Lancing College

1. Planning and Safety Considerations: Before starting, thorough planning is crucial. Given this building is a listed building, our team had to ensure the perfect execution of scaffolding erection and dismantle on site without damaging the building. Listed buildings always require care and consideration due to their historical, architectural and cultural significance. As always our team allow strict guidelines to ensure we approach these structures in the correct manner which are:

• Design and planning
• Protecting building features
• Specialised access solutions
• Compliance with conservation authorities
• Supervision during erection & dismantle

Our team and the Lancing College team planned successfully to erect the scaffolding within a 2-week term break. This allowed us to build suitable barriered off areas which included signage as there were still members of the public and staff on site. This was also the plan for dismantle.

2. Engineering and Scaffold Design: When liaising with the engineer regarding this project, the designer knew exactly what they were up against from the word go. This wasn’t the first design they have made for ACE Scaffolding at the college.

Key design elements include:

• Building survey – A structural engineer had to carry a survey on the extending building areas to ensure the scaffold could be placed on the roof areas with load spread support.
• Foundations – Ensuring and identifying that the foundations are suitable for a heavy-duty scaffolding erection.
• Structure safety – Calculations were put in place to ensure the scaffold was structurally safe. Things that can affect scaffolding strucutre movement: Unsupervised dismantle / adjustments by an operative not working on behalf of ACE Scaffolding. Weather conditions and equipment failure. All this was taken into consideration when producing the design documents.
• Platform size – The design engineer had to ensure that the independent scaffold width, height & length was suitable for all operatives to work on and always ensure a high level of safety.

3. Installation of scaffold on site (The installation process was as follows):

• Erection of the first lifts of independent scaffold
• Butress support scaffold to follow where design showed
• Introduce gantry scaffold over walkway areas
• Erection of scaffolding on extended roof top areas
• Completed higher scaffold required
• Installation of debris netting
• Installation of heras fencing on ground floor levels

Once the work was complete, all scaffold is dismantled in reverse order.

Our in-house team provided the following on completion:

1. Hand over certificate
2. Weekly scaffold inspections
3. Scaffolding inspection register report

Building a scaffold on a listed building requires a balance of engineering expertise and safety. The scaffold must be strong, stable, and suitable for the building strucutre whilst also providing safe access for operatives to carry out works. Not least to forget the College will be fully operational when ACE Scaffolding leave site and the term break is over. Therefor the scaffolding must be completely safe to ensure student, visitors, and staff safety. This is why we carry out weekly scaffold inspections.

Working at Lancing college is an absolute privilege, as it provides the opportunity to contribute to the maintenance and improvement of a historic and esteemed environment, where careful scaffolding ensures that the institution’s architecture and legacy are preserved for future generations. Every time we visit site and witness the iconic landmarks and beautiful school grounds the ACE Scaffolding team always feel fortunate. It was a pleasure as always working alongside Owen McKeown and the Lancing College team.