Designed scaffolds and engineered scaffolding
Standard scaffolds are built to TG20:21. Plenty of work does not fit inside it: heavy imposed loads, awkward geometry, nowhere to tie, a structure that has to bridge over something. When a scaffold falls outside TG20 compliance, it needs a bespoke design with drawings and structural calculations before anyone lifts a tube.
Engineered
We handle that end of the trade. B-MAT works with scaffold designers, structural engineers and principal contractors to get the design right, then builds it with CISRS-qualified scaffolders. Examples include a very technical designed scaffold at Wood Green Shopping Centre and a bridged scaffold in Hornsey using gallows brackets and Apollo beams.
What you get
- Scaffold drawings and structural calculations
- Design risk assessments and method statements
- Wind loading and imposed load checks
- Bridged scaffolds using gallows brackets and beams
- Free-standing and heavily loaded structures
- Coordination with engineers and principal contractors
The detail
How we approach designed scaffolds and engineered scaffolding
When a design is needed
If the scaffold cannot be built to TG20:21, it has to be designed. That usually means one of a handful of things: loads above the standard tables, ties that cannot be fixed where the tables want them, unusual heights or geometry, a bridge over an opening, or a free-standing structure taking wind with nothing to tie to.
Drawings, calculations and paperwork
A designed scaffold comes with a drawing that shows exactly how it is to be built, calculations proving it carries the loads applied to it, and a design risk assessment and method statement to go with them. Principal contractors and temporary works coordinators will ask for that pack, so we produce it up front rather than chasing it once the job has started.
Built to the drawing
A design is only worth the paper if the scaffold matches it. Our scaffolders work to the drawing, and where a site condition means it cannot be followed, we go back to the designer rather than improvising. Examples of that work include an independent scaffold in Hornsey put up over a car ramp so air conditioning could be installed above it.
FAQs
Questions about designed scaffolds and engineered scaffolding
Whenever it falls outside TG20:21. Heavy imposed loads, no safe tie pattern, a bridge over a doorway or driveway, temporary roofs, hoist towers and free-standing structures all need designing. If we survey your site and think it needs a design, we will say so at quotation stage rather than after the job is on the programme.
Yes. On larger contracts the temporary works design often sits with the principal contractor's engineer, and we build to their drawing and feed back what is practical on site. Where there is no designer appointed, we arrange the design ourselves and hand over the drawings, calculations and method statement with the job.
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Read moreNeed a price? We'll come and look at the job.
Free site visit, free written quotation and no obligation. Tell us what you're building and we'll tell you what the scaffold needs to do.