Scaffolding Boards – Some Advice and Tips to Stay Safe

Every year thousands of people are injured using scaffolding. Even a fall from just a few feet can cause serious injury, maim or even kill.

When you consider that quite often, tools and machinery stored on the scaffolding are involved in the fall or collapse, the opportunity for serious injury and death is even more prevalent. It is estimated by some experts that over ninety percent of scaffolding accidents involve the failure of the scaffold boards or planks that workers are actually standing on at the time.

Here are some quick tips to help you avoid accidents involving scaffolding boards.

Tip 1: Always use the correct material for scaffolding support boards.

Scaffold boards or planks can come in a variety of different material. This can be standard softwood to aluminum. However, whilst aluminum makes excellent scaffolding boards, it is also really expensive. Because of this most people use wooden planking. Wooden boards used in scaffolding that can be as marked as ‘scaffold grade’ but this is not always the case. Make sure that you check with your state’s OSHA office to find out what grade and the proper dimensions of scaffold planks should be in your area. Generally, a grade 1 board that is two inches thick by ten inches wide is okay for an eight foot span. Scaffold boards should also be banded at each end to help prevent splitting and damage to the scaffold boards.

Tip 2: Always inspect the scaffolding boards.

When you first buy the planking you’re going to use on your scaffold, whether it is new or second hand, you must check the boards for knots, bad grain, splits, warping and other imperfections. Your local OSHA rules will give you the specifics on knot size and distance of each knot from each other. Common sense should tell you that a scaffold board will be weak and is likely to give way if there are several knots very close together in the middle of the board. Would you stand in the middle of a board with these obvious weaknesses? Also you will need to inspect the scaffolding boards ever time you erect your scaffold. If your scaffold boards have not been stored properly and have started to split or crack you will want to consider replacing them before you climb on them when you are twenty feet in the air.

Tip 3: Storing your scaffold boards.

It is essential to store your scaffold boards in a dry, well ventilated place. Any moisture will weaken the wooden boards. If your scaffolding boards are wet when you come to store them and the boards are put somewhere the air can’t get to them, they will start to rot. It isn’t a good idea to leave the scaffold boards out in the weather during a long term job either. You should at least move them to an area where they are protected and covered and from any potential rain. It is important that you stack the scaffold boards correctly too. You will need to make sure that the scaffolding boards are not laying in such a way which will cause them to warp of bow. Any warping or bowing of the scaffold board will weaken and keep them from laying across the scaffold supports properly.

Tip 4: Do not abuse your scaffold boards.

Any abuse of the scaffold boards will inevitably weaken the scaffold boards and make them liable to failure. In a recent case where workers were hurt on a jobsite when the scaffold boards failed, the workers sued the company they worked for, accusing them of not having purchased proper scaffolding boards. On investigation it was found that the boards were correct but the workers when taking the scaffolding down, would just drop the boards to the ground instead of lowering them. Gravel had embedded in the ends of some of the boards due to the force of the drop. The workers lost their claim. Any kind of abuse like this can seriously weaken scaffold boards. Scaffolding boards are just like any tool, if you take care of them, they will take care of you and you can look forward to not joining the statistics of injuries caused by the failure of scaffold boards!