Full height scaffold clad in flame retardant sheeting on a townhouse in Queen Anne Street, Marylebone, between two neighbouring period buildings

Featured Project

A Fully Sheeted Scaffold on a Marylebone Refurbishment

Queen Anne Street, W1Safe AccessFlame Retardant Sheeting

Most people see white sheeting and read weather protection. On a job like this it is doing something else as well.

Get A Free Quote 01732 914789

Location

Queen Anne Street, Marylebone, W1

Sector

Refurbishment, Period Townhouse

Service

Safe Access with Full Encapsulation

Sheeting

Certified flame retardant

What We Built

The short version. A refurbishment on a narrow Marylebone townhouse for PLS London, scaffolded full height and sheeted top to bottom in certified flame retardant material. Two things make it a different job from the same scaffold in a Kent cul de sac. The building is joined to its neighbours on both sides, one of which is listed. And there is nowhere to put anything, because the kerb is resident permit bays on both sides of the street.

The frontage is narrow and the neighbouring buildings sit hard up against it on both sides. The scaffold rises within that width rather than spreading, and every tie and every return is set out against a boundary rather than open ground. A cast iron downpipe runs in the gap between the scaffold and the house next door, which is a fair measure of how much room there was to play with.

It carries on past the eaves and wraps over the top, so the sheeted face runs from street level to above the roofline and returns around the corner rather than stopping at the front.

The sheeting runs the full height in horizontal bands, lapped and clipped to the standards, with the flame retardant marking repeating across every band.

Why the Sheeting Is the Story

Most people see white sheeting and read weather protection. On a job like this it is doing something else as well.

Sheeting a scaffold turns an open frame into an enclosed surface, and an enclosed surface on a building fire is a route. The guidance that governs this is specific about it. The HSE publication on fire safety in construction, HSG168, says that where scaffolding forms part of a means of escape the sheeting must be to a flame retardant standard, and recommends flame retardant sheeting on occupied buildings and on structures with exposed timber. The Joint Code of Practice asks that flexible materials used to clad scaffolding meet LPS 1215 or an equivalent, and that the approval mark is printed on the material.

That last part is the bit worth knowing as a client. Sheeting that claims to be fire retardant and sheeting that carries a printed approval mark are not the same thing, and only one of them can be checked by looking at it. The sheeting on this job carries its mark across every band of the elevation.

On a Georgian terrace in central London, with people living and working either side and a listed building sharing a wall, that is not box ticking. It is the difference between a scaffold that is part of the fire strategy and one that is a problem in it.

Close view of the scaffold sheeting showing the flame retardant approval marking printed across the material — The approval marking repeats across every band, which is the point. Certified sheeting can be checked from the pavement.

Does your sheeting have to meet a named standard?

Tell us which one and we will quote to it, rather than quoting standard sheeting and revisiting it later.

Get A Free Quote 01732 914789

Working Between Two Neighbours

The house next door carries a blue plaque. The composer Hector Berlioz stayed there in 1851, and the building is Grade II listed, part of the Portland Estate laid out in the 1760s.

Nothing about that changes the scaffold's engineering. It changes everything about how it goes up. There is no margin to swing a tube into a neighbour's stonework, no question of a standard landing on their steps, and no version of this where a delivery blocks the street while somebody works out where the gear goes.

It also means the thing is looked at. A scaffold on a Marylebone terrace is seen by residents, by the estate, and by anybody walking to the listed house next door. Sheeting that is clean, square and lapped the right way is not vanity on a street like this.

What This Project Taught Us

Ask what the sheeting has to be before pricing the sheeting.

Flame retardant sheeting costs more than standard sheeting, and the requirement does not come from the scaffolder. It comes from the fire risk assessment, the insurer, or the main contractor's own site rules, and it usually arrives after somebody has already been given a number.

So on any occupied or central London refurbishment we now ask at the quote stage which standard the sheeting has to meet, and we quote to that. It is a short question. It avoids the conversation where a scaffold is already up and the wrong material is on it.

The Outcome

A full height sheeted scaffold on a narrow Marylebone frontage, built within the boundaries of a mid terrace with a listed neighbour, clad in certified flame retardant material with the approval mark visible from the street.

Central London refurbishments, occupied buildings, conservation areas, and anything where the sheeting has to meet a named standard rather than just keep the rain off. Tell us what the work is and we will come and look at it. Contracts of this kind sit with our commercial team.

We work across London and the South East from the yard at Weald, near Sevenoaks, and regularly into Bromley and Orpington.

Scaffolding Bromley Scaffolding Orpington Scaffolding Sevenoaks All areas we cover

Common Questions

Sheeted Scaffolds in Central London

What is flame retardant scaffold sheeting, and when do I actually need it?

It is sheeting manufactured and certified to resist ignition and limit flame spread, rather than ordinary polythene. The guidance that matters is HSG168, the HSE publication on fire safety in construction, which says sheeting must be to a flame retardant standard where the scaffold forms part of a means of escape, and recommends it on occupied buildings and where there is exposed timber. The Joint Code of Practice points to LPS 1215 or an equivalent for materials cladding a scaffold. In practice the requirement usually reaches you through the fire risk assessment, the insurer or the main contractor rather than from the scaffolder.

How do I know the sheeting on my scaffold is actually certified?

Look at it. The Joint Code asks for the approval mark to be printed on the material, which is why certified sheeting carries its branding and standard repeated across every band rather than tucked away on a label. If a scaffold is sheeted in plain unmarked polythene and somebody has told you it is fire retardant, that is worth a question.

Can you scaffold a terraced building without touching the houses either side?

Yes, and on a street like this you have to. The structure is set out to rise within the building’s own width, tied back to its own elevation, with the returns stopping at the boundary. It takes longer to set out than an open site, and it is the normal condition in central London rather than a special case.

Does a listed building next door change what you can do?

Not to the scaffold itself, but to the care around it. There is no room for error on positioning, nothing gets fixed to a neighbour’s fabric, and the job is visible to more people than a scaffold on an ordinary street. Where the listed building is the one being worked on rather than the one next door, that is a different conversation again, and it usually involves the conservation officer before anybody prices anything.

The street is resident permit bays. Where does the gear go?

That gets worked out before the lorry leaves the yard, not when it arrives. The kerb on this street is resident permit bays, Monday to Saturday, half eight until half six, so a delivery either lands outside those hours or it needs a bay suspension from Westminster, which takes notice and a fee. Add timed deliveries and loading in sequence so nothing sits on the pavement, and that is the part of a central London job that takes the planning. It is also the part nobody notices when it has been done properly.

Could this approach work on your building?

Tell us what the work is and where it sits, and we will tell you what the access needs to be.

Ask Us 01732 914789

More Work

Related Projects

Armstrong Scaffolding designed scaffold with a rooftop electric hoist at Berkeley Square, Mayfair

Get in Touch

Scaffolding for Central London

Refurbishments, occupied buildings, conservation areas and anything where the sheeting has to meet a named standard. Fixed quote before we mobilise, across London, Kent and the South East.

Or call 01732 914789