Abroad, (Italy, Switzerland, to name two I am familiar with) it appears normal to set up a small crane when building or doing major repair to a house. I've never seen that done in England even on developments of several houses. Why? Surely builders here aren't that cheapskate? It there some elfinsafety nonsense that gets in the way?
DJC scribbled
Perhaps you could enlighten these foreign chappies in the use of ladders, scaffolding and hods. BTW - out in the far east they use bamboo scaffolding. That's another technology that we don't use. I can't think why.
It's done occasionally here, especially when houses are close together/ hig h rise, access is bad and the site is small. There are many benefits Materials can be lifted straight off of delivery trucks onto scaffolding or set down anywhere on the site. There no need for fork trucks ploughing around cutting up soft ground. There's no need for concrete pumps as concrete can be shifted around too.
I have seen two such cranes in the last 12 months, on large, single-building sites, probably low-rise flats in a block of maybe 4.
At my daughters new build which consists mainly of three storey buildings t he only things craned up were the decorative chimneys which arrived assembl ed and were simply hauled up and installed on the the two nearest trusses t o the gable ends. Everything else including trusses, roof tiles and blocks were lifted up with the permanently on site fork lift.
Richard
I have a Victorian book that details how to put up wooden scaffolding.
A flat bed loaded with scaffold pulled in behind me at Tescos diesel pumps.
On the side it said 'Erection Specialists'. I remarked to the driver that at my age, that was the sort of company I needed...
Snappy response to the last cyclist I pulled up for cycling on a rural footpath. Called a wanker I was able to respond *lucky me*:-)
>Well, I have seen cranes topple over either because they are lifting too much or that the outriggers are on soft ground or just not good enough. Brian
I asked this exact same question several years ago
I got the answer(s) that builders do, in fact, use cranes here too, we just hadn't noticed :-(
tim
tim..... scribbled
I saw on this morning, lifting roof trusses onto a refurbished farmhouse. it wasn't there this afternoon. Horses for courses and the one being used was probably expensive.
I've seen wooden scaffolding in use earlier this year. No idea why they used wood rather than steel.
Mike
Most scaffolding firms are aware of the double entendre nature of their sign writing, another one seen sometimes is " Let us handle your erection"
I used to like the slogan on some vehicles of a firm that set up temporary traffic lights. " Jam makers since 1974*"
G.Harman
Where I live I have seen that done using what I would call a largish lorry crane which is only needed for that job.
I would assume that the OP is referring to smaller lightweight cranes that are permanently on site.
In our area in SW France, they often seem to use the local farm tractors with telescopic buckets for the roofing work.
John
Many UK building sites appear to use telehandlers for day to day lifting, with mobile telescopic cranes brought in for roof trusses, as required.
Small self-erecting tower cranes are what I think they were meaning, like this:
I guess it all boils down to a mix of both tradition, availability and economics.
Chris
In message , news writes
Elfin safely have prosecuted several farmers for doing just that in the UK. You have to use a special safety cage mounted on the forks. Very difficult to use one handed as the safety cage gets in the way:-(
Yes, that's the sort of thing.
Tim Lamb scribbled
That's the problem. It's crane + operator + labourer to do the loading and unloading. Very unlikely to be cost effective is it.
I have a photo of our 1880s house being built, showing wooden scaffolding and a long wooden ramp with guys pushing barrows up to the first floor. Who needs cranes?
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