What We Built
The short version. A period property in Sevenoaks having its elevations cleaned. Stone cleaning puts water, grit and cleaning product against a building at pressure, and all of it has to go somewhere. Wrapped, it runs down the inside of the sheeting and is dealt with on site. Unwrapped, it goes onto the garden, the hedge, the pavement, the road and whatever is parked on it.
Scaffold to the full height of the elevations being worked, tied to the building, rising to roof level at the far end where it stands alongside the chimney stack. The far end is left as open scaffold rather than wrapped, because nothing there was being cleaned.
The whole of the worked face is encapsulated in shrink wrap. The sheeting is drawn taut and sealed at the seams rather than lashed on loose, so it behaves as a skin rather than a sail. That matters on an exposed frontage. Loose sheeting flaps, works its ties and ends up in a neighbour's garden on the first bad night.
| Structure | Full height to the worked elevations, tied |
|---|---|
| Encapsulation | Shrink wrap, seams sealed |
| Reach | Roof level at the far end, alongside the chimney stack |
| Standards | Inside the hedge line, nothing on the footway |
| Built to | TG20:21, by CISRS certified scaffolders |
| Inspection | Before first use, then at intervals of no more than 7 days |
| Highway licence | None required |
Why Stone Cleaning Needs Encapsulation
Most access scaffolds exist to put somebody within reach of a wall. This one does that and then does a second job that matters more.
Cleaning masonry generates a slurry of water, dislodged dirt and whatever product is being used. It does not stay on the wall. It runs, it drifts and it carries on the wind. On a detached building in its own grounds that might be tolerable. On a property fronting a road, with a neighbour on one side and a hedge, verge and pavement on the other, it is not.
Encapsulation turns the scaffold into a containment. The water runs down the inside of the sheeting and is collected rather than spread. Overspray stays in. The pavement outside stays usable and the neighbour's side stays clean.
There is a second benefit that pays for itself over a contract of any length. A wrapped scaffold is weather independent. Cleaning stops in rain on an open scaffold, because you cannot tell what you have cleaned and what the sky has rinsed. Inside a wrap, the work carries on and the programme holds.
