Steeldeck Height

[Automat!c]

Hello ,

 

A quick question we have required some steeldeck 2 meter by 1 meter . We are doing a production of Grease and to hide the car under the steeldeck , I was going to raise the deck to 1 meter 40 , would I need hand rails around the deck at that height , ???

 

 

 

 

Ta ginger

 

 

 

[paulears]

This is one of those questions that, while we can offer advice and guidance, we cannot respond with a yes or no. 1.4m is a fairly common height for Steeldeck, and as long as the legs are managed in the usual way - the stability of the stage can be suitable to perform on. Clearly, if you look at events stages, with perhaps a camera track between the stage and the barrier, 1.4m is actually lower than some - and they don't need rails at the front. However - at the sides - kind of the wings, then barriers and kick boards can be very useful. At 1.4m, it won't be people falling off the front out will be people being pushed over the edge of the sides and back, when they get squashed and run out of deck!

 

So your height, once you have done a proper risk assessment, might be perfectly OK. Sides and back could need rails and edge protection, lighting and proper access. Scenery that is tall, could overbalance and flop over the top - so the RA will dictate the final answer. So probable answer is yes you need something on 3 sides.

[SA90]

Like paulears said, do your risk assessment and analyse where falls could be. I used similar height deck on a production of Chicago couple of months ago, and had rails on the back and sides but not fronts

 

N.B. I don't know how experienced you are with deck so this may be like teaching grandma to suck eggs, but the higher you go, the less stable the deck becomes, so you'll need to think about bracing

[J Pearce]

An industry contact of mine has just given himself significant long term ligament damage falling off a piece of rostra 400mm off the deck. It's not just the height that counts, it is the visibility of the edge, movement around the deck, light levels, how rehearsed and repeatable it is, etc. etc.