Over recent months, Highwire have designed and delivered an effective height safety solution for Huddersfield based David Brown Engineering.
Background
The roofs at David Brown’s Huddersfield site were predominately “North-Light Roofs” also known as “saw-tooth roofs” due to their jagged look.
Highwire bespoke system gives safe access to ‘North-Light’ roof structure
A typical ‘North-Light’ roof structure
This style of roof is synonymous with older factories and mills. They are designed to allow light into a building without direct sun shining onto the workers inside.
The problem
North-Light roofs are notoriously hard to access due to their shape and light-weight structure. This makes them challenging to clean and maintain.
David Brown Engineering found these issues leading to problems with water pooling along each roof valley as gutters and drains became blocked over time. The standing water led to degradation of the roof structure and leaks.
The solution
Highwire was approached by David Brown and asked to come up with a safe, long-term solution. The key was to allow easy access to the roof valleys and drainage without compromising the quantity of light coming into the building.
Our design comprised a bespoke system consisting of a lightweight aluminium walkway across the whole roof. This walkway is fixed to special mounting points on each ridge. Where the walkway crosses each valley, an access point leads to the roof below via a ladder. Where necessary, access along the roof valley is via a low-level walkway which takes the weight of operatives, protecting the roof structure from damage. In other parts of the roof, the existing gutter structure will support the weight of operatives.
Safety lines are built into the installation so that harnessed operators are protected from the risk of falling from height.
The benefits
The complete system gives safe access the valleys and drains to allow regular maintenance ensuring that they remained unblocked and rain water continued to flow away.
Enabling regular maintenance means the integrity of the roof structure is protected which can significantly extend the life of the roof itself.
