Welcome Guest! The IOSH forums are a free resource to both members and non-members. Login or register to use them

Postings made by forum users are personal opinions. IOSH is not responsible for the content or accuracy of any of the information contained in forum postings. Please carefully consider any advice you receive.

Notification

Icon
Error

Options
Go to last post Go to first unread
edgie19  
#1 Posted : 23 October 2020 10:13:57(UTC)
Rank: New forum user
edgie19

good morning all a little help please

can a scaffold tower be built onto decking- just the small plates under the wheels have been used

also

a ladder on the outside tied off to the top beam - is this acceptable?

HSSnail  
#2 Posted : 23 October 2020 10:34:08(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
HSSnail

sorry to come up with the glib answer - but its down to risk assessment. The question i would be asking myself is if the decking is safe for the point load? Im not a structural enginear, but what you have decscribed leave me with an uneasy feeling.

If the decking splits I am thinking the tower may overturn?

Lots of questions to be asked - is the load on a decking plank with nothing underneath it? or is it on a cross beam? or does the decking even have a a void under it? or had it been build on solid ground? (not usual practice)

peter gotch  
#3 Posted : 23 October 2020 10:46:58(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
peter gotch

Edgie

You can build a scaffold tower from conventional tube and fitting steel components, from a proprietary steel system such as Cuplok or Kwikstage, or from lighweight aluminium.

If it's a lightweight aluminium system then usually access would be up the inside, with an opening with or without hatch at each platform level.

If I understand your posting correctly then the ladder has been put up the outside and is resting on a horizontal rail (ledger or transom) that probably doubles up as a guard-rail, meaning that someone would have to climb over that rail to get onto the platform - not particularly easy getting on to the platform and more difficult to do the reverse.

If so, then the ladder (+ person on it, and anything they are carrying) is applying a lateral force on the tower which it is unlikely to have been designed and erected for [as it would be much easier to provide internal access than to put in place all the structural measures needed to appropriately protect against such lateral forces].

As regards the base, well a tower is usually either mobile and supported by its wheels/castors OR not fitted with wheels/castors and supported by metal base plates that are typically 150mm x 150mm square.  What you describe appears to be neither one nor the other.

Beneath that you have referred to decking. May be OK, may be not - depends on the loading bearing down on the decking and what lies beneath that, and, perhaps more crucially, how the load from the scaffold is spread onto the decking and whatever is beneath. Usually, this would be done by putting in spreader boards between base plates and the ground below. So you could e.g. put in a scaffold board each pair of base plates or a board under each base plate - the latter particularly if you need to spread the load further in each horizontal plane.

The spreader boards can also help bridge any weaknesses in the supporting material - you might have a tower built on a street pavement with weak glazing over a basement below, so that the spreader can bridge over the glazing, or in your case, it could spread over weaknesses in the decking,  such as the cracks between adjacent parts of the decking.

Lots of guidance on this on the HSE website. www.hse.gov.uk - this will illustrate how you can overcome issues such as lateral loading with e.g. additional bracing and/or outriggers or ties to the adjacent structure.

thanks 1 user thanked peter gotch for this useful post.
martin paul jones on 30/10/2020(UTC)
RVThompson  
#4 Posted : 23 October 2020 10:47:14(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
RVThompson

Hi Edgie,

In addition to Brian's post, guidance from HSE https://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/safetytopics/scaffold.htm

provides information to consider.

Users browsing this topic
Guest (2)
You cannot post new topics in this forum.
You cannot reply to topics in this forum.
You cannot delete your posts in this forum.
You cannot edit your posts in this forum.
You cannot create polls in this forum.
You cannot vote in polls in this forum.