Bracing for unpredictable weather conditions

Bracing for unpredictable weather - is your temporary fence safe?

As we all know and have witnessed, unpredictable, wild weather conditions can wreak havoc on a construction site.

Now consider if your temp fence were to topple over during high winds or strong storm. What would happen? What could be the potential consequences?

Your construction site could -

• be responsible for liabilities for damage caused to people or property of the fence falling over
• become an exposed work site and open for a potential serious harm injury, and the costs associated with this

• have its site security compromised increasing the likelihood of theft.

These potential hazards and consequences can easily be prevented by using securely erected temp fencing with bracing.

Bracing is an important consideration when erecting a temp fence

At GHL Group, we were the first to introduce bracing and support stays to temporary fencing over 10 years ago. Although this bracing has now become common practice in the industry, we’ve noticed that the amount of bracing used is very often inadequate.

Standard temporary fencing requires bracing every 20 metres minimum

For standard temporary fencing, where there are no attachments suspended from the fence panels, GHL recommends one brace to be installed for every 20 metres of fence line. Extra bracing is needed if the fence is erected on uneven surfaces or soft and unstable ground.

Substantial bracing is recommended for temp fence with shade cloth and acoustic barriers

Temporary fencing that has shade cloth, heavy signs and advertising panels or acoustic barriers attached will need extra bracing as these attachments add weight and act like a sail in heavy winds and storms.

In these circumstances, GHL recommends –

• 1 x brace every second fence panel and in some applications on both sides of the fence.
• 3 x concrete filled feet used as weights on the bracing.This will add a total of 96 kilograms of strength to the stability of the fence.
• An additional coupler at the base which also locks the panels into the concrete filled foot.

It’s not worth the risk. Double check that your current temp fence supplier has erected fully compliant fencing, with adequate bracing that is suitable for the conditions.