Posted By Nathan Pitt Does anyone know of any decent guidance relevant to timber frame erection procedures? Often their appears to be very little consideration of the design elements and how the structure can actually be erected safely on site and subsequent trades, such as bricklayers, follow on with their tasks safely. Scaffolding is installed to build these structures with guardrails one edge then nothing on the opposite edge to allow access to the panels. From experience there are often problems with leading edges from scaffolding posing a potential risk of falls into the building until the panels of each floor are installed. Once they are installed there is then the problem of gaps between the scaffold edge and building. Time and again the use of harnesses is specified without any real consideration of how they can be used or the alternatives. Hope the above is clear and I'd be grateful to receive comment on how other people address these issues or reference to some guidance. Mnay thanks Nathan

Posted By Nathan Pitt Thanks Ron, I've used these guides before and they're very useful. However there is nothing specific to timber frame and it is hard to apply the general safe working principles required to the timber frame erection process.

Posted By Andy Petrie Have you tried Viagra? (Sorry folks, couldn't resist it)

Posted By Edward H Usually the ground floor wall panels are erected and either propped or secured from ground level. Access on to the scaffold is not usually necessary until the floor/ceiling needs to be fixed. In those circumstances inward fall protection can be achieved by keeping the height of the scaffold platform 960mm below the top of the erected wall panels so that the panels form the edge protection. This can be repeated at each subsequent floor. To deter access to the scaffold lifts at each level until the panels are in place remove or block the stairs/ladders and place scaffold incomplete signs and supervise [obviously]. Gaps between the scaffold and the timber frame can be minimised by using system scaffold and building the scaffold with cantilever brackets [one board wide] on the inside. These brackets can then be removed as the brickwork skin progresses up. Other problems can occur once the length of any face of the building exceeds 6m and hence the scaffold requires tying; as most timber frame systems forbid tying to the frame [check with manufacturer] the easiest solution is a scaffold shore or buttress. Don't be tempted to regard a loading bay as a buttress, a loaded loading bay trys to pull the scaffold over rather than support it.

Posted By Declan O'Driscoll The Health and Safety Authority in Ireland have Guidance on timber frame erection in PDF format www.hsa.ie hope it may help Declan