shoring

[N. Thornton]

Hi

I need to temporarily shore up a wall, about 8' high, with vertical scaffold poles concreted into holes, and linked horizontally to the wall. The one q I dont yet have a clear answer on is how far they need to be sunk into the ground. Also I'm not familiar with what the best tool would be to dig with.

Thanks, NT

[Roger Mills]

Sounds a bit dodgy to me! - since it applies bending loads to the vertical supports which they may be unable to resist.

Surely [or shorely ] a more usual way would be to have vertical supports against the wall, horizontal supports at ground level - with pegs in the ground at the remote end, and sloping supports anchored to the top of the verticals and to the remote end of the horizontals in order to triangulate the whole thing.

Is there some reason why you can't do this?

Roger

[Mike Taylor]

If you dont know what or how to do it DONT! Contact a structural engineer and he will design the supports for you As for digging holes if you can use a mini digger then use it if not the good old fork shovel and pick comes to mind

[BigWallop]

Shoring needs to be in a cantilever form to be of any use. The frame for your supporting section should be robust enough not to bend when any weight is applied to the side against the thing you're supporting. Scaffold tubing would need to be built in the form of a web with interleaved and tied members across it to reduce or spread the bending pressures across the whole framework.

Anything in or on the ground which stops the frame from sliding away needs to be able to take the weight of the frame and the wall, so pouring concrete blocks which contain anchor points for the frame need to be worked out carefully.

If it's a free standing wall, then why not demolish and rebuild it with proper buttresses and foundations ? If it's a wall for the house, then you'll need it all calculated positively if you're going to live with it.