Middlesex House

Inner City Scaffolding are currently undertaking widespread scaffolding works to Middlesex House situated in Cleveland Street, London.

Suspended HAKI System, along with traditional tube and fitting beamed scaffolds, are being erected to enable window removals and replacement from the 3^rd floor of the building, without the need to close any of the live offices to the other fully occupied floors.

The project consists of three key parts as follows:

Phase A: The first scaffolds erected are within the main Courtyard of the offices, which posed key challenges as works needed to be undertaken with as little disruption to the personnel as possible. All materials were delivered and moved during closed office hours to minimize disruption.

Below the Courtyard is a basement office so great care was taken whilst basing out. The weight of the scaffold had to be spread to avoid high leg loads transferring into the basement office, which was achieved by using a combination of RSJ beams and railway sleepers to spread loads accordingly.

Independent scaffolds were set out with key bridged arrangements, to facilitate a goods hoist serving the trades in moving their materials up to the three main scaffold decked areas of the 3^rd & 4^th floor, plus roof levels.

Phase B: The second scaffold is to the rear of the building where there is no access for logistics and mobilization of materials.

To overcome this with no hoisting or crane availability, Inner City Scaffolding (ICS) routed all materials up via the Courtyard, then on to the roof for safe temporary storage, where onwards they were carefully roped back down via a strict lifting plan to erect the scaffold base upwards.

*NOTE – Whilst under construction, this scaffold will be fully debris netted to provide protection.

Phase C: This will see the suspended scaffolds erected to the east side of the building, the most complex and challenging scaffolding of the three phases.

With no place to found the scaffolding below due to lay out of the offices, ICS will overcome this by erecting a complex support structure to the length of the roof, utilizing HAKI 750 AL Beams in unitized format to cantilever out from the building, supporting the system scaffold hanger down to the 3^rd floor, giving unhindered access whilst reducing weight imposed loadings during the process.

The suspended HAKI system scaffold was selected for task, as it requires less components, has a bespoke attached system safety fan that is fitted from behind the guard-rail, and is easily tetherable which are all pivotal for our fall prevention plan and protection of the building occupants. The system is also complemented by key components stocked by ICS that meet the recessed layout, enabling simple platform closure and gap management that will provide closed protection during the project cycle.

Due to the complexity of this scaffold and the fact that we are working over a live building, every single component will be twin tethered until it is connected securely to the scaffold structure via the HAKI spring locking catch, and board locking catches. Scaffolders will only have tools on their belts that are required for working with the HAKI system, all positively tethered to meet our fall prevention requirements.

The project is expected to run for the summer period, whereby all works will be completed without any invasive impact or weather-related issues, releasing the upgraded building to its occupants in full.