Australian property sizes are shrinking. At a time when headlines contain the details of the sale of the largest station in the world, our cities are becoming more compacted each time a building is redesigned or redeveloped.
Over the past five years rampant population growth and skyrocketing land prices have seen a significant reduction in the average size of residential properties according to Housing Industry Association figures.
Sydney has lead the way with a standard Sydney property going from 312sq metres in 2010 to 285sq metres in 2015, with forecasts extending the trend into the future.
With this reduction is land size, the increasing trend is that residential buildings are tending more towards multi-storey, with a reduction in convenient footprint area for scaffolding once the surrounds are completed.
Our study this week is one such build, where the placement of the in-ground pool is such that one edge is directly under a multi-storey wall.
Maintenance on this wall, replacement of the facade or any change to the presentation requires personnel to be located above the heart of the pool. Mr. Scaffold is familiar with scaffolding over voids, stairwells, and indeed pools.
Our experienced scaffold team created two bays at each end of the 5 metre long workface, running perpendicular to the wall. These were supported on twin structurally rated planks that served as both protection for the surface below and the spanning device for each end bay.
These bays were then joined using twin layher beams to support the 5 metre long working areas. Three levels were created, one at the entry level provided by the perpendicular bay, another at 2.4 metres height and finally at 4.0 metres. These working areas were 1.3 metres wide, and were surfaced using Mr. Scaffold’s Standard and Trapdoor Platforms.
Ladders were mounted internally, with toeboards, mid and upper guardrails, topped off with mesh screening. Outriggers were used to ensure the stability, rigidity and firm feel of the working platforms.
There are a lot of pictures on the internet of people doing silly things to work above pools. This is one of the right ways to go about this work.