Set height for actors

[mrmattday93]

Hi there,

 

one of our amateur drama groups have come to me looking for help with regards to having a set piece about 6ft high that they can have as like a second floor apartment. this would require set to be placed on and around it to give it the look and hide any safety equipment.

 

my question is that whilst I know at this height legs should be cross braced, I'm assuming hand rails would be a must ( or fall protection) also what with steel deck being particularly heavy how would you go about alleviating it being so top heavy that it is inherently less stable as it is, especially at the small dimensions I see them wanting ( 2 or 3 sheets of deck).

 

along with this are there any regulations regarding subsequent access to this raised platform? or would a secured ladder be adequate.

[david.elsbury]

An option to make it more stable might be to use an upside down piece of deck on the bottom. Then legs up as normal to the deck at the top. You'll still need to brace the legs of course.

[sleah]

What about tank traps on the outer legs? So long as they don't cause a potential trip hazard of course.

Just a thought!

[alistermorton]

Can you fix bracing to the stage floor?

[Owain]

Local scaffolder could probably help for not much money, and provide something that is regs compliant. Possibly an access tower with internal ladder/stair.

[TomHoward]

Handrail is something that you would have to work out and incorporate into your design. It's likely going to need something, or another way of keeping people away from the edge and reducing the risk.

 

If the sides have flats fixed to them, you may find this adds a lot of stability, even more than bracing. It's hard to flex a piece of 8x4 ply of any thickness along it's long edge. I would work on getting the flats fixed in the strongest way possible across top and bottom edge on both front and side faces of the deck and effectively create a box.

 

At 6' height, are you thinking of three full 8x4 decks, and are they arranged along the long edges to make 24' x 4, or something squarer like a 12'x8' area?

[kerry davies]

Whoa there folks. Local scaffolders might well be very good and know building site regs backwards but they rarely have the experience required for the specialist set/performance platform builds we undertake.

Handrails are not mandatory otherwise we would need them across the front of 99% of stages.

I knew I remembered a subject like this and I found this one! There are many more on the subject of rostra, platforms, staging, stage systems etc. All one needs do is search.

[kitlane]

Apologies for dragging out the hackneyed response but re: handrails "What does your Risk Assessment say?" As Kerry states, handrails are not mandatory, but you'd better have some solid control measures in place to reduce the risk of a fall from height. Often this will be down to training, blocking and rehearsal. It could be marking the edge in something highly visible (LEDs hidden from the audience, for example). Or perhaps some kind of handrail may be part of the control measures in your circumstances.

 

I would suggest a secured ladder should be low down on your list of access methods. That's not to say it would be unacceptable but something closer to a standard staircase would be much better and probably make your Working at Height risk assessment a little easier.

[ontoprigger]

I would contact someone like steel deck and ask them for some advice on how they would do it, they will be dealing with the issues daily,and just to be polite ask them for a hire quote, at least that way you could see what gear they would use