17/10/2026
This is exactly the sort of job where a cherry picker comes into its own.
I was called out to Hull to help Mark from Bricks & Mortar with a chimney that had partially collapsed and needed making safe urgently.
Mark is the main contractor on the job and will ultimately be responsible for getting the chimney rebuilt, but there was a problem before any of that could happen:
How do you safely access a chimney that's already partially collapsed?
Normally, scaffolding might be the obvious answer. But to build that scaffold, you've first got to put scaffolders underneath a structure that you're already concerned could fall.
That didn't seem like a particularly sensible option.
So on a Sunday morning, Mark and I headed over to Hull with the cherry picker. It allowed us to approach the chimney without first putting a team of people directly underneath it, get up alongside the unstable structure and carefully dismantle the dangerous sections.
The priority wasn't rebuilding anything that day.
It was simply to make the building safe before more masonry came down, caused further damage to the property or, much more importantly, injured somebody.
Once the dangerous material was removed, we temporarily weatherproofed the area so that Mark and his team could return and carry out the permanent rebuilding work.
It's a good example of why specialist access isn't always just about making a job quicker or easier. Sometimes it gives you a completely different way of approaching a difficult situation.
If you've got an unsafe chimney, emergency roof problem or difficult high-level access situation, feel free to get in touch.
