Tisch
Refurbishing a milestone in East-West German history
When Berlin-Tempelhof Airport officially ceased operations on 30 October 2008, an important part of East-West German history finally became a museum.
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When it originally opened for scheduled flights in 1923, it was one of the first commercial airports in Germany and even busier than Paris, Amsterdam or London. The present terminal building, with its unusual arc shape and a length of around 1.2 kilometres, was built between 1936 and 1941. In 1948, in the wake of World War II, it achieved fame far beyond Berlin’s borders, when the “candy bombers” dropped vital supplies there during the American airlift that put an end to the Soviet blockade of West Berlin. Today, nearly a century after its construction, the concrete ceilings of the seven aircraft hangars are in urgent need of refurbishment if the monument is to be preserved for posterity. Tisch GmbH, the renowned Berlin scaffolding experts, run by Managing Director Nick Haseloff, were charged with placing the necessary 18 metres of unsupported work platforms between the columns inside the buildings using Layher’s Allround FW System.
“What makes this project so special is the fact that we can’t use the offices at the rear of the halls to absorb the loads from the work scaffolding, because they only have simple wooden roofs with no load-bearing capacity and additional loads on the walls must be avoided at all costs. We have no choice but to suspend our entire work scaffolding from the roof trusses”, explains Managing Director Nick Haseloff, who as an architect also has his eye on the structural requirements.
The hanging platforms of Tempelhof
The scaffolders from Tisch GmbH chose Layher’s Allround FW System to bridge the 18-metre span between the columns. “We assemble the FW System bit by bit, starting from the work scaffold, and eventually span the full distance”, Haseloff continues. Before the sandblasting and concrete work can be carried out, a closed, watertight work platform made from OSB boards and special foil has to be built on the basic suspended scaffold, so that all material removed can run off together with any water. “The Allround FW System has a high load-bearing capacity. It needs to bear the enormous weight of the 28-tonne structure over the entire span and reliably transfer it to the roof trusses. What looks so easy from down below has pitfalls in the details”, says Dénes Frömling, Layher Area Sales Manager for Berlin. The complete structure was additionally reinforced with steel and aluminium beams to prevent the scaffolding from vibrating.
Fully integrated into the modular Allround System
“Tisch’s scaffolding specialists opted for Layher Allround Scaffolding in front of the service buildings at the back to erect birdcage scaffolding, providing access to the actual work platforms while also serving as a foundation for the four goods hoists in the hall”, Frömling adds. Thanks to its standard dimensions, the FW System is fully integrated into the modular Allround System and can be connected to the Allround Scaffolding without any problem. Around 58,000 cubic metres of scaffolding will be erected and dismantled here alternately in the course of the refurbishing work. A few halls have already been refurbished, each of them requiring about 10,000 cubic metres of scaffolding, and the others will follow soon. “We’ve had 12 people working here on average for the past 18 months and we’ll be kept busy for another two years at least before the work is finished”, Nick Haseloff comments.
Scaffolding and more
“As a scaffolder located in Berlin, with its tradition of an enclosed city, you have to be able to offer a comprehensive portfolio of services. That’s why, here at the airport, we’re not only building the scaffolding but also the complete work platforms for the sandblasters and the concrete workers. Our people are real all-rounders in that respect; they’re in a position to build whatever it is that’s needed themselves”, the Managing Director reports proudly. The company has its own timber and steel construction facilities for this purpose, meaning that projects like Tempelhof Airport can be offered as turnkey solutions without having to involve any other service providers. The essential structural calculations for these challenging projects are performed by the Berlin firm in close cooperation with a specialised structural engineering consultant as well as Layher’s technical office in Eibensbach.
A modular scaffolding pioneer – in Berlin and beyond
When Fritz Tisch founded “Fritz Tisch Dachdeckerei” as a roofing company in Frankfurt in 1948, shortly after the end of World War II, it was the purchase of a few scaffold ladders that opened the first chapter in a long success story. Uwe Tisch joined the business in 1980, and only a few years later became a pioneer user of modular scaffolding from Layher. Following a call for tenders from Bewag, Berlin’s electricity utility, in 1984, the West German scaffolding specialists travelled to Berlin, where modular scaffolding was as yet untried. This temporary visit quickly grew into something more and so the firm known today as Gerüstbau Tisch GmbH was established in West Berlin. In 1995, Tisch finally adopted the German capital as the centre of their operations. In the meantime, the scaffolders are an integral part of the cityscape in Berlin’s Wedding district. The emphasis is on industrial and special-purpose scaffolding, and with 50 permanent employees currently on the payroll, Managing Director Nick Haseloff is never far away when the search is on for solutions to complex scaffolding challenges – whether in one of Berlin’s many listed buildings, churches and museums or in an exciting project in an industrial building. Scaffolding solutions from Layher – always first choice!
