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Posts tagged “Repair”

Getting a hole in your roof doesn’t happen often, thankfully, but how does it happen? 
 
We have only come across two causes so far which can do this; 
 
1 - Something dropping on your roof, such as (a) debris from a taller, neighbouring building or (b) an overhanging tree branch that has broken off, or 
 
2 – a small localised whirlwind which can ‘lift’ your roof slates/tiles. 
 
It doesn’t really matter how it happened, what matters is how are you going to deal with it! 
 
First, it’ll be a bit of a shock, discovering that you have a hole in your roof. 
 
Second, you think it’ll be expensive, time consuming and messy to sort out. 
 
Third, where do you start looking to solve your broken roof? 
 
 
Here at High Reaching Solutions, we not only supply tracked spider access platforms, with or without qualified and experienced operators, we also undertake works such as roof and gutter repairs and also gutter cleaning. The accompanying photos are of a property in Pickering, North Yorkshire where the owner had discovered that they had a hole in their roof, it could be seen from across the road. Their first call was to their ‘decorator/handyman’, who immediately suggested to them to call us, which they did. 
Photo of a hole in the roof with roof slates scattered on roof. Another view of hole in roof, a little further up the roof. A view which takes in the whole roof showing the hole and various slipped slates in different areas of the roof.
 
History shows us that working at height had to evolve to become quicker, cheaper and more importantly safer. This entailed moving on from old wooden ladders, wooden gantries and trestles and of course, hanging from ropes. No…not the around the neck type but around the waist or siting on a sling. 
 
We have now progressed to strong alloy ladders, alloy or steel scaffolding, rope access technicians (with purpose made equipment) and of course access platforms. 
 
Most are self-explanatory, but what is an Access Platform? Simply put, an access platform is a temporary work platform attached to the end of a boom and is manoeuvred into position via a system of hydraulically operated arms/booms. 
 
They are known by different names, here are a few; 
• Cherry Picker - used by most as a basic description of all access platforms. 
• Scissor Lift – a four wheeled vertical platform known by some as a 'flying carpet'. 
• Boom Lift - a general term for four-wheeled self-propelled boom type machines. 
• Spider - a term used for a tracked access platform with outriggers. 
• Trailer Mounted – a road towable platform that can be towed behind a car. 
• Truck Mounted – a platform which is fitted to a vehicle chassis. 
• Vertical Boom - a term used for stock pickers or manlifts. 
• MEWP - Mobile Elevated Work Platform, the descriptive term.