Today, we tackled the task of extending our mobile steel scaffolding tower so we can have a platform that is nearly 5 metres (16feet) long to work on our roof and Fascia without having to keep moving the tower along so many times.
We used our good clean working set of scaffolding wheels that has proper locking mechanisms, which were bolted to two layers of the scaffolding elements and rolled it through the front door (yes it was big enough, being 5 feet wide and 7 feet tall!) and build two extra “lintels” to boost up the level of the final platform height so it misses the metal corner poles. This height being about 2metres up. The lintels were securely bolted to the end railing bars, one above and one below to lock it all together.
We finished off the day’s work by putting on three 4.8 metres 95 x 45 mm timber planks and used metal joist brackets to nail down these “joists”, at both ends .
Start-of-making-mobile-scaffold-platform-1
Start-of-making-mobile-scaffold-platform-2
Another little job we did this morning was to reinforced some of the joints in our wooden scaffolding structure so the edges will not dip under extra loads like a trolley carrying a large number of slate tiles.
On Monday, we will go and put on two sheet of 18mm thick OSB boards and put in dozens of coach screws with large washers to make sure we very securely hold down the platform to the joist beams. We will also put on many concrete blocks to the bottom of the tower to improve the centre of gravity to reduce the chance of the sticking out platforms extending out beyond the scaffolding tower and plus we will put on support arms from the platform too, to screw on to the wall every time we stop at a position. This will maximise the stability of the whole 16feet length of the platform so we can just get on with the work while still having a reasonably easy process of moving it along and get safe again quite quickly. Oh Yes – Safety Rules The Day!!