Scaffold Towers Explained: Types, Uses, and Safety Tips

When it comes to working at heights, safety is paramount. For the safest and most efficient building access, scaffold towers are an indispensable tool. Whether you’re a professional contractor or a DIY enthusiast tackling home improvement projects, understanding the various types of scaffold towers available can help ensure your work is both safe and productive.

In this blog post, we’ll look at the different kinds of scaffold towers available today, their common uses, and some essential tips to keep you safe when using a scaffold tower.

Types of Scaffold Towers

When choosing a scaffold tower, you’ll need to decide what type of scaffold tower best meets your needs. Here are some of the most popular types of scaffold towers and their most common uses.

Mobile Scaffold Towers

Mobile scaffold towers are fitted with wheels or castors. This makes them easy to move across worksites. If you’re working on a large site where you need to move around different areas, they are a great choice.

Ideal for tasks requiring frequent relocation, they can be used for painting large surfaces, installing lighting fixtures, or fitting and repairing roofline on a building exterior.

Folding Scaffold Towers

Folding scaffold towers as their name suggests feature a compact design which allows them to be folded down when not in use. They are a great choice for companies that need to erect and assemble the tower at multiple locations and be able to store and transport the equipment easily both in their van and at their place of work.

Folding scaffold towers are the perfect choice for indoor jobs where space might be limited. They’re also great for quick setup and takedown scenarios like repairing a damaged façade or carrying out maintenance work on a wall mounted electrical fitting.

Stairway Access Towers

Stair towers are designed specifically with staircases in mind so workers can easily move upwards and downwards while carrying tools. They can be used on all types of staircases including multi-floor interior stairwells and exterior fire escapes.

Stair towers are widely used during staircase installation and repair. They provide maximum stability even if placed on uneven stairs and can be adjusted to ensure safety is optimised. For all types of painting and renovation work on existing staircases, they are also a great option.

Cantilever Scaffold Towers

Cantilever scaffold towers are designed to provide access to out of reach areas where there is an obstruction at ground level. One section of the tower protrudes outward to create a platform providing access to otherwise difficult-to-reach areas without additional support underneath.

For use on complex sites where outbuildings, garages, trees, and bushes may be hampering access, they provide a safe and easily deployable raised platform. Particularly useful around building edges and corners, they provide access flexibility that is impossible with standard scaffold towers.

Common uses of scaffold towers

Scaffold towers are used for all sorts of construction, maintenance, and home renovation tasks. Some common uses for scaffold towers include:

• Painting and decorating
• Plastering walls and ceilings
• Repairing, cleaning, and installing windows
• Replacing light fittings and other electrical fittings
• Hanging wallpaper
• Clearing gutters and repairing/replacing roofline
• Roof repairs and tiling

In commercial settings, scaffold towers are also useful to create temporary stages and platforms for setting up exhibitions and displays.

Essential safety tips for working with a scaffold tower

As mentioned above, when working from heights, safety is always paramount. If you’re planning to use a scaffold tower, here are some essential safety tips to help prevent any accidents.

• Conduct regular inspections – ensure no damage or wear and tear before every usage by thoroughly checking all parts, joints, and connections.
• Inspect ground surface – when setting up a scaffold tower, avoid unstable terrain and choose flat solid base locations to reduce the risk of tipping accidents.
• Use guardrails – prevent falls by fitting guard rails and hand holds that meet recommended height minimums.
• Wear appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) – consider using harnesses, helmets, gloves, and non-slip footwear to keep workers protected when working from height.

Finally, undertaking working at heights training will ensure that anyone using a scaffold tower is confident in how to do so in a safe manner.  Courses such as PASMA and IPAF are designed to make sure anyone using scaffold towers fully understands how to operate them safely and correctly.

If you’d like to find out more about any of our scaffold towers, contact Access Towers today. You can call us on 020 8038 1723, send us a message using our online contact form, or e-mail [email protected]