Scaffolding Best Practices?

As a licensed scaffolder in Australia that set up is horrendous, we would use aluminium scaffold built one level at a time with internal ladders between levels, but the only reason to use a scaffold would be because the floor could not carry the weight of a hoist.
 
So a few months back I was involved with a lighting upgrade at a church I do part-time work for. We were replacing a bunch of fresnels over the stage with some LED fixtures and the trim height is on the order of 35'ish feet, dead hung of course. There's no ramp access to the stage so getting anything in there that can hit that ceiling is rough. The solution we came up with was to rent scaffolding. We found a local rental place that had a kit, reading the manual it was designed for this height and we followed the instructions to a T. It definitely was a bit hair-raising assembling and disassembling it. However we were able to utilize a scissor lift to at least raise the top level pieces and pass them over (I don't think that runs afoul of recommendations, no one left the scissor to go to the scaffolding).

Anyway, I have limited experience with this stuff, and was wondering what we could do to be safer in the future or if we were in the right ballpark. The OSHA papers claim that if railings are installed you don't have to worry about fall-arrest, but even still I wouldn't know where to clip in in this circumstance in any event.

We recently had to get up there again to replace a power cable that failed for some reason possibly a bad connector, that's another whole story. And we found a Snorkel mast lift that could hit it at the max trim. The custodial team there built a ramp to get it up on the stage deck this time. So we may never have to mess with the scaffolding again, but I'd like the input either way.

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No one has mentioned the lack of a gooser bar (also called grouser bar) which connects the diagonally opposite verticals and maintains the squareness of the frame. Generally a full set of LOCKED IN planks will prevent the problem but during assembly the frame can rack and possibly collapse. I've seen this happen on a 30 ft rolling tower which proceeded to crash through a scrim and cyc. Fortunately no one was hurt.
 
I love this discussion. Scaffold often gets overlooked in this age of Genie lifts.

So as far as harnessing on this setup, I guess you could span set around that beam, provided that it’s been rated for that sort of thing. I’d honestly be pretty worried about an escape strategy here, since there’s not an adequate ladder or genie on that level already. What do you do here if the worst happens and you don’t just fall off, but pull the scaffold over? Unlikely, but maybe possible by the edge of the stage (or whatever ecclesiastical term applies).

I’m very wary of moving the scaffold when on top of it. When I was a baby stagehand, working occasionally in a black box, the LD fell when working alone at night. She was pulling the scaffold on it’s wheels by grabbing the grid while on top of it. No fall protection in sight. If I remember correctly, she had a really bad spine injury, and was lucky that was all. In her defense, she didn’t know outriggers for the scaffold were hidden behind costume racks in the attic.

One more quick fall pro experience, in my dinner theater days, the old LD insisted on buying a harness and lanyard, despite the grid being at 16’, and the access being 100% frame ladders. Legit idea, but she would harness up, climb the ladder, and hook the lanyard to the not-a-step at the top. I always thought it would be worse to fall and then have a ladder hit her.
 
built one level at a time
I have to say, I'm not sure how else you would go about it. 😄 I agree on the access though, that skinny ladder was not a good time. Hatches or stair units would be necessary in the future. Although we were able to get the mast MEWP up on the stage via a ramp this most recent time so hopefully we're done with that amount of scaffold.

No one has mentioned the lack of a gooser bar (also called grouser bar) which connects the diagonally opposite verticals and maintains the squareness of the frame. Generally a full set of LOCKED IN planks will prevent the problem but during assembly the frame can rack and possibly collapse.
I noticed this when we were disassembling actually. We were down to the last level and the wheels happened to be unlocked on one side and she went all cattywampus which made me realize how useful something like what you described would actually be. I can't imagine if that were to have happened with it fully assembled.

So as far as harnessing on this setup, I guess you could span set around that beam, provided that it’s been rated for that sort of thing
That was my thought as well. It's an I-beam surrounded in drywall. Surely the drywall would be ruined, but the truss would hold which is a great alternative to falling.

As for moving it while on top? We did not do that. I locked each wheel myself before making the climb.
 
Hey kids, it's swerve time again. I love the term cattywampus but was curious about it, so here is this:
 
I've also heard/used cattywaller/cattawalla and cattycorner/cattacorner in similar manners. All referential to diagonal situations
 
I've also heard/used cattywaller/cattawalla and cattycorner/cattacorner in similar manners. All referential to diagonal situations
Catterwaller, Now My grandpa always used that to describe loud and boisterous behavior, "You kids Stop all that Catterwallin' or I'm gonna come in there and knock you into the middle of next week". 'Course he h used Bohunkus and Hobuck a lot too. @JohnD might know those.
 
Bohunkus, yes, Hobuck, no.
 
Hobuck, it's a Choctaw word. Up in your neck of the woods it's more Creek right?
Osage and Otoe-Missouria.

EDIT: Oh yeah, to keep this au courant with CB, the Osage gave us Maria Tall Chief.
 

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