Sky Scaffolding Midlands Ltd have completed the task of providing a suspended scaffold (drop lift) at Merrion House, Leeds to allow for vital window repairs.
This 1970’s office building is currently occupied by Leeds City council and has recently been through a major state of the art development and refurbishment as part of the council’s change in workplace strategy.
Cantilevered Suspended Scaffolding
Sky were approached to devise a solution for accessing a tenth-floor shattered window, where site constraints meant that conventional means of access such as Mobile Elevated Working Platforms and standard scaffold towers built from ground below were not feasible.
Operational retail and office spaces below with fragile roofs that could not be built up from meant that a cantilevered scaffold built down from roof level was the only suitable solution.
A bespoke scaffold was designed to be fixed to cradle rails on the roof to provide stability for a two lift single bay of Layher Allround System Scaffold to be suspended from 450mm aluminium beams above.
Safety Considerations
With operational retail and office spaces below, it was essential that the risk of falling materials was ruled out. This was achieved by ensuring that tethered tools were used throughout, and loose materials were also tethered until they were fixed to the scaffold.
To ensure as little disruption as possible to the day to day running of the premises and its tenants the scaffold was erected over the weekend and dismantled as soon as the repairs had been undertaken. Due to the time restrictions in place it was imperative that the organisation and execution of the scaffolding works were performed seamlessly.
Similar Projects
Sky Scaffolding have a great wealth of experience designing and installing cantilevered drop lift scaffolds. As well as providing an efficient way of reaching a top floor window in an office block, it is a solution we regularly use to provide access to bridge parapets for repairs over water ways, open highways, and railways.
Instead of fixing to cradle rails found on the roof of modern buildings, this solution is regularly used with kentledge to provide a counterweight for stabilising the cantilevered scaffold, as utilised on the Willes Road Bridge project, and as part of the ongoing bridge maintenance works across Warwickshire.
If you think that this or a similar solution may be suitable for a project you are working on and would like to discuss the options further, please call our Estimating Department on 01926 400900.
