Ground Cover for Film & TV

Various locations in South of England

For the past 7 years Chew Valley Construction Ltd have been providing Ground Cover Services for the Film & TV Industry. The general scope of these works is to get as much information from the Art Department in relation to the type of production we will be working on, where the location is (this can be anywhere in the UK) and what they ideally would like the set to look like.

Once we have this information we source the particular aggregate required. The aggregate needs to be in keeping with the location area and match aesthetically any existing buildings that are to feature in the shots. More often than not we have to obtain various aggregates and mix them at our facility to achieve exactly what the Art Department requires. Once we have agreement on the sample we are to use the hard work begins!

The aggregate will then be loaded onto our 32tonne grab tipper and transported to site ready for laying. To enable us to lay the various aggregates we sometimes have to access the areas via small paths and doorways therefore we also need to take to the location a small 1 tonne dumper (or in some cases where there is a large amount of aggregate we need to take 4no small dumpers). These dumpers also need transporting to site which we take care of in house by using our 18t Plant Vehicle.

Once at the location our dedicated team get to work. The grab vehicle will be used to grab from the lorry the aggregate and carefully load onto our dumpers, this process enables us to create literally no debris where we are loading as sometimes our vehicles have to be sited some distance from the actual filming area. The dumpers then travel to the filming area and gently tip the aggregate onto the floor where it is manually spread using rakes and shovels.

Prior to the laying of the aggregate any drain gullies are covered with geotextile membrane to ensure no debris enters the storm water course however the water can still pass through and the storm drains are still active throughout.

Once the Art Department is satisfied with the look of the area our initial works are complete and we leave the location.

On completion of filming we carry out the process in reverse. All the laid aggregate is carefully swept and cleared using one of our specially equipped mini excavators complete with boom brooms (effectively a very large brush attachment). The aggregate is loaded back onto our vehicle, the plant is loaded onto our plant vehicle and they leave the location. Our operatives then manually brush and wash down the areas using our high pressure jetting vehicles until thoroughly clean (like we had never been there). In some cases where the area is significantly larger we use a specialist road sweeper to clean.

Once the Art Department is happy, the process is complete.

Over the years of working in the Film & TV Industry we have been fortunate enough to have worked on some of the most prestigious and beautiful locations throughout England and Wales such as Berkeley Castle, Wells Cathedral and Lacock Abbey. Please find below some examples.