Kee Systems provides a rooftop safety solution for country house hotel

Down Hall Hotel in Hatfield Heath has enhanced its leisure facilities by opening Eden Spa treatment rooms as part of a £2.5 million investment. The engineers on this refurbishment project required a safe rooftop working area for the installation of new air conditioning units.

By having these units located on the roof, regular access will be required by maintenance teams so it was important to have a permanent solution. Kee System supplied and installed a combination of KeeGuard and KeeGuard Foldshield edge protection systems. KeeGuard Foldshield offers the flexibility to be folded down when work is not taking place.

“The aesthetics of the hotel building were obviously an important consideration on this project,” explains Down Hall Maintenance Manager, Bob Parker. “We were adamant that we wanted to minimise the impact of unsightly barriers when work was not being carried out on the roof. We were impressed by the flexibility of the Kee Systems products, particularly the KeeGuard Foldshield system which allows it to be folded down when not in use. While this was important for us, safety was always the key requirement on this project and we are pleased that we can now send our maintenance teams up to the roof, without any worry that their safety is at risk. We have complete confidence in the KeeGuard products.

Compatible with a range of roof membranes, including concrete, asphalt, PVC membrane and felt, KeeGuard offers a free-standing roof edge protection system capable of keeping workers on the roof safe without compromising the roof membrane itself. Employing a proven counterweight system, KeeGuard combines a non-slip secure base with galvanised fittings and tube arranged in a modular configuration. Its modular structure means that the KeeGuard system can be disassembled and moved if required for maintenance tasks, whilst sections can be added to or taken down for reconfiguration elsewhere.

KeeGuard Foldshield utilises a hinged version of the standard KeeGuard system to solve the important issue of it being undesirable to have railings permanently visible on the roofline of a building. The system can be easily lifted into place when work is in progress and then quickly folded back down when finished.