Dusseldorf: Redevelopment of apartment blocks and adding storeys to create living space
"Your project - our goal" is the slogan of the Maier Group from Cologne. The Maier Group is an association of seven independent divisions that specialise in different business areas of the construction industry. All members of the group have one thing in common: the company philosophy. As can be seen from the website, they want to be at the top in terms of quality in all business areas and achieve complete customer satisfaction. This should ensure the group's long-term success in the highly competitive construction industry. How this can be achieved in day-to-day business is shown not least by major projects such as the current one in Düsseldorf-Rath. Here, the company IGA Maier, which is responsible for scaffolding within the group, has the opportunity to demonstrate its corporate philosophy in word and deed.
Affordable housing is becoming increasingly scarce
Affordable housing is in particularly high demand in conurbations. This also includes Düsseldorf with its attractive location on the Rhine and its more than 640 thousand inhabitants. Good ideas and solutions are needed. Fortunately, the time when the problem of scarce living space was solved with ugly housing silos is over. Nowadays, urban planners place much more emphasis on ensuring that new buildings fit harmoniously into the cityscape. Or that existing buildings are extended by additions and extensions in such a way that the footprint of the building does not have to be increased. This is how living space is currently being created in Düsseldorf-Rath in Bochumer Straße. Six existing apartment blocks are not only being fundamentally renovated, but one storey each is being added. A construction period of two and a half years is planned.
Roof truss down, cassette roof on
Before the extension of the houses could begin, the old roof had to be completely removed. In order to protect the flats below, which continued to be fully occupied during the entire construction period, IGA Maier was commissioned to build a weather protection roof over the entire building. The time needed for this was 8 - 12 weeks, until the structural work was finished and the new roof could be closed. In total, three apartment blocks were always covered with a Rux cassette roof at the same time, which amounted to a total area of two times 2,500 m². The RUX-SUPER facade scaffolding, which was also provided by IGA-Maier, served not only as working and protective scaffolding, but also as a supporting structure for the weather protection roof. As a result, it had to be significantly strengthened statically in order to take the additional loads.
Martin Behrens, who is responsible for scaffolding at the Maier Group, emphasises the advantages of the Rux-Alu-Rasant weather protection roof: "Thanks to the possibility of removing cassettes at any point, the various materials that were needed could be unloaded by crane. This saved a lot of time for the material transport of the different trades."
Extensive façade renovation
Parallel to the addition of the building's storey, the facades of the individual blocks are also being extensively renovated and in 5 out of 6 cases the buildings are also being partially extended. IGA-Maier is providing around 24,000 m² of RUX-SUPER facade scaffolding for this purpose. This facade scaffolding has been used by the Maier Group for years, and operations manager Martin Behrens swears by the cost-effectiveness and flexibility of this system. These advantages come into their own with large, smooth surfaces, as in this case. From the perpendicular assembly of the first layer, the ease of assembly of the ergonomic scaffolding parts to the logical grid dimensions and many technical solutions, for Behrens "simply everything is coherent" with this system.
Houses occupied throughout the construction phase
Construction noise can never be completely avoided. It doesn't bother anyone as long as no one lives on a construction site. In Düsseldorf-Rath it was different. During the entire construction phase, the flats remained occupied. So consideration and caution are called for. Consideration with regard to the nuisance caused by avoidable noise. Also in terms of not obstructing residents' parking spaces and access roads and driveways unnecessarily. And dirt emissions must certainly be dealt with differently than on another construction site. The large number of residents who pass through the construction site and scaffolding area every day must also be taken into account in terms of safety. This means that the scaffolding must be secured in such a way that any falling material or tools cannot pose a danger to passers-by. Great care must be taken by all the trades involved in the work. For the IGA-Maier company, this means a special challenge. On the one hand, the scaffolding has to be permanently secured against unauthorised access, so that these protective measures prevent children in particular from accessing the scaffolding uncontrollably, especially after work. On the other hand, permanent access must be guaranteed for the many different trades. A total of 10 employees and the crane operator of the truck-mounted crane that placed the pre-assembled roof elements on the scaffolding were involved in erecting the scaffolding and installing the roofs.
