As you may have already read, Australia is in for another wet Summer this year. They are forecasting a third consecutive La Nina event. The experts are branding it “this century’s first triple-dip La Nina!”. So, what does this mean for the construction industry? Well, two things are for certain – delays and added cost to projects. Unfortunately, we can’t control the weather, however, we can control some of our worksites and try to prevent damage and delays where we can with shrink wrap encapsulation.
Demand for Shrink Wrap and It’s Limits
At Stronghold Hire, the number of shrink wrap installs has drastically increased over the last 12 months. The demand has been incredible, however, there are some limits to where shrink wrap can be installed due to several factors like:
- Span of Building: Very large roof spans are simply unachievable with the scaffold systems that we use. Spans of approximately 10m or so are generally fine, but once we start getting over this, extra engineering is required often resulting in costs that are just not justified.
- Project Location: Engineers consider the wind loads when designing the scaffold for shrink wrap. They work to different figures for projects that are coastal to the one’s further inland.
- Unrealistic Expectations: Many clients hope that we can come in and simply drop a ‘giant tent’ over their worksite. This is certainly not the case. Scaffolds designed for shrink wrap need to be anchored and braced in a different way to standard scaffolds. We usually require at the very least, the first floor to be constructed or poured. This gives us sufficient anchor points and reduces the height that is not supported.
- Not Enough Preparation: It is often too late in the project for us to install the wrap. Many builders will have already installed a scaffold, supplied by others, that they then want us to simply come and wrap. Unfortunately, most of these scaffolds cannot be modified to suit the wrap, and the cost of having to dismantle and re-build to another design is simply not in their budget.
Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail
Point 4 above is probably the biggest reason why the projects cannot be shrink-wrapped. It’s the case of the “closing the stable door after the horse has bolted”, or, more bluntly, if you fail to prepare then prepare to fail. Once the rain comes in, it’s only then that they think of using our effective shrink wrap service. If there is one tip that we can give you, is that we advise you to get prepared early, and engage us at the early stages of your project so we have plenty of time to prepare and submit a design.
Benefits of Shrink Wrap
We have written other articles on the benefits of shrink wrap etc which you can find here:
La Nina Is Coming
La Nina is coming and with it all the challenging weather she’ll bring so make sure to get yourselves PREPARED! Don’t get caught out in the rain and contact us today to see what we can do for you. For a free quote, email info@strongholdhire.com.au, give us a call on 8985 2020 or contact us online to talk to our shrink wrap experts.