Materials Staging

Materials staging is a made surface where delivered building material waits between the vehicle that brought it and the work it is for. It is built like the pad a vehicle unloads on, and can be lighter, since it carries stacked material and foot traffic rather than the wheel of a loaded truck. It is the part of a build most often left unplanned, and the cost of that shows up late.

What sits on the surface matters as much as the surface. Material is held clear of the ground on timber bearers and roofed against rain and sun, with air free to move under the cover; without it, water condenses beneath the sheet and does the damage the cover was meant to prevent. Timber above about 25 percent moisture content is open to decay, stain and insect attack, and it is uneven wetting and drying that twists a board, so thin spacers go between courses no more than 600 mm (2 ft) apart to let air through the stack. Under a roofed pile in humid weather moisture climbs about 2 percent a month for the first six weeks and about 1 percent a month after that, against roughly a third of that rate inside a closed shed.

Staging is not a substitute for a roofed store: a shed takes fasteners, finishes and tools, and this surface holds the bulk that will not fit inside. Three failures are common. Material laid on bare ground under plastic draws damp from below and traps it above, and the warped boards get blamed on the supplier rather than the stacking. Material stacked in arrival order rather than the order it is needed has to be moved to reach anything, and every handling can damage it. And staging left to spread creeps onto the surface the next delivery needs. Being bare compacted ground, it sheds soil like any building site, so a barrier goes in around and below it before the ground is disturbed, and the stacks are re-covered every time one is opened.