CASE STUDY - SOLAR PANEL SCAFFOLDING
Solar Panel Installation, Bromley
Flat roof edge protection and two access towers on a long, low multi-block site in Bromley
Flat roofs look like the easy option until you count the edges. A tall building concentrates its roof area into a small footprint with a short perimeter. A long, low run of single storey blocks does the opposite. The roof area might be similar, but the perimeter can be several times longer, and every metre of that perimeter is an unguarded edge that somebody is going to be working near.
This site in Bromley is exactly that shape. Several linked single storey blocks with flat roofs, laid out across a site, all of it due to carry a solar panel array. Pinnacle was appointed to provide the edge protection and the access scaffold that would let the installation team work safely across the whole roof area.
The Challenge
The Working at Height Regulations are not ambiguous about unguarded flat roofs. Anyone working near the perimeter of one is working at height without fall protection, and no installation team should be up there until compliant edge protection is in place and signed off. On a site like this that means running handrails around the full perimeter of every flat roof section, including the returns and the changes in level where one block meets the next. The perimeter is the job.
Access was the second question. A single access point on a long roof sounds efficient until you watch an installation team carry panels and rails from one end to the other all day. Two access towers, positioned at either end of the run, cut that walk in half and let the installers work in two places at once. That is a scaffolding decision that shows up in the installer's programme rather than in ours, but it is the kind of thing worth getting right at the survey rather than after the scaffold is up.
The third constraint was the site itself. This was a live, working site with other trades on it throughout. The car park was being resurfaced while we were there, plant was moving around, and a route through the site had to stay open and usable the whole time. A scaffold that blocks the only way through a working site is not a solution, it is a different problem.
Covered walkway keeping the route through a live site open and protected.
Solar mounting rails going down inside completed edge protection.
Our Approach
Pinnacle erected continuous edge protection handrails around the full perimeter of every flat roof section on the site, following the returns and the level changes between blocks so there were no unguarded runs. The handrails were up, inspected and signed off before the installation team arrived on site.
Two independent scaffold access towers were positioned at either end of the run, giving the installers safe access at both ends of the roof rather than a single point to walk back to. Raking braces were taken down to timber sole boards where the standards landed on tarmac, spreading the load and keeping the base stable on a surface that was itself still being worked on.
Where the scaffold crossed the route through the site, a covered walkway was built with a boarded roof over it, so the way through stayed open and anybody using it was protected from anything above. That walkway ran the full length between the blocks.
RAMS documentation and method statements were provided before work began. The structure was inspected at the required intervals throughout the contract. Every operative held a current CISRS card.
Edge protection to the full perimeter of every flat roof section.
Raking braces to timber sole boards, spreading load on tarmac still being worked on.
KEY CREDENTIALS
What We Delivered
Blaker Court, Blackheath
Flat roof edge protection for solar panel installation on a residential block, signed off before installers arrived.
Read the case studyBritish Gas, Dartford
Large scale solar panel scaffold across a multi-bay commercial warehouse, programme coordinated throughout.
Read the case studyAcorn Park School, Norfolk
Solar panel scaffold across a school campus including a curved barrel vault sports hall.
Read the case studyPenthouse Residential Block, Bromley
Multi-storey scaffold on a busy Bromley main road, pavement licence managed.
Read the case studySolar installation on a flat roof cannot begin until compliant edge protection is in place. That is not a preference, it is the law, and it puts the scaffolding contractor at the very front of the programme. Getting it wrong delays everybody behind us. Getting the access right, in this case with two towers instead of one, quietly saves the installation team days they would otherwise spend walking.
If you are a solar installation company working on commercial flat roofs, school or campus sites, or multi-block developments across South East London and Kent, call us to discuss trade terms and programme coordination.