If you have a business in the scaffolding field or one that involves building a new architectural structure, or if you want to improve the exterior aspect of your house, but you want to do it all by yourself, you should read these lines and find out some interesting things that will help you better understand scaffolding. You should keep in mind that it is essential to be able to put up and position correctly and safely a scaffolding system.



Nevertheless, what does scaffolding mean? Scaffolding stands for a temporary framework used in order to support material as well as people in the construction or in the repair of buildings and other big architectural structures. Generally, it is a modular structure of pipes made of very resistant metal (termed tubes in the Great Britain), but it can also include other different materials, such as for example bamboo still used nowadays ? quite frequently actually ? on the Asian continent. Unbelievably or not, bamboo scaffolding can reach impressive heights.

If you are interested in scaffolding, you should also know that there is a European Standard ? used in conjunction with the Eurocodes for structural design ? that specifies methods of general and structural design for access and working scaffolds, as well as the performance requirements. All of the requirements specified in this European Standard are for scaffold structures based on the adjoining structure for stability.

Even though they are created for the ?pattern? previously mentioned, these requirements also apply to other types of working scaffolds, irrespective of their structure and other complementary features, as well as technical parameters. The performance requirements set out by the European Standard are significantly autonomous on the matter of the materials of which the scaffold is fabricated and the established standard is intended for use as a basis for design and examination. Apart from the performance requirements, the European Standard also includes some rules for structural drawing, which are of positive importance to scaffolds fabricated out of certain materials.

A scaffold system has as a main purpose of providing a safe place of work with secure access that would be suitable and would allow the work process to take place in an easy and comfortable manner. A high number of those who work in the construction industry use a scaffold system on a daily basis. Some recent studies have revealed that almost 65 percent of workers in the construction industry work on scaffolds quite frequently and to have a vague idea of what we are referring to, find out that nearly 2.3 million construction workers frequently work on a scaffold system.

Construction sites are, by the very nature of their structure, very unstable environments with movement of materials, workers, etc. and shifting landscapes. This elucidates in a certain proportion why in 2004, about 400,000 workers have suffered construction-site injuries, more or less serious and the statistics have also revealed that in 1996, 25 percent of workers injured in scaffold accidents have not even received scaffold training, an unacceptable fact, but one that explains the high number of scaffold accidents that happen until today around the Globe. The point is that, with the placing of correct scaffold systems, the construction process will develop in safer conditions.