Scaffold Towers

You’ve seen them.  They look like a giant erector set for grownups.  Used in many fields of construction and remodeling all over the world, scaffold towers, or scaffolding, are one of those things you see every day, but really, what are they?  How are they made?  Are they safe?  Let’s get down to some basics on scaffold towers.

First off, scaffold towers are a way to work safely at heights above what you can reach. Simple explanation, but really, that’s all they are at the most basic level. Scaffold towers and scaffolding have been used all over the world, in many different cultures, for thousands of years to build some of the greatest buildings in mankind’s history, including the world’s tallest building, the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Attached to the buildings themselves, scaffolding can reach great heights.

But being tall is not their only purpose. Scaffold towers are also used inside buildings for both construction and reconstruction. In fact, Michelangelo used a kind of scaffolding system when he was painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, 500 years ago. Rolling scaffold towers are often used inside buildings and even outside buildings if the surface permits it.

One of the beauties of scaffold towers is their ability to adapt to the needs of the individual user.  There are really only three basic material used when building scaffold towers: tubes or pipes, couplers and boards.  That’s it.  The couplers are used to join the tubes together, while the boards are used for the workers to stand, sit, walk, or lie on in addition to holding materials used in the building or restoration of the project.  Additional materials used, although not as extensively, are ladders, base plates, wheels, ropes, sheeting, etc.

Tubes used for scaffold towers are made of either steel or aluminum.  Aluminum has some advantage due to its lighter weight and flexibility.  Flexibility may not sound so good, but when you think about being hit by something, or having something dropped on it, the ability to flex as opposed to break suddenly sounds a little better, especially when you are 5 stories up.  Steel tubes, when used, are typically galvanized steel to help protect from the elements.

Couplers are used to join the tubes together when making a scaffold tower.  There are three main types of couplers: the swivel coupler, the right angle coupler and the putlog coupler.  Swivel couplers and right angle couplers are the only kinds of couplers to be used when fixing a tube into a load bearing connection.  Right angle couplers of course hold two tubes at right angles to each other, while swivel tubes allow the tubes to be swiveled and held at any angle desired.  Putlog couplers are used to attach the scaffold tower to the surface of the building.  Joint pins or sleeve couplers are used when joining tubes together in vertical situations, but never when the tubes would be in compression or under a load of any kind.

Although there are many modern possibilities, most scaffold boards are simply wooden boards placed on the tubes to allow workers a place to work.  Yes, there are safety measures in place to keep them from moving, such as hooks, and nail plates on the ends of the boards to protect them and keep them from splitting.  Growing in popularity are scaffold planks made from steel or aluminum.  Able to endure the weather and hold up to longer use, aluminum scaffold platforms are lighter than their wooden and steel counterparts.  However, the tradeoff comes at the price – they are also typically more expensive.

These three basic materials, tubes, couplers and boards, are used to create the three main building blocks that are the parts of the modern scaffold: the standards (or uprights), the ledgers and the transoms. 

Standards, also called uprights, are the vertical tubes and framework used to support and transfer the weight and mass of the scaffold towers to the safe and stable ground below.  Typically a base plate is used to spread the load of the standard once it reaches the earth below.  If the ground is too soft or unstable, a sole board can be use beneath the base plate to help stabilize the standard.

Ledgers are the longer, horizontal tubes which connect the standards to one another.  They of course are connected by couplers, typically right angle couplers.  The shorter tubes used are the transoms.  These are connected to the ledgers at right angles to provide support to the scaffold planks and scaffold boards that are placed on top of them to provide walking or work space.  Additionally, cross-braces are used to connect ledgers to ledgers to provide extra stability.  They are attached diagonally and their attachment point is near the standard, or upright.  These cross-braces lend much needed strength and rigidity to the structure of the scaffold towers.

This is meant to be an overview of the basics of scaffold towers.  It is not intended to be nor should it be considered as professional advice.  If, after reading this, you feel you need the use of scaffold towers, you should consult with or hire a professional to work with you.  In the US alone, dozens of people are killed and thousands injured during the use of scaffold towers.  Many of those could be prevented by proper use and construction of scaffold towers.

We hope this article has been of use to you and has broadened your horizons and your knowledge of scaffolding and scaffold towers.