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Best Practice Guide

Temporary Works Guide for the Installation and Tying in Details for Temporary Stair

Towers FASET is the trade association for the safety net rigging and temporary safety systems industry. This document was originally published by the FASET Health and Safety Committee and gives general guidance on the Installation and Tying in details for Temporary Stair Towers. IMPORTANT NOTE: This guidance contains some proposed stair tower tie in designs, which MUST NOT be used without the full supporting technical information that the design detail is based on. This is ONLY available to FASET Corporate Members and can be obtained by them on request from FASET.

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Introduction This Guide has been produced by Fall Arrest Safety Equipment Training (FASET) to provide information to companies installing Temporary Stair Towers on the requirement to:

• justify the category of Temporary Works • Confirm the tying in detail • Provide a Temporary Works design

This guidance may be used by Principal / Main Contractors and Clients in determining the category of Temporary Works for the installation of Temporary Stair Towers. This guide should be read in conjunction with the Manufacturers Information Manual (MIM) for the specific tower to be installed. The details contained within the guide do not alter, change or re-design any manufacturers details specified within the individual MIMs. The MIMs provide detailed information relating to the sequencing of the installation and dismantling but often lacks specific detail regarding the tying-in to the structure. This guide provides additional information and installation details for common Temporary Stair Tower installations to steel framed structures. The guide is not designed to cover all situations and further Temporary Works Designs may be required for installations that fall outside of the scope of this document. For example, this guidance document only covers tying in a Temporary Stair Tower with its longest side against the structure, not with its shortest side against the structure. Manufacturers often specify at what locations Temporary Stair Towers should be tied to the structure but not how. Illustrated within Appendix 1 are a number extracts from the MIMs that refer to tying in.

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FASET Specified Stair Tower Tying-In Detail In their MIMs, Manufacturers often assume that the Temporary Stair Tower will: • be anchored into a permanent structure or facade • have a permanent structure on both sides that the Temporary Stair Tower can be tied in to • be tied in using a design specifying traditional tube and fitting components

In addition, Manufacturers’ Training often does not include the installation of ties, therefore, those holding such training certification alone cannot demonstrate competency in this area.

Note: the FASET Stair Tower Training Course does teach these tying in arrangements.

FASET Tying-In Details All Temporary Stair Towers must be installed and dismantled: • in accordance with the specific MIM (which must be available as required) • in accordance with the Temporary Works Design specifying the tying-in detail • by trained operatives who can prove their competency by holding either a:

o CSCS Blue Skilled Worker FASET Stair Tower Installer card o CISRS (specific system endorsed) card

• where the site foundations have been assessed and deemed sufficient in a suitable location

Tying-In Issues It is often assumed that in situations such as that shown in Figure 1, it is only permissible to tie in the Temporary Stair Tower to hot-rolled steel stanchions. In the majority of cases it is not possible to tie both sides of the Temporary Stair Tower in to hot-rolled stanchions and it is necessary to tie in to the cold-rolled sheeting rails. The suitability of this arrangement must be evidenced by the Temporary Works Design which has been made available by FASET for their members use. In summary, • it is often only possible to tie in to a hot-rolled stanchion on one side • the adjacent hot rolled stanchion is often a greater distance from the

first stanchion to allow for the Temporary Stair Tower to be tied to it • to tie in the Temporary Stair Tower to the structure on both sides, it

will often need attaching to the cold rolled purlins • if it is not possible to tie the Temporary Stair Tower in to the

structure in accordance with the MIMs, the suitability of the method must be evidenced by a Temporary Works Design.

Figure 1. Typical issues with tying-in stair towers to a structure

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FASET Tying-In Specification In following this Guide the Installation and tying in to Cold Rolled Steelwork / Purlins is classified as a Category 1 (CAT 1) Temporary Works Design, as detailed in BS 5975: 2008+A1: 2011 Code of practice for temporary works procedures and the permissible stress design of falsework. In permitting this Guide to be used for a CAT 1 Temporary Works Detail and subsequent installation, FASET specify that the following parameters are complied with. The Temporary Stair Tower: • can be tied in to a hot-rolled steel stanchion with a minimum size of 200mm x 200mm on one

side • can be tied in to sheeting rails on the other side with:

o a gauge greater than 1.8mm o a minimum size of C-section 172mm o maximum spacings between the sheeting rails of 2.0m

• is off-set no more than 1.5m away from the structure • does not exceed a height of 30m • is erected in accordance with the MIM • the tower jack legs must be placed on suitable sole boards, which must be a minimum of

450mm x 225mm x 35mm and banded at each end

The FASET tying in details have been specified for the side of the Temporary Stair Tower being tied in to the cold-rolled sheeting rails and must be issued to the projects Temporary Works Coordinator.

Figure 2. Indicative plan view of a Temporary Stair Tower adjacent to a structure

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Figure 3. Typical Tie Pattern of ties Installed on both sides of the Temporary Stair Tower where one side is tied in to the hot-

rolled steel stanchion and the opposite side is tied-in to the rear of the sheeting rails.

Figure 4. FASET Structural Tie in Detail

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Figure 5. FASET Sheeting Rail Tie In Detail

Further Notes FASET Technical Design This Good Practice Guide and specifications is supported by the FASET Stair Tower Design Report and Certificate, available to FASET Members via the Members Section of the FASET Website.

Other Structures and Configurations Where the structure / building does not meet the specifications / arrangements of this Guidance Document and associated Design, the FASET Member must produce an additional Temporary Works Design and Certificate for the specific installation.

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Appendix Example – HAKI

“Tie Components: Additional components outside the systems standard component set may be required to enable use in accordance with this User Guide. These will normally constitute loose tubes to EN39 and fittings to EN74.”