Special Skills for Special Jobs


Wayne Brooks
Director
The Right Team for the Job
There are times when a company working at height needs something specialised. A scaffold isn’t always going to help get the job done because the time to set up the scaffolding defeats the idea of getting the job done quickly. And a cherry picker simply can’t get high enough to access some buildings. In these circumstances, the only ones that can the job done are rope access companies.
Rope access jobs can be any type of difficult access work – extreme work at heights or hard to reach areas, either high or low.
Typical rope access jobs include bird proofing, exterior building cleaning or painting, structural repairs such as concrete crack repair or brick repointing and even straightforward window cleaning. There are also some specialist areas such as Concrete Carbonation Testing and Exterior Building Surveys. But basically, anything that involves difficult or high access or low access, rope access companies can accomplish it.
What is Rope Access?
You’re familiar with rope access even if it sounds unfamiliar. The guys hanging off ropes on the side of the building are rope access technicians. They are trained abseilers using similar equipment to abseil down high rise buildings that is used to go down in caves and abseil down cliff faces.
The technician is outfitted in a harness. Two series of ropes are then attached to the harness. Each rope is attached to a separate safety anchor bolt. The anchor bolts are then set on the roof or wherever they are going and they begin their descent. From there, they can descend and traverse to one another as needed. There will always be at least two technicians in an area at a time to work the ‘buddy system’ if something does go wrong.
Rope access is considered the safest way to work at height in the industry. All of the abseilers who work as technicians are trained and certified by IRATA (International Rope Access Trade Association). In the two decades that IRATA has been formed, the safety record has been exemplary, especially when compared to statistics of alternative high access methods like scaffolding.
Why Team Building is Important
When special projects require special skills, team building is vital – especially when the entire team is twenty storeys in the air. The trust needs to be there that the technicians have each other’s back.
We’ve now come together and opened up a team that’ll deal directly with the client, instead of going through many ‘middleman’ companies, and between us we have twenty years experience working at height. Not twenty years added together, we actually have a twenty year run of experience working as a team.
This is something that is almost unheard of, but it works for us. We are able to take on any task that requires rope access because we play off of our strengths and we have a bond beyond many other teams.
Working at Height is a Team Effort
So, Team building for rope access jobs is extremely crucial for special projects. The skill set will be stronger when there’s a good team working together. As a result, any job can be accomplished because the technicians are able to feed off of each other and bring their years of experience together for one job that will benefit the client.

Most rope access technicians are very brave to say the least. Common characteristics are that they are adventure seekers, dare devils, free spirits that love to travel the world and climb to new heights and conquer new buildings. This is all great but it means changing from one company and one continent to the next. It is very rare that you get a team of technicians that have worked and stuck together for over 20 years. When you do get this you end up with a team of technicians that know each others strong and weak points and allow the strongest to lead in there specialized fields. There is allot to be said for a team that has taken on endless amounts of projects and challenges over 20 years and are still working together today. The tight team bond, the loyalty, the pride, the enthusiasm, the dedication, the perseverance, the willingness, the competitiveness, the experience, the knowledge and the satisfaction of working and been involved with a team like this can not be bought or have a price put on it because it is so rare and priceless. The end result is a great job, unbelievable quality workmanship, value for money and complete satisfaction for both the team and the client.