There are a lot of Health and Safety and regulatory arrangements that need to be followed when scaffolding as this activity can be dangerous. One wrong screw can send this house of cards down. Making sure that all these rules are followed is extremely important for those that are undertaking the activity to make sure they are as safe as possible. Getting this wrong could end up drastically with someone getting themselves injured or even worse it could end in a fatality. If you are requiring scaffolding at all, here are some of the things to be aware of or consider.

Regulations

Before someone starts on a project that requires scaffolding to be erected, they need to make sure they have all the correct permissions in place to execute this. As an example, if you are planning to put scaffolding on a public path or public area, there may be a level of planning permission required. By noy following this type of process, you could find yourself in muddy water with a legal case put against you and being forced to bring the scaffolding down immediately. There is also a lot of different health and safety regulations that must be followed (ISO 9001 as an example). Sometimes the best opportunity to ensure that all this is project managed in totality for you and all the rules followed would be to get a credible specific scaffolding contractor in place. This should then put your mind at ease very slightly that you have brought in specific experts in this field. Make sure that you check out the credentials of any contractor and ensure that they have ISO9001 approval which would mean they have been audited and checked. This improves their credibility and gives you the assurance that an external body has checked them out.

Scaffolders Qualifications

People that are scaffolding normally need a level of qualifications before they are “let loose” on this activity. Most who have been working on this specific niche will have completed an apprenticeship specifically around scaffolding. This sort of training will teach them not only the practical skills around erecting it, making it stable and taking it down but it will also ensure that the theory side is taught. This would include some of the health and safety elements we spoke about earlier but also what can go wrong and how this can be prevented in the first place. Whoever you are using to do the scaffolding, it may be worth asking them for the details of the qualifications that they have to give you a level of satisfaction around this.

Overview

As you would expect with scaffolding, this can be quite a complex activity to execute. With large, bespoke materials, suitably qualified individuals and some serious policy and process to follow this needs some thinking through. Getting the capable and qualified individuals to do this on your behalf is recommended and not something anyone should jump into until they have done their research.

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About the Author: John Loughran