KEEP YOUR DISTANCE: REAP THE FULL REWARDS OF SYSTEM SCAFFOLD

The old saying that the devil’s in the detail can be particularly relevant to scaffolding projects. Getting the basics right saves costs and drives up profit - and in this new Covid-19 era, choosing the right products can also help you comply with social distancing requirements and keep projects on track.

UK System Scaffold Hire’s work with Oxfordshire based H & H Contract Scaffolding on the impressive expansion project for Arts University Bournemouth is a case in point.

Even before the March shutdown, Andy Thomas, MD of H&H Contract Scaffolding was saying that he was benefitting from the “UKSSH difference”.

“UK System Scaffold Hire made a substantial contribution to the success of the project and helped to control costs simply by getting the basics right – it may sound like damning with faint praise, but in our experience their attention to detail sets them apart from other hire companies. For instance, UKSSH supplied us with one of their Site Support Team for a couple of days at the start of the project to work with our Scaffold Team to ensure everything ran smoothly.

“Every site poses its own challenges – in this case it was the need to break down deliveries to two separate locations. Steve Huntley of UKSSH spent considerable time on site to understand the logistical requirements and arranged for deliveries to be banded in stillages and clearly labelled, so that all components for, say, loading towers stayed together. Steve and H&H Site Manager, Peter March, even came up with the idea of trial building awkward areas of the building scaffold and giving them comical names like “Juliet Corner”, to ensure when that phase went ahead the site scaffolders were familiar with the requirements and UKSSH yard staff could pick and label the correct kit for site.”

“As scaffold contractors, the greatest cost on any job is the wage bill for skilled scaffolders – and the greatest drain on profits is the amount of down-time when highly trained scaffolders are waiting for the right materials to be delivered. On a project the size of AUB, the impact of poor logistical management is huge.

“UKSSH understand importance of scheduling component deliveries in accordance with the build programme rather than by the lorry load, they understand the importance of adhering to delivery schedules – and when the components do arrive on site they are in good working order. It’s a commitment to service that differentiates UKSSH from the competition and helped us to hit deadlines and control costs”.

Even before Covid-19 it was difficult to put a precise cost against the benefits, but on a project like AUBthe savings can easily amount to well over 500-man hours.

 

UKSSH deliver social distancing “by design”.

However, now that the site has reopened, those benefits are greater than ever: Accurate deliveries means that the process of getting materials to the correct location requires fewer operatives; UKSSH has supplied additional stairtowers to enable a one way system to be introduced on site and because the Haki system is based around a 3 metre ledger beam it automatically means that scaffolders operate beyond minimum social distancing requirements.                   

 

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