If you’ve ever wondered how high-rise buildings are maintained, we’ve got the answer. Keeping windows and facades cleaned and painted can be challenging. The higher the building, the bigger the challenge – but rope access is up the job. Rope access in the UK is an innovative way to tackle building maintenance at any height, and it’s much safer than you think.
How rope access makes a difference
Maintaining large-scale buildings like stadiums, bridges and high-rise office blocks once required expensive platforms and scaffolding. But the development of rope access techniques makes inspecting and maintaining these structures easier, less time-consuming and much more affordable.
Although high-rise building maintenance isn’t very different from maintaining smaller buildings, working at height has its own complications. Imagine installing structural steel or mechanical or electrical equipment hundreds of feet up or cleaning or painting a building facade with your feet dangling in thin air!
The evolution of rope access has made carrying out inspections and installations at height much more accessible.
As an added bonus, our industrial abseiling teams can reach parts of the building that are usually inaccessible. So you can expect them to do a more thorough job than other teams working at height. We’d even say it’s the most practical way of maintaining any high-rise building.
A cost-effective solution
Using a scaffolding solution for high-rise maintenance can be costly. First, you’ll pay for operatives to erect a platform before they even begin work. And with stamped engineering drawings costing into the thousands, costs quickly mount. Next, factor in rental over a minimum period, and you can see how employing a team of people dangling from ropes might be more cost-effective.
With fewer people accomplishing more tasks more quickly, you’ll see why rope access is gaining popularity. And there’s minimal downtime, so your building is accessible throughout maintenance.
Versatile and super-efficient
Nowhere is out of reach for our operatives, which means they can achieve a vast range of tasks. Rope access is ideal for glass cleaning and replacement, roof maintenance including leak detection, waterproofing and bird proofing – to name just a few tasks our teams have tackled. Plus, our innovative Konnected system means you can track progress in real-time to keep an eye on progress.
It’s also a super-efficient way of getting to work as quickly as possible. Our technicians can rig and start working in a few hours. And their mobility and agility once roped up means they can get straight to the job in question. So whether you need a silo cleaning service or a publicity banner installation, you won’t have to wait for the scaffolders to finish before the work can start.
Think sustainability
Sustainability and building maintenance might not seem much of a match. But when you consider the eco-footprint of traditional access solutions like scaffolding and platforms, rope access has minimal impact.
With no machinery, just ropes and belaying systems, it’s 100% green and is much less invasive than other working-at-height solutions. Our technicians use rock climbing and abseiling techniques to leave as light a touch as possible on the building facade – vital for maintaining and restoring heritage buildings.
Safety issues
Obviously, safety is a huge concern when working on high-rise buildings. But our teams have all been through the appropriate training, so while it might look hair-raising, everyone knows exactly how to handle themselves working twenty storeys up.
Before they tackle any maintenance work, our technicians put together a rescue plan alongside their safe working methods. This attention to detail is a significant reason why rope access has the best safety records for working at height.
Think Access for high-rise maintenance
If you need high-rise building maintenance, we can handle it – whatever the height. Get in touch with Think Acess to find out more about our rope access solutions..