Professionally Erected Exterior Scaffolding for Hire and Rental in London.

Scaffolding makes access to a building’s exterior easier for renovation. Internal staircases and elevators in taller buildings are often built much later than the outer shell. Access is often only possible by using exterior scaffolding which is often built storey-by-storey as building work progresses. It is a fairly straightforward process to dismantle the exterior scaffold once it is surplus to requirement.

External scaffolding should be designed and produced to suit a particular shape and height of the building it will be used on. Modularity is a significant part of scaffold design and scaffolding equipment manufacturers should take this into account when producing standard sizes for their materials.

Exterior Scaffolding Construction

The basic skeleton for any scaffold is the pipes that hold the construction together, In the UK the majority of pipes that go into an exterior scaffold are made from galvanized steel to withstand the rigours of the British weather while being strong enough to support some of the considerable weights that it has to carry. The pipes in a skeleton are joined together by extra strong quick lock couplings that come in a variety of combinations that can hold just one brace as necessary in the tower scaffolds, or hold two braces together in runs of scaffold. Couplers come in many forms, depending on the size and shape of the desired framework of the scaffold. To make the task of constructing an exterior scaffold that bit easier there are a number of pre-designed and constructed framework components that can form a basis for the scaffold without the need for couplings.

These components are known as either urban frames and holding fames and provide the company building the scaffold with a lot of time saving shortcuts. Shortcuts that in no way risk the safety of the people who will be working on the scaffold. The most common prefabricated frame section is five feet square and comes with cross-braces that are either seven or ten feet long. Other non standard sizes may be available, but usually by special order.

Health and Safety Considerations when Working with Exterior Scaffolding

It must always be remembered that designing and building a scaffold is a job for professionals and anyone charged with building a scaffold that will be more than twelve foot high must be the holder of the relevant and specific training and competency certificate.

Once the scaffold skeleton has been completed than all that remains is to add the planks of wood that the workers will need to walk on. The planks will be of a standard length to match the frames and should be no less than two and a half inches deep and no more than three inches.

In the case of a building under construction as a new story is added then another story of scaffold can be built simultaneously. If a proper plan has been put into place and all the right materials used, it should be a very simple task indeed.