Today I was invited to follow one of the site engineers around areas of the plant that many people don't get to see such as ceiling voids and roof spaces .The site engineers or contractors access these spaces from time to conduct various M&E tasks (non routine). I wanted to know what assurances they have that the areas they crawling around is load bearing.(No such piece of paper exist with the spec or swl of the area supporting their weight but people have accessed the area for years apparently)

The area they crawl around on is kingspan (metal skinned) but there are some obvious penetrations such as light fittings which if you were to put weight on I'm sure would fall through. Is this acceptable  I can't think how to justify it? The area is quite dark too, one thing I am sure on is that lighting needs improving.

One particular area is boarded out with wood and has 2M head height so you are able to walk around it also has edge protection, however to access the king span area which only has 1m head space you need to cross a small makeshift gantry in fact its a piece of kingspan acting at a bridge across a false ceiling with no side rails it probably just under 2M in length. It highly unlikely but if someone fell off it they'd crash through the false ceiling and hit the deck total fall height 12ft could be fatal, I'm demanding a permanent structure is put in place immediately, and preventing use of it.

Some of the other areas which are boarded out with wood seem rickety / old and over the years have been damaged by water ingress, some are cracked and worn too.

How would you monitor something like that and when do you decide it needs re-boarding? Are there companies out there who will inspect these area ( structural engineers perhaps ?)

Theses areas are not locked either they just have no authorised access stickers on them, I'm worried one day maybe ten years or more in the future  when I'm not even there and the boards have decayed more and more someone going to fall through them so I want to put a programme of monitoring in but not sure what to monitor other that a visual inspection.

I know there are some immediate fixes we can do such as improve the lighting, lock the area off, restrict access, permit required access , fixed structures, no lone working, edge protection all around.

When do we decide the area needs reboarding? Who do I contact for assurance that the King span is load bearing? (I've called king span but didn't get through)

All advice welcome and criticism

No consideration is ever given to personnel access to ceiling voids by designers and architects.

Whilst there are "standards" for suspended ceilings these consider the metal framing, mounting system and panels as a "product" not the maintenance activity that may need to occur above or around them.

In a money no object world the product would be ripped out as unsuitable and replaced with one designed in a manner that facilitates adequate maintenance access.

In a pragmatic world wood would be replaced with galvanised section to overcome issues of rot.

In the realms of cheap skate can the panels be temporarily removed to allow access from a suitable platform?

Mersey

Roundtuit wrote:

"No consideration is ever given to personnel access to ceiling voids by designers and architects."

Often true, but exactly the sort of issue that should be addressed when CDM applies to a new build or renovation.

But you are faced with what exists, so the first Q is how often people have to go into the crawl space, for how long, where, and what to do?

From a lighting perspective that should influence putting in permanent lighting, using portable lighting (e.g. helmet mounted) or a mix of both.

Whether rotted boards are going to collapse is going to be dependent on how rotten, thickness and span between joists (assuming the joists are not also about to fail). 

In terms of what to do, you also need to consider how easy it is to put in replacement boards, lightweights and other protections.

To put this into perspective, at home I have five roof space areas. Three are easy to access via vertical hatches, with a degree of boarding over the joists where someone has put in MDF boards (quite possibly recycled from a kitchen), but most of the space is simply joists with glass fibre insulation between the joists supported by the ceilings below. But, in general there is no need to access such areas.

The other two roof spaces are via hatches in the ceilings, one above the top stair of a staircase and one above a box bedroom. I have never dared venture into either (at least in part influenced by having investigated a fatal accident where someone was attempting to access a roofspace from a hatch at the top of a stairwell)! I think there is a redundant header tank above the bedroom ceiling but it would be necessary to remove the ceiling to get it out, so it's best left well alone.

So, perhaps time to sit down with those who need to go in there to find out why they need to access and then bring in a structural engineer or building surveyor for a view on the safety of what exists.

Might even find that some elements were overengineered if it's an old building. So as example a rotten board might have been unnecessarily thick and could be treated rather than replaced.

Many years ago my upstairs neighbours (before we moved up in the world - from basement to top) had dry rot in an 1880 building and wanted us to contribute to remedial works including replacing a wooden lintel with a steel beam. After we had threatened an interdict as no engineering assessment had been made, we got in a rot specialist who advised that the 12 inch by 8 inch lintel was way more than needed, so it was injected [by the top name in the business] to deal with the rot and not replaced. Along with some other changes to specification the price tag dropped from £25,000 to £6,000.

Of course, if the joists are sound, and you don't have access issues, it might be easier to replace some boards rather than evaluate how sound they are.