Re-surfacing work on a Hereford roof-top shopping centre car park might seem a simple operation but it can present some major challenges.

Not least a complete encapsulation involving some 2,500 sq. metres of lightweight covers… that’s equivalent to 13 full-size tennis courts!

Securely tying down these shelters involved complex discussions with scaffold designers, structural engineers, scaffold contractors and specialist subcontractors to design six separate shelters and not only ensure that the roof would accept the kentledge load, but that the shelters lined up with the falls to the new drains and that some of the shelters could be bolted to existing steelwork on the parapet.

Main contractors Sir Robert McAlpine were confident that Malvern Scaffolding was the company to rise to the challenge, as Roger Smart, Robert McAlpine’s Central. Wales and West Regional Chief Engineer explains:

“The personal attention to detail and proactive involvement of Malvern Scaffolding’s Directors, right from the initial phone call, gave us confidence that they could make this work for us.

“They have proven to be a technically proficient, highly reliable and forward-thinking sub-contractor whose commitment to overcoming obstacles on site has been crucial to the smooth running of this project”.

Malvern Scaffolding is experts in the temporary cover field and holds stocks of the HAKI 750 shelter system. For this project, they designed a series of covers providing an internal workspace with a 14.6-metre clear span.

The various methods of anchoring and Kentledge packs were carefully designed and executed.

Throughout the negotiation period, Malvern kept key suppliers like UK SYSTEM SCAFFOLD HIRE in the loop as it was likely that the bulk of the cover system would have to be hired in for the job.

UKSSH were willing and able to invest in whatever stock was required for the contract. 

Although originally working to an agreed four-week lead time, when this was halved to two weeks UKSSH swung into action and came up with a “just in time” schedule to keep the job rolling along.

As Gary Griffiths, MD of UKSSH explains, “In all, we made a total of 20 delivery runs to site and our site support team worked with Malvern Scaffolding to ensure things were kept to programme. 

“At UKSSH the focus is always on customer support – our success is reliant on our customers succeeding, so all our efforts go into supporting that ethos.

“We are proud to be associated with a highly professional outfit like Malvern Scaffolding”.