Scaffolding in Ongar and Ingatestone

Chipping Ongar is a market town on a widened High Street of the old pattern, with more than 100 listed buildings and structures in the town, many of them timber-framed behind later brick and render fronts. The Chipping Ongar conservation area covers it. The Central line ended here until 30 September 1994; the station, opened in 1865, is now the Epping Ongar Railway. Work on the High Street is what a listed frontage asks for: re-roofs in peg tile and slate, chimney stacks, repointing and lime render, and shop fronts with flats above. The scaffold stands on the pavement with a fan or a protected walkway so the shop trades on. Ties go through window openings rather than into a drilled anchor in a listed wall, agreed with the builder at the survey. See painting and rendering scaffolding.

The rest of Ongar is post-war. The parish was formed in 1965 from Chipping Ongar, Greensted and Shelley, with Marden Ash taken in from High Ongar. Shelley, north along the A414, is the inter-war and post-war expansion. Marden Ash, to the south, is the same generation, with a church rebuilt in 1957 after a V-2 destroyed the old one. The houses are semis and detached on estate roads, a dormitory for London that lost its tube in 1994. The jobs are hip-to-gable lofts with a rear dormer, rear extensions, re-roofs and renders, each needing a front and rear lift and a loading bay for the steels. See loft conversion scaffolding.

Ingatestone is Brentwood Borough. The A12 once ran down the High Street and has been bypassed since the bypass was built in 1960. The village has two conservation areas: Ingatestone High Street, with 35 designated heritage assets in the historic core, and Station Lane, mostly substantial detached houses on large plots set back from the road. The station itself, on the Great Eastern main line with Greater Anglia trains to Liverpool Street, is Grade II listed, its main building Tudor-style in diaper brickwork and dating from 1846, on a line that first reached the village in 1842. Beyond the two conservation areas the stock is Victorian villas and inter-war and post-war detached houses on generous plots. That means whole-house renders with all four elevations at working height, re-roofs on big hipped roofs with a chimney stack scaffold off the roof, and the scaffold returned round bays, porches and garage roofs so the renderer has a continuous run.

Between the two towns, through Blackmore and Fryerning, the lanes are narrow, hedged and without verges, and the big houses sit behind gates and long drives. Whether the lorry reaches the elevation or the materials are carried in from the gate is decided at the survey, along with where the lorry stands without closing the lane. On the two High Streets the pavement is the only footprint.

Ongar is in Epping Forest District, and Epping Forest District Council is the planning authority. Ingatestone is in Brentwood Borough. The roads in both belong to Essex County Council, so a scaffold on the public highway anywhere here is licensed through Essex Highways. Only the scaffolding contractor may apply, so we do; Essex Highways takes 15 working days from receipt to process it, the licence is valid for two weeks from the date of issue and can be applied for initially for up to 26 weeks, and a renewal takes three working days from receipt. That lead time goes into the programme. A detached house on its own drive needs none.

We cover Brentwood to the south and Chelmsford to the east. Billericay is covered too. See all areas, or request a survey.

Ring 07490 092490, WhatsApp the same number, or fill in the survey card.

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