Nowadays, Commercial buildings appear with Glass at their front or at all elevations. Last 2 decades number of such buildings has been increasing. Though glass is a brittle material, its use as Façade material has been increased. But the same has additional maintenance costs. This paper informs about the various activities majorly involved in Façade maintenance and systems that building owners should implement to carry out those maintenance activities.
Building Maintenance units used for façade Maintenance activities.
For maintenance
of the Façade, one or more workers need to be outside. To allow them to
work from outside specialized equipment is deployed at the site. The unit may be permanent or temporarily installed. Such a unit is designed as per the shape, and height of the building.
Following are the typical types of Building Maintenance Units.
1. Spiderman Kit: It consists of a Fall arrestor, Glass suction Cup, Grip descender, Carabiner, wire Rope as per the height of the building, Safety Harness, and Helmet. Ropes are tied to any structure available at the terrace and labor descends with the rope and equipment connected to it. Such a system is generally followed for Façade Cleaning work. Silicone filling work can also be done with the Spiderman technique but it takes more time to fill silicone in grooves and the finish may not be as good as that can be achieved by doing work at Cradle.
2. Temporary Suspended platform: These are installed temporarily and can be removed or shifted from the site at any time. Installation, moving, and removal are done manually.
Workers stand in a trolley kept on the ground floor and balanced by a Counterweight kept on the terrace. It got lifted by that slides over wire rope and Cradle seems like suspended from the top. These two ropes will be tied to the structure mounted on the terrace. The load of the trolley along with equipment, tools, material, and labor will be balanced by keeping a minimum 1000 Kg (or as per design) counterweight at the terrace.
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| Counter Weight for Temporary Suspended Platform |
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| Parapet mounted Davit System |
4. Floor-Mounted Davit System: It is the same as the parapet-mounted system but the only difference is brackets will be fixed at the floor.
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| Floor-mounted Davit System |
5. Roof-Mounted Motorized System: In this type of system, the entire machine moves on a track installed at the terrace. The path of the track is designed in such a manner that the trolley reaches the outermost face of the Façade with the help of Horizontal booms. This system gets shifted or moved remotely and does not require much labor to shift the position of the Cradle.
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| Roof Mounted Motorized System |
Conclusion
To protect the investment done for Façade it is also important to use some maintenance technique suitable to the Façade installed for Building. Many activities are required to be done to achieve the desired result from Façade throughout its life. Selection of Building Maintenance unit should be based on the Height, and shape of the building. The building Maintenance Unit should be designed along with the design of the Façade so that the Space occupied at the terrace by the Maintenance System can be considered. Not only the space but the Civil or MS structure holding the Maintenance systems should also be designed due to this additional load. There should not be any obstacle in the path of Maintenance. It should be designed in such a manner that the operator can perform his work safely. It should not strike the Façade or Shading devices protruding out of the Façade surface. When the system is not under use it should be parked at the proper location and should not affect the aesthetic of Façade.
Director,
Landscape Wall Systems
9819 663 630
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