Case Study: Great River Energy, Maple Grove
Cleaning an atrium where swing stages and boom lifts were both off the table.
Project Snapshot
| Client | Great River Energy headquarters |
|---|---|
| Location | Maple Grove, Minnesota |
| Service | Interior atrium window cleaning |
| Access method | SPRAT-certified rope access, with panel tarping and re-anchors |
| Core problem | Delicate acoustic panels, swing-stage anchors in difficult spots, and a floor that could not support a lift |
The challenge
The client had just installed acoustic sound-dampening panels between every level of window panes in their atrium. The panels are soft, delicate and expensive. No pressure could be put on them, and not a single drip from the window cleaning could touch them.
The two usual ways into an atrium like this were both ruled out:
- Swing stage: the ceiling anchors were designed for one, but where they were set, a swing stage would sit directly against the new panels.
- Boom lift: because the space was designed around swing-stage access, the floor was not built to carry the weight of even a lightweight boom lift.
Other parts of the atrium had a second problem. Large images were mounted on the walls, and the technicians could not touch them. Because the anchors were spaced for a wide swing stage, a straight drop from them would not land in front of those panes. Rope access was the only option left.
The Solution: Protect on the Way Up, Clean on the Way Down
Our technicians tarped the acoustic panels and ascended in free space, so they never made contact with the panels. Once they reached the high point, they cleaned the windows on the way down. As each set of windows above a panel was finished, they removed that panel’s protective tarp, so any drips landed on the tarp, not the panel.
- Tarp the acoustic panels to shield them from contact and drips.
- Ascend the rope in free space, clear of the panels.
- Clean the windows working from the top down.
- Remove each panel’s tarp once the windows above it are clean.
Where the wall images were, our technicians used a re-anchor technique. Redirecting the rope from the swing-stage anchors put them right in front of those interior panes without touching the images.
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The Result
Every atrium window was cleaned without touching the new acoustic panels or the wall images, and without putting any extra weight on the interior floor.
| Swing stage | Boom lift | Rope access | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact with panels and images | Stage sits directly against them | Lift on the floor | None, panels tarped |
| Drips on panels | Caught by tarps | Caught by tarps | Caught by tarps |
| Floor weight limit | Not a factor | Exceeds it | Not a factor |
| Reaches panes by wall images | Yes, but sits against the images | Floor limit rules it out | Yes, with re-anchors and no contact |
Have a building with a tricky access problem? Call 763-260-3048 or request a quote and we’ll find a way to reach it.
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