Adhere to Construction Safety Bottom Line: Scaffolding Erection Norms and Industry Requirements Become Core Points of Building Construction

Scaffolding, an indispensable temporary supporting structure in building construction, has its erection standardization and safety directly related to project construction safety and personnel life safety, serving as a core control link for safe production in the construction industry. At present, the domestic construction industry implements full-process standardized management for scaffolding erection, with clear national standard requirements for material selection, on-site erection, acceptance and use. Meanwhile, industry policies are continuously upgraded to eliminate backward processes and materials, further consolidating the safety defense line for scaffolding construction.

The erection of scaffolding must follow the core principle of "Safety First, Standard Construction, Full-Process Control". Its core technical points and industry management requirements have formed a standardized system, which is a professional knowledge that construction practitioners must master. In the basic erection link, the bottom of scaffolding vertical poles must be paved with base plates or backing plates with a thickness of ≥50mm; for soft ground, sleepers or steel plates must be additionally paved for hardening treatment to disperse loads and prevent settlement, with the foundation bearing capacity required to be ≥100kPa. Drainage ditches with a slope of ≥3% shall be set around the foundation to avoid water accumulation and settlement. The erection parameters of vertical poles and horizontal ledgers must be strictly implemented in accordance with the design: the conventional longitudinal spacing of vertical poles is ≤1.8m, the transverse spacing is ≤1.5m, and the step spacing of horizontal ledgers is ≤1.8m. Vertical poles on the same floor shall be on the same horizontal plane, and the vertical deviation of vertical poles shall be ≤1/200. In addition, the extension of vertical poles shall use butt couplers except for the top floor, with the staggered distance of adjacent joints being ≥500mm to avoid stress concentration at the same section. The tightening torque of couplers shall be controlled at 40-65N·m to ensure the firmness of the connection nodes.

The erection of anti-overturning and protection systems is a key link for scaffolding safety and a focus of industry inspections. In accordance with the requirements of the national standard Technical Code for Steel Tubular and Coupler Scaffolding in Building Construction (JGJ 130), scaffolding with a height of more than 4m (or two-step scaffolding) must be equipped with scaffold ties, arranged in accordance with the standard of "two steps and three spans". Scaffolding with a height of more than 24m shall adopt rigid scaffold ties, and flexible tie bars are strictly prohibited. The setting of diagonal braces shall form an overall stable system with the ground at an angle of 45°-60°; diagonal braces for freestanding scaffolding with a height of more than 24m shall be arranged continuously at full height without interruption. For the operation layer, scaffold planks must be fully paved and fixed firmly, without overhanging planks (the overhanging length beyond horizontal ledgers is ≤150mm). The joints between scaffold planks shall be closely connected with a gap of ≤50mm to prevent personnel or materials from falling through the gap. Meanwhile, protective railings with a height of 1.2m (with a middle rail at 0.6m) and toe boards with a height of ≥180mm shall be set on the operation layer, with dense mesh safety nets hung on the outer side and bottom nets set at the bottom to achieve all-round protection.

Material selection is the basic premise of scaffolding erection, and the industry explicitly prohibits the use of unqualified materials and backward types. Steel pipes shall preferably adopt national standard Q235 grade pipes (outer diameter 48.3mm, wall thickness 3.6mm) with no cracks, indentations or serious corrosion on the surface; couplers must meet national standard requirements, and those with cracks, deformation or bolt thread slipping shall be prohibited from use. It is worth noting that the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has issued two batches of Catalogue of Prohibited and Restricted Technologies for Housing Construction and Municipal Infrastructure Projects, explicitly eliminating bamboo (wooden) scaffolding and non-flame-retardant dense mesh safety nets, and restricting the use of wheel buckle type scaffolding (strictly prohibited for dangerous and major projects). The industry vigorously promotes high-safety performance types such as socket disc buckle type scaffolding, which adopts Q345B low-alloy structural steel with an 8-hole plug-in design for nodes and a built-in diagonal brace system, whose bearing capacity and stability are far superior to traditional types.

Scaffolding erection is not "qualified upon completion", and phased acceptance and daily management and control have become hard requirements of the industry. After the completion of erection, the project manager shall organize technical and safety personnel and the erection team to conduct self-inspection, and then report to the supervision unit for acceptance. The acceptance content covers core indicators such as foundation bearing capacity, vertical pole verticality, scaffold tie layout and protection facility integrity. The scaffolding can be put into use only after passing the acceptance and filling in the Scaffolding Acceptance Form. During use, the construction load shall be controlled at ≤3kN/m², and overloading of materials is strictly prohibited. Daily pre-shift inspections and comprehensive inspections after severe weather (≥Level 6 strong wind, rain, snow, heavy fog, etc.) shall be carried out to timely tighten loose couplers and replace damaged scaffold planks and safety nets. Non-professional personnel are strictly prohibited from arbitrarily altering or dismantling scaffolding members.

From the perspective of industry supervision trends, the standardized implementation of scaffolding erection has become a focus of safety inspections in building construction. The results of safety production assessment and inspections in many places recently show that cut corners such as unqualified steel pipe wall thickness, no sleepers for vertical poles and missing scaffold ties are still the main potential safety hazards in scaffolding construction. Such behaviors will not only lead to a sharp decline in the bearing capacity of scaffolding, but also easily cause safety accidents such as collapse and falling from height. In this regard, the industry explicitly requires construction enterprises to compact the main responsibility and implement erection standards to every steel pipe and every node; supervision units to strengthen full-process supervision and have zero tolerance for hidden dangers; regulatory departments to increase law enforcement efforts, impose serious accountability for illegal construction behaviors, and form a full-chain management and control system of "enterprise self-inspection, supervision unit supervision and department regulation".

At present, the standardization and regularization of scaffolding erection have become an important part of the high-quality development of the construction industry. Mastering the core erection norms and abiding by industry policy requirements are not only a reflection of the professional quality of construction personnel, but also the key for construction enterprises to hold the bottom line of safe production. In the future, with the popularization of new types such as socket disc buckle type scaffolding and the application of intelligent supervision means, the safety level of scaffolding construction will be further improved, providing a solid guarantee for the safe and efficient progress of construction projects.