“Are the scaffold boards currently on our sites safe?” It was both daunting and encouraging when TRADA Technology was asked this question by one of the country’s largest blue chip companies and users of scaffold boards – tens of thousands across the UK. Daunting, because there was no clear-cut answer. ‘No’ would have started an unreasonable panic, yet ‘Yes’ was not strictly true either. We had inspected a sample of scaffold boards after being called to investigate why a board had broken in service – so it was encouraging to find a company taking its responsibilities for health and safety seriously enough to sit down with us and review the safety issues.
On site, often grey with cement and covered in dirt, scaffold boards are almost beneath notice, yet how spectacularly they will hit the headlines if they fail! The modest scaffold board enables workers to carry out their work, at height, safely, on a building. Failure can lead to risk of serious injury or even death. What is of equal concern – and what timber industry suppliers must be mindful of – is that scaffold boards are often hired or supplied by people who have little or no knowledge of timber.
Generally made of European whitewood, new scaffold boards are cut to certain dimensions within given tolerances and graded using British Standard BS 2482:2009. At this point they are fit for their intended purpose – though even then they may not look pretty. Grading is for strength, not appearance, and ‘defects’ such as knots and wane are allowed within certain parameters. Anyone hiring or using scaffolding needs to be able to trust their supplier on this. Used scaffold boards are expected to look scuffed and worn, yet can still provide long service. However, if they have been ‘abused’ on a previous job, at first glance they may appear just the same as those which have been battered but can still do the job safely. How do you tell which is which?
Another problem is the reality of the construction industry. When scaffolding is hired out, more than likely with a short turnaround between projects, it may be given no more than a quick clean and cursory inspection by untrained operatives. In TRADA Technology’s view this is not good enough. It needs someone who knows what to look for when checking that the boards are still fit for purpose – and that demands more than removing any obviously broken or damaged ones. Damage can occur in several ways, for example if boards have been overloaded or stored in a way that results in wood decay.
TRADA Technology feels so strongly about this that we are introducing a one-day scaffold board course to take out to site this year. It looks at the principles of grading, inspection techniques for used boards, storage methods and guidelines for issuing used boards for re-use. It will end with a practical inspection of used boards at the client’s yard. Suppliers, too, can play their part by urging vigilance among customers and by ensuring that only correctly graded boards without features/defects that are detrimental to strength enter the market.
