designing the lifts around the balcony lines rather than straight through them, and it means the residents keep their access.
Then there is the road. The building fronts a busy through route with a bus stop directly beneath the elevation, a pedestrian crossing a few metres along, and a cycle lane running past the base of the scaffold. Deliveries of scaffold to a site like that cannot be dropped whenever the lorry arrives. Erection has to be timed, the footway has to stay passable, and the base of the scaffold has to be protected from traffic that is passing within a metre of it.
Finally, render repair is dirty work. Cutting out and replacing failed render generates dust and debris directly above a public pavement, so the scaffold needs to be built with containment in mind from the start rather than added to afterwards.
Full height scaffold to the elevation, seen from the car park.
The curved frontage at Wellington Crescent, with the scaffold set out to the radius.
Our Approach
Pinnacle designed and erected full height independent scaffold across the elevations, set out to follow the curved frontage with boards laid to the radius rather than cut straight across it. The lifts were positioned to work around the projecting balconies so that residents kept the use of them throughout the contract.
Raking braces were taken down to timber sole boards where the standards landed on hard surfacing, spreading the load and keeping the base stable. The base of the scaffold along the road frontage was set back and protected, with the footway kept passable past the bus stop and the crossing for the duration.
Deliveries were timed to avoid the busiest periods on the road rather than dropped to suit the programme, and erection was sequenced so that the occupied elevations were disrupted for as short a period as possible.
RAMS documentation and method statements were provided before work began. The structure is inspected at the required intervals for the duration of the contract. Every operative holds a current CISRS card.
The front elevation, with the bus stop and crossing below kept passable throughout.
KEY CREDENTIALS
What We Delivered
Period Property Exterior Painting, Tunbridge Wells
Full wrap scaffold across all elevations including a curved bay, occupied property throughout.
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Full wrap scaffold on a six storey block, all four elevations, council pavement licence managed.
Read the case studyPenthouse Residential Block, Bromley
Multi-storey scaffold on a busy main road, residents in situ throughout.
Read the case studyHousing Association Regeneration, East London
Programme scaffold across approximately 50 occupied properties on multiple streets.
Read the case studyCurved buildings are the ones that separate scaffolding companies. Anybody can price a rectangle. Setting out a radius so that the boards sit true, the ties land where they should and the render contractor can reach every part of the face without stretching, that takes a survey done properly and a team that has done it before.
If you manage a residential block, a housing association property, or any building with a curved or complex elevation that needs render, painting or facade repair, call us for a free site survey.