Few tips for buying scaffolding

Industry experts give their best tips for buying scaffolding to ensure you get the right equipment for the job, check all the safety boxes and don't have unpleasant surprises.

Stick to the standards

The number one rule is to find out what international scaffolding standard is used in your region and comply with it. There are several standards available worldwide and all have been developed with good reason, says Dennis Braithwaite, technical manager of scaffolding service provider, Cape.

"Many of the standards are similar, but each one sets the specific requirements for individual components, such as couplers, tubes, boards and a specification for the system scaffolding," he says.

"We insist that all scaffolding material be purchased with the specified standards and supplied with the appropriate certification."

While most accredited companies will already adhere to recognized standards, Braithwaite says that unspecified materials are still commonly used regardless of the consequences.

"I've been to a place where the scaffolding tube had a strange standard number and then we discovered that the specification was for water pipes and had no load capacity."

Do not be tempted by fakes

If you're thinking of ordering some fake copies of a reputable scaffolding brand from a Chinese manufacturer, be prepared to be disappointed, according to Combisafe technical director Tony Jenkins.

“There are copies everywhere. Many people will buy things from you and send them to China for copies to be made in the hope that it will come out correctly, but half of the time it does not because there is no quality control, "he says.

“The Coplock brand has pressed the steel ends on the horizontal members and I have seen them replaced by steel castings that are very fragile. Therefore, the resistance characteristics do not resemble the main product at all, even though it looks the same. ”

Jenkins recommends that you buy from a company that can guarantee the safety of your products and then you are more likely to receive additional benefits, such as long-term technical support, product warranty insurance and professional indemnity insurance.

Go high tech

It is important that customers realize that the best scaffolding systems are no longer a simple product, but a highly developed technical product, according to the marketing manager of Meva Solutions scaffolding firm Jens Lützow-Rodenwoldt.

The best scaffolding may seem simple, but its integration into the construction system as a whole is not: the advantages are often hidden, but they are enormous, he says.

"Many contractors can spend a fortune on the equipment needed to erect the building, but then they try to save on scaffolding, which makes little sense," he adds.

Scaffolding Fittings

"The money supposedly saved will generally be lost during the time-consuming assembly and unnecessary adaptations on the site because the scaffolding does not fit. If a scaffold does not adapt to the circumstances, the worker's condition, the space requirements or the demands of stability, then it is too expensive to play with it.

"Choose the best and only the best for the job because the site will say thanks and the budget will embrace it."

Evaluate accessibility

One aspect that is often overlooked when buying scaffolds is the vertical access requirements, says Jenkins. It is well known that stairs are the most dangerous piece of equipment anywhere, but they are still commonly used in scaffolding configurations.

"When you put ladders through the scaffolding, you are leaving huge holes for people to accidentally fall," Jenkins explains.

“In other cases, the scaffolding itself is the only way up. You can eliminate this safety hazard by choosing a scaffold that provides access to the stairs.

"We make a lightweight aluminum ladder that simply falls out of the scaffold so that the main scaffold passage is completely clear."

Ensure traceability

In the case of a problem with a scaffolding component, it must have traceability according to Braithwaite. As such, each item must have marks that indicate when and where it was manufactured.

"If you have a fault within five years, you want to know that it is from a particular lot that you bought five years ago," he says.

“Once we had a problem with the couplers and the manufacturer located it to a particular problem with a particular lot.

"We had thousands of these couplers spread across the four corners of the earth, but because we had traceability, it was quite easy to locate and quarantine them before it became a problem."

There are as many scaffolding providers in the world as there are stars in the sky and on the surface it may seem that they all offer similar services, but Lützow-Rodenwoldt says it is worth investigating a little about their knowledge and experience before. you commit

"It's possible that many of these guys have never seen their scaffolding in an assembled condition, much less have one on the site," he says.

"This may seem economical when buying or renting, but when things get tough and you need expert advice, a commodity trader won't have any knowledge to offer. He can't afford it.

“So check the references before choosing a provider; The better your experience, the greater your advantage, something that most buyers and planners only realize when it's too late. "

Make sure there is technical support

In case of failure, Braithwaite says it is essential that the manufacturer has a solid technical support team that can help you.

"Imagine buying 100,000 scaffolding couplers and one of them fails, do you know if it is unique or if the other 99,999 are going to fail too?"

“Once we had a failure in a single scaffold coupler and the manufacturer's technical expert took it away, analyzed the problem and came back with a good reason why it had failed and could assure us it was unique.

"If we had not had that service, it would have cost a lot of money to remove all those accessories from the site and replace them with new ones."