How and when to use Scaffold
time2018/05/05
Scaffolding is sometimes essential for certain kinds of home maintenance or improvement where ladders cannot be safely used. Scaffold jacks can be rented at home-improvement stores for these jobs.
If you own a home or plan to build one, sooner or later you will need to work on the higher parts of your house, whether replacing rotten boards, installing new fixtures, or simply repainting. Many such jobs can be done using ladders, which are available in a wide variety of configurations, from long extension ladders designed to lean against a wall to free-standing step ladders. These ladders may be all some homeowners need, but special situations call for scaffolding, rather than ladders.
Scaffolding differs from ladders, in that it allows you to build a temporary platform high above the ground and to span a wide distance so that larger areas can be accessed from one set-up. Scaffolding is widely used in new construction, as it speeds up work in high areas by allowing more than one worker on the platform, and providing a place to handle materials. This is especially advantageous in heavy work, such as bricklaying, when the bricks and mortar can be stockpiled in advance on the scaffolding to avoid numerous trips back and forth to the ground.
By its very nature, scaffolding is flexible and expandable to meet a wide variety of requirements in construction and maintenance. The building blocks of scaffolding are the metal supports called "jacks" Scaffold jacks are built of heavy steel tubing and have adjustable telescopic feet that are locked into position with steel pins. Each jack has two or more horizontal tubes for placing scaffold walk boards, and built-in ladder rungs to facilitate climbing up and down. As a minimum, all scaffold set-ups require two such scaffold jacks. The jacks themselves are free-standing, and are set up by placing them a convenient distance apart to accommodate a walk board that spans the gap between them. Walk boards are heavy planks, usually 2x12 lumber that will support the weight of workers and materials. Scaffold jacks have a designated horizontal tube for placement of these walk boards, and extra horizontal supports for additional material boards upon which you can place paint, bricks, lumber, or whatever you are working with. For really high structures, scaffold jacks are designed to be stackable, so that with the feet removed from the bottom tubes, a jack will fit over the top tubes of the first jack. Elaborate, multi-story scaffold structures can be built this way, and are frequently seen in new construction.