Facade Retentions

Our client needed a strategy for the facade retention of three large Victorian properties in Camden. A scheme was put together by a reputable engineering consultancy in London. This scheme involved the installation of an exo-skeletal frame constructed using hot rolled steel sections and supported on screw piles. Gravity Consulting Engineers re-engineered the scheme, offering two techniques that would eliminate or reduce the cost of the temporary works. The first option involved a strategic piecemeal removal of internal floor structures such that no element of external wall would be left laterally unrestrained beyond its capacity. The second option involved using a modified external scaffold system that was designed to resist notional horizontal and lateral wind loading. Both options were viable, but the second option was selected on the basis that there were fewer impacts on programme. The final design of the scaffolding was done by a specialist scaffold designer using the Gravity scheme design as a basis.