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batm

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I know I am going to get the usual but I am struggling to get my head around the way designs have changed!!

I have been putting temporary roofs up for over 20 years.

The requirement has grown so out of context with the ability to do the job.

I am doing one at the moment & getting the designer to adapt as we go due to it being a church & the CDM wants to measure & weigh everything!

I have had roofs up when the winds of 86 hit & in the last few months when we had 100mph winds. Standard scaffold with a kicker & rakers at the low side or raker tower no problems!.

Now I am supposed to have rakers full length on all four sides with 30 tonne of kentledge on the bottom in case the inside standards move out!!! The scaffold weighs over 22 tonne alone without kentledge!!! With this extra weight it will sink! We have graves all over the site & cannot put the amount of rakers required or the amount of kentledge that is being stated.

Thought the raker tower was to stop side ways movement not standard dancing!! Thats what the kickers for.

Sorry now lost for words, now the experienced guys can tell me what a **** I am & the scaffold could blow away!!!

Stewart
 
I know I am going to get the usual but I am struggling to get my head around the way designs have changed!!

I have been putting temporary roofs up for over 20 years.

The requirement has grown so out of context with the ability to do the job.

I am doing one at the moment & getting the designer to adapt as we go due to it being a church & the CDM wants to measure & weigh everything!

I have had roofs up when the winds of 86 hit & in the last few months when we had 100mph winds. Standard scaffold with a kicker & rakers at the low side or raker tower no problems!.

Now I am supposed to have rakers full length on all four sides with 30 tonne of kentledge on the bottom in case the inside standards move out!!! The scaffold weighs over 22 tonne alone without kentledge!!! With this extra weight it will sink! We have graves all over the site & cannot put the amount of rakers required or the amount of kentledge that is being stated.

Thought the raker tower was to stop side ways movement not standard dancing!! Thats what the kickers for.

Sorry now lost for words, now the experienced guys can tell me what a **** I am & the scaffold could blow away!!!

Stewart

All of the scaffold could blow away.

Oh yeah, and you're a ****
 
Good luck with that. Sounds like a major ball ache.
 
I know I am going to get the usual but I am struggling to get my head around the way designs have changed!!

I have been putting temporary roofs up for over 20 years.

The requirement has grown so out of context with the ability to do the job.

I am doing one at the moment & getting the designer to adapt as we go due to it being a church & the CDM wants to measure & weigh everything!

I have had roofs up when the winds of 86 hit & in the last few months when we had 100mph winds. Standard scaffold with a kicker & rakers at the low side or raker tower no problems!.

Now I am supposed to have rakers full length on all four sides with 30 tonne of kentledge on the bottom in case the inside standards move out!!! The scaffold weighs over 22 tonne alone without kentledge!!! With this extra weight it will sink! We have graves all over the site & cannot put the amount of rakers required or the amount of kentledge that is being stated.

Thought the raker tower was to stop side ways movement not standard dancing!! Thats what the kickers for.

Sorry now lost for words, now the experienced guys can tell me what a **** I am & the scaffold could blow away!!!

Stewart

Easy to be the critic, not so easy to be the artist!!
As Phil says the whole of the scaffold is open to movement under wind.
This has never changed the concept has never altered and only a few new solutions have been found.
I saw many roofs come off in the winds of 86 along with many before and since.

The assumption that a roof never came off or never blew away was because it was built correctly may not always be a safe one. The structure may not have been in a loading condition which would cause a problem and you may never know how close to failure your scaffold is or was.

I have seen scaffolds on the same street where one is devastated and the other not touched but this relates the the path of the wind and as a result the force applied.

If you are paying a man for his knowledge and advice it is normally wise to either accept it or stop asking

regards
Alan
 
Hi Alan,

Yes we have a designer in place.

We are working with different solutions to get round the problem, not saying he is wrong.

The problem we have is the amount of graves, we cannot put that amount of weight on that ground. We are not allowed to drill the church.

On the high side we have a 3ft deep gully 2-3ft wide where the inside standards go, we have come to a solution of revels between the gap tied to the standards which has done away with the rakers & kentledge.

So just the low side to sort. My point was even with a gust of wind over 100mph it is not going to lift 15 tonne of scaffold & I would have thought any kentledge would have been more useful on the base of the raker tower that is tied threw the bottom of the standards to prevent side to side, the kicker would prevent dancing standards. Thats where we have put it on previous jobs.

Thanks for your input.

Stewart
 
Have you considered additional plan braces or lightweight buttress / outrigger /stabilisers
 
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Cant quite believe you're having these issues this late into the job and you already had a design. Don't suppose you could use molex anchors in the church yard could you, may cause a bit of controversy that. Tie it to a few old gravestones, really old ones so there are no relatives about to complain. That'll do it.
 
Cant quite believe you're having these issues this late into the job and you already had a design. Don't suppose you could use molex anchors in the church yard could you, may cause a bit of controversy that. Tie it to a few old gravestones, really old ones so there are no relatives about to complain. That'll do it.

Down to the CDM. They had the drawing & accepted it. We questioned the condition of the ground prior to starting. Our RAMS & T & C state that the contractor needs to make sure the ground & building will with stand the scaffold loadings imposed on it. We brought that up due to more graves being found close to the church wall once the grass was cut, flat slate & now they are not so happy to take the responsibility for the loadings imposed.

Already have raker towers the question was in regards the positioning of the kentledge. We would normally put it on the base of the raker towers but in this case the designer wants it on the base of the scaffold which would put it on top of the graves.

They are now undertaking a grave survey to see how much of the ground would be suitable to base out on. The only other option open to them is to drill into the base of the church!!
 
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