How do I use a hired scaffold tower safely?

For anything that takes more than a few minutes at height, a tower beats a ladder comprehensively: you get a level platform, a guardrail, both hands free, and somewhere to put your tools. The trade-off is that a tower is a structure you assemble, and an incorrectly assembled tower fails in a way a ladder does not. The hire company supplies an instruction manual for that specific tower; it is the actual authority and it should be read on site rather than skimmed in the van.

Safety

What you'll need

• The tower's own instruction manual, supplied with the hire
• Firm, level ground or proper base plates and boards
• Stabilisers or outriggers as specified
• Guardrails, toe boards and the correct platform boards
• A helper
• A spirit level

Step by step

1. Read the manual for that tower.Towers differ in how many stabilisers they need, the maximum height for a given base, and the build sequence. The manual is model-specific and it is the document that makes the tower safe. Keep it on site.
2. Check the ground before anything is unloaded.Firm and level. Soft ground needs base plates on scaffold boards to spread the load. A slope needs adjustable legs, not packing. The whole structure amplifies any settlement at the base.
3. Check every component as it comes off the van.Bent tubes, damaged claws, missing locking pins, split boards and worn castor brakes. Hire equipment gets abused. Anything doubtful goes back rather than into the tower.
4. Fit the stabilisers or outriggers as specified.They are what set the ratio of base width to height, and the maximum permitted height depends on them being fitted and adjusted correctly. Fitting them loosely, or leaving one off because it is awkward, changes the tower's rating.
5. Level it before building up.Adjust the legs or castors until the base frame is level in both directions, checked with a spirit level. Every subsequent lift multiplies an error at the bottom.
6. Build it using the advance guardrail or through-the-trap method.Both are ways of ensuring nobody stands on an unprotected platform. Advance guardrail systems fit the rail from the level below before you go up; the through-the-trap method has the assembler positioned in the trapdoor of the platform below, fitting the next level from a protected position. Your manual will say which applies.
7. Fit guardrails and toe boards at every working level.Guardrails at the specified heights on all four sides, and toe boards to stop tools being kicked off. This is not optional decoration; it is the difference between a work platform and a raised plank.
8. Lock the castors and check the brakes.All castors locked, every time, before anyone climbs. Test by pushing the tower — it should not move at all. Castor brakes are a common wear item on hire equipment.
9. Climb up the inside, through the trapdoor.Never up the outside frame. The internal ladder and the platform trapdoor are how a tower is designed to be climbed, and the trapdoor must be closed once you are through.
10. Never move it with anything on it.No people, no tools, no materials. Come down, clear the platform, unlock the castors, move it by hand at the base, re-level, re-lock. A tower being pushed with a load on top is how they go over.
11. Stop in wind.Towers have a stated maximum wind speed and a much lower one for being left unattended. Sheeting or boards on the tower turn it into a sail. If you would not want to be up there, do not be.
12. Tie it in if it is up for more than a day.A tower left standing, particularly a tall one or one near a corner where wind accelerates, should be tied to the building or dismantled. Overnight wind takes down towers that were fine all afternoon.

Tips

• Hire companies will usually deliver, and some will erect it for you. Paying for erection on a tall tower is a reasonable decision, not a defeat.
• For domestic work, most jobs that need a tower need a low one. A tower two lifts high with stabilisers is far more stable than the same tower at four lifts, and it is quicker to build.
• Formal competence requirements apply to people who erect towers at work. At home you are not covered by that regime, but the reason it exists — that assembly is the dangerous part — applies to you exactly the same.
• Do not span between a tower and a windowsill, a wall or a ladder with a plank. It is a recognised and frequently fatal improvisation.
• Keep the platform clear. Most tower injuries that are not falls are things dropped onto someone below.

Common mistakes

• Working from a platform with no guardrails because it is only one lift up — A fall from two metres onto a hard floor causes serious injury routinely. The guardrail takes two minutes and it is the entire point of using a tower rather than a ladder.
• Moving the tower with tools left on the platform — They fall off, onto whoever is pushing. And a raised load makes the tower far easier to tip while it is on castors.
• Climbing the outside of the frame — The outside has no fall protection, the horizontal members are not designed as rungs, and you arrive at the platform outside the guardrail.
• Leaving out a stabiliser because it fouls a path or a bed — The tower's permitted height is calculated from the base dimensions with the stabilisers fitted. Removing one does not make the tower slightly less stable; it makes the stated height rating invalid.

Questions people ask