simonbirdsey Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 Hi, Just wondering about whether to buy in or hire scaffold for a 25 ft school hall roof, to change the direction of lights, put up hire lights etc. Anyone recommend a good company? Cheers, Simon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew C Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 Anyone recommend a good company?To recommend a local one, we need to know where you are; how about adding a location to your profile? Hire or buy? How often does the school use the lights? If only once or twice a year hire. If it is every week buy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jammie300 Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 Risk Assesments come to mind and Health+Safety ( :) ) But that should be covered by the hire company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niclights Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 This question disturbs me an all sorts of ways, but if you want to hire scaffold one would normally look in the Yellow Pages! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonbirdsey Posted July 12, 2007 Author Share Posted July 12, 2007 Hi Guys, I thought it would sound like a doofus kind of question! I've been on a course all week (knackered) and trying to make space in budgets for things...obviously I don't have much of a didgery ** laughs out loud ** Ok, so I've amended my profile to include location. I was actually wondering whether there was a company that supplies them specifically for education/ lighting purposes or whatever. One that is easy to assemble/ disassemble and store and that is more designed for the purpose than normal building scaffold. I was thinking that it might even have lockable wheels, so that you could move it between lighting positions rather than assembling and pulling down all the time. Yeah, risk assesment/health and safety is another issue. The reason that I was thinking scaffold rather than ladders is for this very reason. I'm not even actually considering buying at this moment, I'm just looking for a ball park figure for the budgets. I guess that we'd probably seriously use the lights about once every half term, so about once every 6 weeks for a performance, although there are onbiously rehearsals in the build up. Hope I've been a bit better with providing information this time! Si Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niclights Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 Buy or hire they're all pretty much the same. There's no specific hire to education/lighting etc. that I know of. Usually will always have option of lockable wheels (with adjustment to keep level). Decision to buy or hire is most likely going to be about which is most economic and whether you have space to store. Cost can vary greatly for purchase & will obviously depend on height. Check your local private ads or call local building suppliers for hire cost/ex-hire purchase or Google around. Zargees is a good starting place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 http://www.hss.com/ has to be one starting point. Check height stabilisers and platform. Check floor loading and access and storage. There may be a local hire company who will do you a deal, there are other companies both national and regional Take their H&S advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3guk Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 Another recommendation for Zargees, I think they have distributors all over the UK, and they can sort you a package to suit the venue. Not sure wether it is worth buying, check the cost of hiring the few times you need it versus the cost of buying. Have you considered a Tallescope, might be of some use in a school environment, and bridges the gap between ladders and a tower. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew C Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 Zarges towers! Yuk. I'd be inclined to go for a standard Zip-Up / Easy Rig type as they are so much more rigid, and should be available from all building hire companies. To correct Jammie300s point above; it is YOUR responsibility to do the RA, not the hire company. They can provide instructions, CoPs etc, but only you can decide if it is a safe method of access when you consider the WaH directives criteria. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niclights Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 I totally agree. I only mentioned Zargees for economic reasons but they certainly don't compare with those from building hire. Depends on how high you need to go! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonbirdsey Posted July 13, 2007 Author Share Posted July 13, 2007 Ok, how about if I put it this way: if, for example I was hiring two moving Robe profile spots and a fat frog for a week...would the hire company install the lights and, if so, how much extra would it most likely be? I am actually waiting for some quotes at the minute, but you know what they're like. Si Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRisdale Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 Sounds like this is moving towards a pros and cons of hiring question... But...If you do decide to buy some access kit I would definitely (and controversially? :( ) recommend that you get a free ESCA 3000 demo before buying a scaff tower or tallescope. We had a demo in the other week and were very impressed (including our stage manager, a daily tallescope user for the past 20 odd years). Don't be put off by rumours, it's a really good product (good enough for the RAF anyway, but then they are exempt from the Health and Safety at Work Act... :P ) Website is here:www.escauk.co.uk/ Despite what some have said about them, I really can't see how you could turn one over without doing something rather stupid - which applies to all access equipment. Much quicker and easier to build than a tower while avoiding the "can we move someone in the bucket?" issue of tallescopes (not that you should be moving someone up a tower either) and you're not climbing a vertical ladder. I never saw the ESCA 1000 or 2000 (earlier generations) but apparently this latest model is a big improvement. We will likely be buying one to send out with our touring rig in the near future. Gareth. (Just for the record I have no links or ties with ESCA UK whatsoever, though the demo guy Steve is a big F1 fan which sat well with us...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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