15 Mar Scaffold Safety – Safe Use of Scaffolds

Scaffold Safety – Safe Use of Scaffolds

Scaffold safety requires proper erection, inspection, access, fall protection, and use to prevent falls, falling objects, scaffold collapse, and other serious injuries. Employees must never use a scaffold that is damaged, improperly erected, or otherwise unsafe.

Guide for Discussion

Inspect Scaffolds Before Use

Before each work shift and after any occurrence that could affect a scaffold’s structural integrity, a competent person must inspect the scaffold and its components for visible defects.

Check for:

• Proper foundation and footing.
• Level and plumb construction.
• Damaged or weakened components.
• Properly installed braces, pins, and connections.
• Fully planked or decked work platforms as required.
• Secure guardrails, midrails, and toeboards where required.
• Safe access.
• Properly secured casters or wheels on mobile scaffolds.
• Adequate clearance from electrical hazards.
• Falling-object hazards.

Do not use a scaffold until identified deficiencies have been corrected.

Scaffold Capacity

Scaffolds and scaffold components must be capable of supporting, without failure, their own weight and at least four times the maximum intended load applied or transmitted to them, unless a different OSHA requirement applies to the specific component or scaffold system.

• Never overload a scaffold.
• Consider employees, tools, equipment, and materials when determining the load.
• Do not store unnecessary materials on scaffold platforms.
• Distribute loads appropriately.
• Never use damaged or weakened components.

Platforms and Planking

Scaffold platforms must be properly constructed and maintained.

• Fully plank or deck platforms as required.
• Each scaffold platform and walkway generally must be at least 18 inches wide, except where OSHA permits narrower platforms.
• Keep platforms free of unnecessary materials and debris.
• Do not use damaged, split, or otherwise defective planking.
• Secure platforms when necessary to prevent movement.
• Platform units generally must extend over their supports at least 6 inches, unless restrained from movement.

The maximum allowable extension beyond the support depends on the platform length and whether the platform is designed and installed to support employees without tipping. Do not rely on a universal 12-inch maximum.

Fall Protection

Employees working on scaffolds must receive fall protection as required for the type of scaffold and work being performed.

Depending on the scaffold, protection may include:

• Guardrail systems.
• Personal fall arrest systems.
• Both guardrails and personal fall arrest systems for certain scaffold types.

For most supported scaffolds, fall protection is required when employees are more than 10 feet above a lower level.

Never remove or alter required fall-protection components without authorization and appropriate alternative protection.

Safe Scaffold Access

Do not climb cross braces or scaffold frames unless they are specifically designed and permitted for access.

Approved access may include:

• Portable ladders.
• Hook-on or attachable ladders.
• Stair towers.
• Scaffold stairways.
• Integral prefabricated scaffold access.
• Other approved access systems.

Never climb scaffold braces as a shortcut.

Falling-Object Protection

Employees working below scaffolds must be protected from falling tools, materials, and debris.

• Install toeboards, screens, panels, debris nets, catch platforms, or canopies when required.
• Barricade areas below when appropriate.
• Keep materials away from platform edges.
• Secure tools and materials when they could fall.
• Never throw tools or materials from a scaffold.

Where screens are used, they must extend from the toeboard or platform to the top of the guardrail and along the opening where falling objects could present a hazard. Use screening capable of providing the required protection rather than relying on an outdated universal wire-gauge specification.

Mobile and Rolling Scaffolds

Before using a mobile scaffold:

• Make sure the scaffold is level, plumb, and properly braced.
• Lock scaffold casters and wheels while employees are working from the platform.
• Keep the travel surface free of holes, obstructions, and other hazards.
• Secure or remove tools and materials that could fall while the scaffold is being moved.
• Apply manual force as close to the base as practical when moving the scaffold.

Employees generally must not ride on a moving scaffold unless the specific OSHA conditions permitting employee riding are satisfied. Unless those requirements have been evaluated and met, employees must get off before the scaffold is moved.

Damaged or Altered Scaffolds

Scaffolds and components that are damaged or weakened must be immediately repaired, replaced, braced, or removed from service as necessary.

Employees must never:

• Remove braces, guardrails, planking, ties, or other components without authorization.
• Modify scaffold components by welding, burning, drilling, cutting, or bending unless the modification is approved for the scaffold system.
• Substitute makeshift components.
• Move or alter a scaffold while it is occupied unless specifically permitted.
• Use boxes, ladders, buckets, or other makeshift devices on scaffold platforms to gain additional working height.

Electrical Hazards

 

Scaffolds must maintain required clearance from energized power lines and electrical conductors.

• Identify overhead and nearby electrical hazards before erecting or moving scaffolds.
• Maintain the required minimum clearance.
• Never move a mobile scaffold into an electrical hazard.
• Treat power lines as energized unless they have been de-energized and appropriately controlled by the utility or authorized party.

Weather Conditions

Do not work from scaffolds during storms or high winds unless a competent person determines that it is safe and employees are protected as required.

Remove snow, ice, mud, grease, and other slippery materials before using scaffold platforms.

Training

Employees who perform work from scaffolds must be trained by a qualified person to recognize the hazards associated with the scaffold being used and understand the procedures necessary to control those hazards.

Employees involved in erecting, dismantling, moving, repairing, maintaining, or inspecting scaffolds require training appropriate to those duties.

Remember

Never assume a scaffold is safe simply because someone else has already used it. Inspect it, use approved access, stay within its load capacity, maintain required fall protection, and never alter scaffold components without authorization.