Aluminium Scaffolding – Maroubra Junction Hotel

This month Stronghold Hire was asked to provide commercial scaffolding hire on the Maroubra Junction Hotel, in the heart of Maroubra. The Maroubra Junction Hotel was first opened in 1926 and is a prominent feature in the MJ area. This is the second time that Stronghold Hire have carried out works on this historical building. As we provided a large B class hoarding type scaffold for a new awning back in 2018.

Safe Scaffolds Within Ausgrid Requiremets

However, this time we were asked to provide a scaffold for the front of the building and the clock which stands central on the rooftop (and we’re no strangers to roof scaffolding!). A quote was sent with an instruction to contact Ausgrid for their requirements as the front scaffold would be falling within 4m of the electrical wires on the street. This usually consists of installing tiger tails to the wires and installing sheets of weatherproof 17mm Formply to the outside of the scaffold.

Ausgrid also asked for the wires to be powered down on the installation of the scaffold so the client decided that it was easier to just use abseilers for the front façade. The clock was set back a lot further so it was safe to erect scaffold here without involving Ausgrid.

Challenging Scaffolding Delivery

Our first challenge on this job was the delivery of material, the parking zones out front were only 30 minutes maximum so we had to ensure that the 3-tonne trucks delivering the material were emptied with material walked inside, up 4 flights of stairs and onto the outside balcony area in a very short space of time.

The plan was to deliver the first truck of scaffold and then build up from the balcony and creep onto the roof the first day. We could only bring a limited amount of material on each delivery due to the small space we had to stack on the balcony, we picked and packed the material in a specific order at the yard to accommodate this.

Pre Start Photos & Proper Planning

The next challenge was the condition of the slate tiles on the roof, they were old and brittle with a few already cracked. Pre-start photos were taken as always, and the state of the tiles discussed with the client. We can never guarantee that no tiles will get cracked on a project like this, so we prepared by acquiring some tiles and having a roof tiler on standby during this installation period. Luckily, no tiles were cracked on this installation. The use of our lightweight aluminium modular scaffold system minimizes this on these types of jobs.

Droning On

As we want to give you more insight into the projects we complete we’ve invested in a drone to give you footage and views of scaffolding projects that you may not have seen before, check out the Maroubra Junction Hotel scaffolding in the drone footage below.

Maroubra Junction Hotel Clock Restoration

The work being carried out on the clock was mainly just paint restoration, but they suspected that some parts of the clock may have to be replaced upon closer inspection with the scaffold. Due to the main works being on the upper area of the clock we installed the first deck to comfortably accommodate this. This height of deck does not give you the 2m clearance to place another deck underneath, so we allowed for a revisit to alter the decks once the upper areas were complete.

Another Happy Client

The client is very happy with the access and the scaffold still stands there today, pop by Maroubra Road and take a look at the work for yourself.