In high wind areas, your temporary fence panels can — if not installed correctly — turn into dangerous obstacles that could pose a threat to the safety of personnel and members of the public. To prevent accidents from happening and avoid damage to your fences, proper installation and stability accessories are essential. Do you want to rely on the way your fence line is situated while staying in budget and increasing construction site safety? Here’s how to do so.
When not equipped with stabilising equipment, temporary fences are an easy victim of high winds. When strong winds blow over one of your fence panels, it’s likely the rest will follow. Interconnected fences work like a domino: only one of your fences needs to catch a lot of wind for all of them to fall over.
Falling fence panels cause a serious threat to the safety of your personnel and members of the public. Not only can people be hit by a falling panel, but the fallen fences can form an obstacle that can increase the chance of accidents happening. In the image below, you can see how a series of fallen fence panels can cause dangerous situations.
Equipping your temporary fence panels with stability enhancing accessories helps you increase construction site safety when building in a high wind area. And that’s not the only advantage of stabilising your temporary fences:
Please note that when you use solid fence panels or you have banners attached to your fences you should always use stability equipment. Since these type of fences catch significantly more wind, they form a more significant threat to the safety levels on and around your construction site.
Weighing down temporary fences can be done in a various way. Needless to say, some methods are safer than others. In an attempt to save time and costs, over the years I’ve seen various creative — but unsafe — ways of increasing fence stability.
From loose bricks being piled up on the base of a fence to wooden planks used as a strut: many constructors lower the safety level of their site by using improvised stability methods.
In the image below, you’ll find a few examples of how not to increase the stability of your fence. In the next paragraph, I’ll discuss which steps to take to make sure you correctly stabilise your temporary fencing.
To select the right stability method for your temporary fencing, you first need to know which wind speeds your fences have to withstand. At Heras Mobile, we can calculate the wind load of your construction site based on your postal code.
The wind speed determines the weight you will need to stabilise your fencing. Based on this information, you can choose the kind of stabilising system that is most suitable for your building site.
The choice between various stabilising systems is not only dependent on the wind speeds on your site, but also on how much space you have available and how much you want to invest. Overall, there are several accessories you could use:
At Heras Mobile, we’ve combined several tried and tested stabilisation accessories and used our knowledge and experience to develop the Stormguard system that helps you increase overall stabilisation. With its unique strut system, the Stormguard system can withstand up to 100 mph winds with mesh and up to 70 mph winds on hoarding. Especially when using solid panels, like our Readyhoard screening fences, the Stormguard system can play an essential role in securing your panels in high wind areas and increasing safety on your site.
Combining all these accessories into one system that is compatible with the type of fencing you’re using can be a time-consuming and challenging task. At Heras, we are there to assist you in finding the most suitable stabilising system for your site.
A Heras Mobile wind loading specialist will analyse your specific situation, conduct all the necessary calculations and provide you with comprehensive advice on the fencing solution that suits your project in the best and safest way possible.
Request your free wind loading advice here: