New Ground Fixing System for Our Outdoor Classroom Pods

Our outdoor classroom pods are becoming increasingly popular in schools who are using them for a whole variety or reasons – outdoor classroom, forest school shelter, library, nurture room and even as an office!

They are pre-manufactured units which come delivered off the back of a truck and are then either lifted into position with a hi-ab crane or fork lifted. This means that on-site time at a school is minimal – about a couple of hours in the majority of cases – so minimal disruptance to the school day.

If they are being sited onto a hard surface – such as tarmac playground – then there is no need to put down any sort of sub-base. But a lot of schools want to site them on a playing field or in their forest school area where grass or mud is the typical surface. In this instance, some sort of base such as a concrete pad or stone groundworks is required to be installed before the pod can arrive – if this work is outsourced to a ground works contractor, we have found that this can add quite a bit to the overall cost and usually takes a day to lay and then has to have time to cure.

But we have now have a far better solution. We use what are basically giant screws which are put into the ground with a special high torque drilling machine (these screw fixings can go into all surfaces including tarmac) at specific interval sections for the floor bearers underneath the pod (each pod typically requires 8 to 8 ground screws) and which can be installed within a couple of hours. There is also no need for any concrete to be used. And the price is significantly cheaper than a concrete pad or plinth. And we can organise the whole job for the school so no need to be involved with multiple companies. Theoretically the grounds screws could be installed in the morning and the pod delivered in the afternoon – not bad for the supply of an outdoor classroom!

For further information, please contact the Hideout House Company on 01832 275902 or visit www.hideouthouse.com