Safety Management Requirements for Scaffolding Operations

I. Safety Management Requirements for Scaffolding Operations 

1. Requirements for Personnel Management: Scaffolding operators must hold a special trade operator's certificate to perform work. 

2. Specialized Safety Construction Plans for Scaffolding: Scaffolding is classified as a high-risk sub-project; therefore, a specialized safety construction plan must be developed. For high-risk sub-projects exceeding certain scales-such as ground-supported steel tube scaffolding projects with a height of 50 meters or more, attached scaffolding projects (both integrated and sectional) with a lifting height of 150 meters or more, and cantilevered scaffolding with a structure height of 20 meters or more-experts must be organized to review and approve the specialized plan

3. Scaffolding workers must undergo safety training and receive safety and technical briefings.

 4. Use personal protective equipment correctly, use tool bags properly, and wear non-slip shoes.

II. Who is responsible for construction?

1. Scaffolding Material Requirements: Steel pipes shall be 48.3 mm × 3.6 mm in diameter, with a maximum weight of 25.8 kg per pipe. They must be coated with anti-rust paint and a warning color before use.

2.Bamboo scaffold planks shall measure 3000 mm x 200 mm x 50 mm, while wooden scaffold planks shall measure 4000 mm x 200 mm x 50 mm and be made of first-grade materials such as Chinese fir or red pine. Both ends should be secured with two wraps of galvanized wire.

III. Double-row coupler-type steel tube scaffolding

1. Basic Requirements for Installing Toe Boards: Scaffolding must be equipped with both longitudinal and transverse toe boards. Longitudinal toe boards shall be secured to the vertical posts using right-angle couplers at a distance of no more than 200 mm from the bottom of the steel tubes. Transverse toe boards shall be secured to the vertical posts immediately below the longitudinal toe boards using right-angle couplers.

2. Basic Requirements for Erecting Uprights 

1) Butt couplers on uprights shall be arranged in a staggered pattern. Within the same bay, the vertical offset between two adjacent joints on every other upright shall not be less than 500 mm. The distance from the center of each joint to the main node shall not exceed one-third of the bay spacing.

2) When the bases of scaffold upright posts are not at the same height, the upper longitudinal horizontal brace must be extended downward by two bays and secured to the upright posts; the height difference should not exceed 1 m. The distance from the centerline of the upright post adjacent to the slope to the slope itself should not be less than 500 mm.

3. Basic Requirements for Erecting Vertical and Horizontal Bracing

4. Basic Requirements for Erecting Scaffolding Members: The distance from the edge of the coupler cover plate at the end of each member to the end of the member shall not be less than 100 mm.

IV. Basic Requirements for the Construction of Ramps Ramps shall be attached to external scaffolding or the building structure.

 For ramps less than 6 m in height, a straight ramp is recommended. For ramps greater than 6 m in height, a zigzag ramp is recommended. Anti-slip wooden strips shall be installed on the scaffolding planks of pedestrian and material transport ramps at intervals of 250 mm to 300 mm; the thickness of the wooden strips shall be 20 mm to 30 mm.

The width of a material chute shall not be less than 1,500 mm, and its slope shall not exceed 1:6; the width of a pedestrian ramp shall not be less than 1,000 mm, and its slope shall not exceed 1:3. Platforms shall be provided at the turns of zigzag ramps, and their width shall not be less than that of the ramp.