demolition scaffold

dangeruss

Well-known member
Joined
May 12, 2010
Messages
1,303
Reaction score
0
Location
Rutland
Lads I'm having a nightmare this morning. We have built a scaffold screen for a demolition job in Cambridge its 30mm away from the building with debris netting on the inside and monoflex on the outside.
The Guy driving the "claw " has now informed us the scaffolds too close to the building to get the claw in. The thing is the scaffold was built over 2 weeks ago and no one has uttered a whisper, the day the driver turns up the hassle starts.
They now want the scaffold stripped 34m x 5 lifts and moved out 1m away from the building. I thought the idea of a screen was to stop the odd bit of dust not the whole of the front of the building. I thought you pulled the building into itself during demolition ?

Any advice to avoid striking appreciated, anybody else had this experience ?
 
Done alot of demo scaffolding and its sounds that you are right with the distance as all demo crews pull the building in as you said . Sorry not much help but good luck with sorting it
 
Do you a spec from the client in writing before it was built? Were hand over certs signed off by the client?

If you do you are entitled to charge for any alterations.
Without seeing what the exact specs are for the site hard to comment excatly but in my opinion if the hazzard of debris falling is so great why are they not carrying out the works by hand instead of by machine.
Like you say, the screenis to stop small debris, not great lumps of masonary crashing through it.
 
all the screens we have done vertical boarded sheeted ect have been 12" away from the building , geeza sounds incompetent , tell em to pay for the strike and re erect
Debris protection
 
Agree with Scaffy , I have done a lot of demo work in the past and if a screen is needed it`s for safety reasons . Suggest boarding out and taking down by hand and or a copetent plant driver .It sounds like the client is at fault so bill accordingly . Hope it works out for you, cheers .
 
Agree with Scaffy , I have done a lot of demo work in the past and if a screen is needed it`s for safety reasons . Suggest boarding out and taking down by hand and or a copetent plant driver .It sounds like the client is at fault so bill accordingly . Hope it works out for you, cheers .
Resolution ! spoke to the director and he agreed the scaffold is up for dust and light debris as per the hoc. The driver has been told to pull into the building 2m sections at a time then we will strike .
The driver is a premadona co*k , I don't know what the biggest tool on the job is , the driver or the machine he is using

Anyway thanks lads I was losing the will to live until I told the demo boss the lads on the forum have all agreed that the scaffold is there for light debris protection.
 
Demoliton Scaffold

Hi

It is good that the lads on the forum helped with advise and support.

That is what is it all about

Good luck

ChrisEng:)
 
Thats what its all about aint it , comrade and all that /,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, work as a team !!
 
wait for acalm day fix longer box ties with checks on run a kicker lift in with continuous ladder beams next get some 5 ton portapower hydraulic jacks. jackup the stds and fit a 10 ft board underneath at right angles to the building put athin coating of grease on top of the boards next start at one end and gradually jack the whole job out untill the box tie tubes come into contact with the columns. have done this with a 40m haki stair tower
 
wait for acalm day fix longer box ties with checks on run a kicker lift in with continuous ladder beams next get some 5 ton portapower hydraulic jacks. jackup the stds and fit a 10 ft board underneath at right angles to the building put athin coating of grease on top of the boards next start at one end and gradually jack the whole job out untill the box tie tubes come into contact with the columns. have done this with a 40m haki stair tower
Or I could just ask the demo company not to knock the f*ck out of the scaffold. Don't see why I should do all the running here, the scaffold is up to "stop dust and the odd brick" not the whole facade of the building. Scaffold has to be as close as is practicabily possible which is not a metre away, a metre away on this job is over the hoarding and onto the pavement.
 
So come on then while we are on about demolition jobs. I am an advanced scaffold inspector. I inspected a demo job in Faringdon this morning where they were using just monaflex. I tried to tell the boss man (?) that monarflex is weather protection and debris netting is what it says, stopping debris. One goes outside, one goes inside. He said quote, "I've been doing demolition for 30 years, never used debris on a job, load of ********" unquote. I walked off the site right pissed off. So what i want is this. On a demolition job debris netting or monarflex. I've only been scaffolding 40 (yes 40) years and always thought it was debris netting. Help me out lads:evil:
 
I used to do a lot of McGees demo work and they always used "Monoflex" with the lap on the outside so nothing could get out , but the rain could get in , it seemed to work for them :cool:
 
This was a McGees job. So if the lap was on the outside what stops anything falling between the toeboard and the monarflex. The lap is supposed to be on the inside to stop anything falling. Monarflex goes on the outside of the scaffold and debris netting goes on the inside.
 
This was a McGees job. So if the lap was on the outside what stops anything falling between the toeboard and the monarflex. The lap is supposed to be on the inside to stop anything falling. Monarflex goes on the outside of the scaffold and debris netting goes on the inside.

That is incorrect.

Monarflex or Powerclad sheeting is the correct material to use on a demolition scaffold. Debris netting should be used only for light protection ie. stopping paint chippings or other minor works over a 'live' area.

As for 'weather lapping' - I think that is absolute nonsense. Considering the outside face of most elevation scaffolds are 1.2m - 1.5m from the building then 'weather lapping' will only prevent the inside of the sheeting getting a bit wet and possibly the toe-board. When it rains then the building is usually going to get wet anyway, unless there is a roof or canopy over the scaffold.

Fixing debris netting to the inside of the scaffold is still common practice - But I don't think many people realise the increased wind-load this applies to the scaffold, so it should be considered bad practice unless allowed for by an engineer.

But as an 'advanced scaffold inspector', you'd know all of this anyway...
 
Last edited:
Have you read TG20:08. Read what it says about sheeted scaffolds and increased ties. I cant believe that people think that protection on demo jobs is okay with mono down the outside. Did you not know that wind blow through debris netting. Protection from paint chippings. I've heard it all now. My old woman keeps telling me its time i retired after 40 year. I make her right. I am not only an "Advanced Scaffold Inspector" i am also a foreman scaffolder, supervisor etc. And i've worked for some of the biggest firms in London.:amazed:
 
Have you read TG20:08. Read what it says about sheeted scaffolds and increased ties. I cant believe that people think that protection on demo jobs is okay with mono down the outside. Did you not know that wind blow through debris netting.

Ok...
But surely if the Mono is on the outside, its putting considerably LESS strain on the scaffold and its ties.
The reason why Mono is used on the outside of the scaffold is because the Mono-ties or bungies have a only a limited wind resistance/strength, meaning in high winds the Mono will break away and NOT pull the scaffold over.

Netting is light duty dust/small debris protection.
Mono is heavy duty/weather-proof (sometimes fire-proof) protection.


To be fair, the only time ive ever used Mono on the inside of a scaffold is for welding towers and stuff, where the Mono is fire retardant and used to keep the sparks and flashes of the welding inside the scaffold.

IMO:
Debris netting = Inside a scaffold.
Monoflex = Outside a scaffold (unless for a specialist job).
 
Debris netting will still have a wind load regardless of whether the wind blows through or not. Monarflex should be used and it should be designed anyway, debris netting is more light duty I:e paint chippings etc
 
Top Bottom