Recommended Precautions
Workers should adhere to a range of safety precautions when working on supported and suspended scaffolds to minimize the risk of accidents and injuries.
Is this scaffolds properly installed to prevent falls and collapse?
Recommended precautions to take while working with scaffolds include:
- Make sure employees are instructed about the hazards of using diagonal braces as fall protection. Scaffolds should be accessed by using ladders and stairwells. Crossbracing should not be used.
- Make sure scaffolds are sound, rigid and sufficient to carry its own weight plus four times the maximum intended load without settling or displacement.
- Ensure scaffolds are erected on solid footing.
- Do not support scaffolds or planks with unstable objects, such as barrels, boxes, loose bricks or concrete blocks. Ladders, boxes, barrels, buckets or other makeshift platforms should not be used to raise work height. Extra material should not be used to build up on scaffold platforms.
- Ensure scaffolds are erected, moved, dismantled or altered under the supervision of a competent person.
- Never use scaffold accessories such as braces, brackets, trusses, screw legs or ladders that are damaged or weakened from any cause. Make sure they are immediately repaired or replaced.
- Tightly plank scaffold platforms with scaffold plank grade material or equivalent. All scaffolds should be fully planked.
- Make sure a competent person inspects the scaffolding and, at designated intervals, repeat the inspection.
- Ensure a competent person inspects rigging on suspension scaffolds before each shift and after any occurrence that could affect structural integrity to ensure that all connections are tight and that no damage to the rigging has occurred since its last use.
- Check that synthetic and natural rope used in suspension scaffolding is protected from heat-producing sources.
- Always check to make sure scaffolds are at least 10 feet from electric power lines at all times.
- Equip scaffolds with guardrails, midrails, and toeboards, as required.
- Ensure damaged parts that affect the strength of the scaffold are taken out of service.
- Make sure scaffolds are not moved horizontally while workers are on them unless they are designed to be mobile, and workers have been trained in the proper procedures.
- Do not allow employees to work on scaffolds when covered with snow, ice, or other slippery materials. Employees are not permitted to work on scaffolds in bad weather or high winds unless a competent person has determined it is safe to do so.
- Scaffolds should not be loaded with more weight than they were designed to support.
For a complete course on scaffold safety, take OSHAcademy course 803 Scaffold Safety Program Management and course 804 Safe Scaffold Erection and Inspection.
You may also want to visit OSHA's Safety and Health Topics: Scaffolding web page.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
1-5. Employees are not permitted to work on scaffolds in bad weather or high winds unless it is determined to be safe by a _____.
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