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what sort of scaffolding or platforms does everyone use?
Hi fellow signmakers!
I’m looking out for a new scaffold tower.What type do you use.
I’m thinking about safety, handiness, and durability.Any good sources?
Thanks from Northern Ireland.
Philip. -
17 Replies
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I would say ditch the scaffolding idea and buy yourself a set of 10′ aluminum trestle’s with catwalk. I have used many towers and had a good one of our own in the past but switched to trestles and have never looks back. Trestles are quick and easy setup in a couple of minutes.
They are more than adequate for shop front signage, any size of van or truck lettering work.
I agree there comes the time when you need to work higher than 16ft reach. If this is the case i opt for a cherry picker. adding £150 to a job that’s "high" is nothing and is in the interest of safety. its also faster and better to work from.
I remember a few jobs in the east end of London i did a couple of years back using a brand new scaffold tower because the cherry picker i ordered was dropped at the wrong location.
The job was 40ft up the side of a factory and the sign involved lots of aluminum sheets. we only had two guys on site. just getting the sheets "up" to the top of the tower was a task in itself without scratching, handling and passing the sheet up one section while the other guy run up to the next to be passed to and so on…
the job took allot longer than i had imagined.
by the end of each shift i was knackered.
I recon we nearly dropped about 3 sheets when passing to each other.
then there was the moving of the tower as we went along…
not to mention the danger of climbing up and down etc…anyway… as i said, for general sign work i use alloy trestle’s… if and when needed i use a cherry picker.
For added safety, hand rails for trestles are also available.
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Hi Rob
Any good places to look for these sort of things? It is something I have been thinking about (along with a van but that’s another whole post 😉 ) I have 2 long (3 part) ladders that I use but up and down all the time is painful 😮 Especially when I want to get more fascia work and it would make it so much easier.
Any suggestions before I hit google 😉
cheers
Warren
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Good idea Robert.
Where can I get them? -
you know i did a look about to see what options of alloy tresstle there is out there on the net, didn’t find them to be honest. Found plenty of wooden tresstle, so that made me wonder if they are legal and have the right BS standard or something like that…i be interested to see and examine a few decent quality tresstle kits too
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I think I remember some trestles & scaffold being advertised in the back of Sign Update Mag.
I’ll check it out tomorrow! -
Sorry but our trestles haven’t seen the light of day in 7 years. They are wooden ones and the steps between the bars are dangerously too far apart. Never trusted the darn things.
We use a 6 meter aluminium tower and the hastle factor doesn’t come into it, it is by far safer in my eyes. -
the safety is the reason why I held back, a staff member falls off and breaks their neck and im in trouble.
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found these
http://www.ladders4sale.co.uk/aluminium … lAodbyMa9g
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This reminded me of an old topic:
http://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.p … les#137458
3/4 of the way down John Simpson posted some pics of his.
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Chris, you are the man, great link and now I need to get it sorted 😉
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you can see one of the older sets i have being used in this old video of me fitting vinyl on a box truck, couldnt live without them…
we buy ours here, http://www.ladders-direct.co.uk/aluminium-trestles.html
i have seen cheaper ones on the go and i have also lifted a set of cheaper ones and they are "very light" and appear to be made with a thinner aluminum. I opted to pay a bit more for the heavier duty ones.
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I swear by an alloy tower of which i mainly only use the base secton which is ideal for fascias
i used trestles for years but found them unstable on anything but flat ground a problem i never get with a tower as all the legs are ajustable
Terry
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Ally trestles and staging from here.
http://www.lfi-ladders.co.uk/
We bought ours some 10 years ago and are still perfect.
Very good prices -
I used 10′ trestles all the time until about five or six years ago when we’d turn up to sites and be told by the site manager that we’d be thrown off site if we used trestles as they were not considered a safe form of access any more.
Eventually, I bought a good quality aluminum tower from SGB and only wish I’d bought one sooner.
One advantage I’ve found with the scaffolding tower, is that the local authorities that we’ve encountered (traffic wardens) have given us a lot more scope for parking in restricted areas as they classed us as ‘scaffolders’.
The good thing I thought about the ‘cherry picker’ was the ability to be able to lift the sign product that you are installing into position, making the job quicker and safer for heavier and awkward items, but for manageable items and sign maintenance, I prefer the tower. 🙂
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I finally got me a tower.
The streets about here are always uneven.Well chuffed with it!!
It also has other crossbars & two outriggers (but the street wasn’t wide enough to warrent using them.
I was hoping to attach a photo but can’t seem to do it using this reply.
Well guys thanks for all the advice & have a Merry Christmas!!
Philip Houston
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quote Neil Churchman:The good thing I thought about the ‘cherry picker’ was the ability to be able to lift the sign product that you are installing into position, making the job quicker and safer for heavier and awkward items, but for manageable items and sign maintenance, I prefer the tower. 🙂Reminds me of when I had to take a sign down using a self-drive cherry picker. Two of us went up and unscrewed it all and stood it across the cage.
Oops! Too heavy now so the cherry picker wouldn’t power down.
We both had to jump up and down in unison to lighten the load and let the cage down in "jerks". 😕
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quote Peter Dee:quote Neil Churchman:The good thing I thought about the ‘cherry picker’ was the ability to be able to lift the sign product that you are installing into position, making the job quicker and safer for heavier and awkward items, but for manageable items and sign maintenance, I prefer the tower. 🙂Reminds me of when I had to take a sign down using a self-drive cherry picker. Two of us went up and unscrewed it all and stood it across the cage.
Oops! Too heavy now so the cherry picker wouldn’t power down.
We both had to jump up and down in unison to lighten the load and let the cage down in “jerks”. 😕
that must’ve been a funny thing to see!
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