Scaffold platforms and working lifts
The platform is the part your trades actually stand on, so it is the part worth getting right. Every working lift we build is fully boarded, with double guard rails and toe boards, set at a height that suits the work rather than the tube. Boards are checked on every inspection and swapped when they need it.
Access
We build platforms for everything from a single lift on a domestic gable to birdcage decks filling an entire room. Examples include a birdcage scaffold inside a stairwell at UCL and a fully boarded scaffold with a roof walkway in Pimlico, put up so abseilers could rig from it safely.
What you get
- Fully boarded lifts, no trap gaps
- Double guard rails and toe boards
- Loading bays sized for your materials
- Birdcage platforms for ceilings and stairwells
- Platforms and walkways rigged for abseilers
- Lift heights set around the work
The detail
How we approach scaffold platforms and working lifts
Boarded lifts and edge protection
A working lift is boarded right across, with the boards secured, double guard rails and a toe board on every open edge. Lift heights are set from the work, so a bricklayer gets a comfortable working height and a roofer gets a lift below the eaves rather than level with them. Ladder access is separate from the working area wherever the layout allows.
Loading bays and material handling
Where materials have to come up and stay up, a loading bay gives you a designed area to land them. Bays are built to carry the loads you tell us about, with a hinged or removable gate so the edge is protected when nothing is being lifted. Tell us the weights and the lifting method at survey and the bay gets designed around them.
Birdcages and internal platforms
For ceiling work, internal decoration, surveys or services installation, a birdcage gives a full deck at height across the whole footprint of a room. We have built them in tight spots, including inside a stairwell at UCL where the deck had to step around the flights. Internal work brings its own constraints: floor loadings, protection to finishes, and getting the kit in through a door.
FAQs
Questions about scaffold platforms and working lifts
Just below the work in most cases, so operatives are not reaching above shoulder height or leaning over the rail. For roofing we set the top lift below the eaves; for brickwork we work in lifts as the wall goes up. We agree the heights with you or your trades before we build.
Yes. Birdcage scaffolds, internal towers and boarded decks all get used indoors for ceiling repairs, plaster work, lighting and services, and surveys. We look at floor loadings, how the material gets in and out, and what protection the existing finishes need. Access routes and working hours usually have to be agreed with whoever manages the building.
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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.