Commercial Scaffolding – Belmore North Public School – Roof Restoration

This month Stronghold Hire was asked to provide a scaffold for roof restoration at Belmore North Public School. The school is one of many public schools that Stronghold Hire have been involved with over the last four months.

Unlike most school projects, the scaffold erection had to be done during the term, whilst the children and staff were occupying it. Stronghold Hire knew exactly what to expect, having done countless school projects over the years.

Scaffolding in Occupied Buildings

Good communication, planning, preparation, and a lot of common sense takes the stress out of working in occupied buildings, especially schools. The difference between occupied buildings such as office blocks and occupied schools is the obvious higher risk factor.

Navigating The Extra Challenges

School recess areas, pick up and drop off zones, movement between classrooms all present extra challenges. The biggest risk, especially with younger children is how spontaneous they can be. Younger children are not as aware of their surroundings and often, through no fault of their own, struggle to stick to designated areas or pathways.

Solid barriers, hoarding, signage, drop zones and locked fencing need to be carefully planned and positioned correctly, we need to ensure that under no circumstances, occupants of the school can enter our work areas, this is the most important part of the project.

Flexible Working Hours

Our working hours had to vary depending on things like truck delivery times, children drop off and pick up times and recess times. Some of the areas were to be completed on the weekends only. We fully understand this and are very accommodating.

Steel Modular Kwikstage Scaffold

We used our heavy-duty, steel modular Kwikstage scaffold for this project which also included:

1. A large heavy-duty loading bay, 10m x 2.4m for the 10m long roof sheets to be landed safely.
2. Stretcher stair access, as per NSW Safe work standard.
3. Ladder beam work to suspend the scaffold in certain areas. One span is nearly 16m long.
4. Plywood hoarding to some areas acts as an anti-climb barrier.
5. Lightweight, modular aluminium scaffold over lower roof areas.
6. Fire retardant meshes to the working deck.
7. Buttress/raker bays to the rear area to support the scaffold. Cladding would not allow the use of removable wall anchors.

Completed Ahead of Schedule!

We were extremely proud of our team as the scaffold was complete one day earlier than required. The deadline was very important with the roof trades having to complete the job within the school holidays.

Another successful school project by the Stronghold Hire team.