| 41 T T Virginia Wright Prioritising safety and innovation Aktis primarily focuses on scaffolding in the residential market but has innovative solutions for a wide range of commercial edge protection applications. CONTRACTING Aktis Scaffolding After years working in the construction industry in Health and Safety, Hamish Norwood decided to take his knowledge and put it into practice. In 2019 he established Aktis Scaffolding Ltd. to provide scaffolding and edge protection services in the Wellington Region. Given what he knew it was an easy decision for Hamish to work with the New Zealand owned company Intaks and their aluminum systems designed by a Kiwi for local market needs. “I rented, I did some lease to own, and I bought some equipment outright. Using Intaks aluminium-based system means the components are lighter and a lot better on the bodies for my team which obviously works from a Health and Safety point of view. They’re easier to use and can be combined in different ways too,” Hamish explains. Aktis primarily focuses on scaffolding in the residential market but has innovative solutions for a wide range of commercial edge protection applications. Hamish’s crew consists of long-tenure full-time staff with a few casual team members to call on as required. Among the casuals are two school leavers getting their first taste of the workforce. “We love giving young people an opportunity to enter the industry and, if they choose this as a career, we can look at putting them through their apprenticeship which is a highly sought-after qualification in NZ,” says Hamish. Whether it’s scaffolding platforms or just edge protection to stop someone falling, Aktis designs every scaffold specific to each site with multiple solutions to choose from. They’re not in the business of scaffolding for big high-rise buildings but they can plug safety gaps where needed, Hamish explains. “For a recent commercial job where there was already perimeter scaffolding in situ, we needed to provide a platform, on a steep pitch roof, at the top of the building, that wasn’t possible with the existing scaffold system. We craned our gear up about 10 floors and used our components to attach to the existing roof screws to provide a safe and cost-effective solution.” Scaffolding’s value in keeping people safe on residential projects can be underestimated until you’re confronted with what can happen without it, as was the case when a couple of builders decided to make an early start on some roof trusses. “It was when I was in Health and Safety, the builder was one of our clients and he’d had the same worker for 25 years — they were like family. The worker fell off the top of the house framing and became a tetraplegic. Obviously, we asked why they didn’t have scaffolding and the answer was it was arriving the next day.” Hamish appreciates the flexibility that comes with the Intaks system, he explains. “We can do scaffolding as well as edge protection or a combination of the two which means that if we need to, and we can, we’ll make it fit a budget while still making sure that everyone stays safe. “We have a fantastic group of regular clients that are brilliant to work with, mainly builders, painters and roofers, and we work closely with them all.” Like the rest of the construction industry, Hamish is looking forward to the workload picking up along with the economy and, meanwhile, he’s there to make sure everyone operates safely and according to the latest Health and Safety regulations, while doing what he can to keep their programmes running on time and on budget. Phone: 0800 468 257 Email: sales@intaks.com www.intaks.com INTAKS® Sca old & Edge Protection Award-winning modular sca olding and edge protection engineered for eciency, safety, and versatility. We’re proud to support Aktis’ ongoing success
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