Designing a site hoarding

A building project often spends months behind a hoarding. For everyone who walks past, that hoarding is the project. These notes are for builders, developers and shopfitters planning one, and they cover the structure, the people on the pavement, the name board and the artwork.

Start with a structure that stands up

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) counts site fencing and hoarding as temporary works. The law says any temporary structure must be designed, put up and maintained to withstand the loads it may face. In all but the simplest cases, HSE says the design will need calculations.

HSE suggests appointing a temporary works coordinator to make sure designs are prepared, checked and put up correctly. On a simple project the main contractor may take on the role and ask an engineer for advice. In busy places, HSE says the boundary is typically a two-metre high small mesh fence or a hoarding.

Design for the people walking past

The Department for Transport's Inclusive Mobility guidance calls a full hoarding the safest way to enclose works for everyone on the street. It asks for a band in a contrasting tone and colour, about 150mm deep, with its lower edge about 1500mm above the ground.

The same guidance asks for suitable lighting and signs. Where scaffolding stands on or over a footway, the guidance sets a minimum footway width of 1200mm in quieter areas and 1500mm in busier ones. Any sign on the footway should have its lower edge at least 300mm above the ground.

Naming the project and the builders

In England, the firms doing the work can show a board at the site without applying for consent. One firm's board can be up to 2 square metres. A shared board can be 2 square metres plus 0.4 of a square metre for each extra firm named on it. A board can also be larger so that the project's name fits.

Letters on the board can be up to 0.75 metres high, and the top of the board no more than 4.6 metres above the ground. Lower limits apply in an Area of Special Control. These boards cannot be lit, and they can stay up only while work is going on.

Artwork and posters

A hoarding gives a project a large surface facing the street, and what goes on it is a design choice. Paid posters follow their own rules. In England, poster hoardings around a commercial, industrial or business site can be shown for up to three years without a separate application, within size limits. Housing sites, National Parks, Conservation Areas and some other protected places are left out.

When a council does decide on an advert, it looks at its effect on the street. Large posters near important historic buildings are judged differently from those in a busy commercial area.

A short checklist