Fencing and boundaries

Three kinds of barrier, three purposes

A crowd barrier — in Flanders almost always called a nadar barrier — is meant to guide the public. It stands along a route, around a stage or along a procession, goes up fast, links to the next barrier and is light enough for two people to move.

A site fence closes off a building site. It is taller, stands in concrete feet and is meant to keep unauthorised people out, not to hold back a crowd.

A safety barrier or pedestrian guardrail is a permanent structure: fixed to the ground, meant to separate pedestrians from the carriageway or to stop people crossing at a dangerous point. This is street furniture, not temporary equipment.

Which one to choose

The mistake made most often is using a crowd barrier where a guardrail belongs. A nadar barrier is not anchored and will not hold back a pushing crowd; it marks a line. Where real force comes onto it — a descent in a cycle race, the exit of a stadium — different equipment is needed.

Material

Hot-dip galvanised steel is the standard for all three. It does not rust through, takes bad weather and survives the rough handling that barriers inevitably get: stacked, thrown, moved with a forklift. Powder-coated steel appears on permanent guardrails where the colour has to fit the streetscape.

Barriers as an advertising carrier

A row of barriers is a continuous surface at eye level, exactly where the public stands or passes. With printed banners or covers that row becomes, in one go, a sponsor carrier, an announcement or a screen for whatever is happening behind it.

For open, windy sites use polymesh rather than solid PVC — a row of closed banners along a straight run behaves like a sail.

Storage and transport

Barriers tend to be forgotten in the sums until they are delivered. They stack, but a run of a hundred takes up serious space and needs a trailer or a lorry to move. If you use them once a year, weigh buying against hiring; if you work with them every month, buy.

Why the price varies

The type of barrier and the quantity form the basis. After that come the weight and the specification, whether feet are included, whether couplings are supplied and whether printed banners or covers are added. For permanent guardrails there is the anchoring, and that depends on the ground.

What we do

We supply the barriers, print the banners and covers to size and install permanent guardrails. Tell us how many running metres you have to close off, what it is for and whether it is temporary or permanent — and it is immediately clear which of the three types it should be.