This specialist project required Hardy Services to undertake the design and installation of a fully enclosed, weather proof access scaffold to the full external façade of an historic, listed 15th-century mill.
Serving to provide access and facilitate a working platform at eaves level for the extensive roof works, the structure was also required to incorporate full boarded access and a modular temporary roof system, providing full weather protection for the delicate restoration works being carried out within the building.
The size and pitch of the mill rooft required saddled access platforms to be erected at both removal and re-instatement stages of the roof works, providing safe access points for the roofers.
With localised pointing and general masonry repairs being undertaken alongside the roof works, particular consideration to the scaffold design was required.
A further significant design consideration involved the age and nature of the mill which provided its own unique problems; no physical fixings, an essential requirement of a scaffold erection, could be used within the building fabric when tying the scaffold structure.
The problem was resolved through the use of ground anchors and additional bracing to minimise the disruption to the trades persons using the scaffold, whilst providing the structural rigidity and ballast needed to prevent the large roof structure from collapsing.
Inside the mill, a full boarded protective platform was constructed to provide fall protection during the roof works and to facilitate the work of the millwrights, joiners and other specialist trades serving the project.
Installation of platform to successfully navigate the awkward arrangement of the mill’s interior space required a complex structure with a combination of beams and cantilevered sections.
To meet security and insurance specifications, the entire external scaffolding structure was encased at the base by means of a 5m high galvanised steel sheet hoarding.
