Scaffold types
What is a cantilever scaffold?
A cantilever scaffold is supported at one end only, projecting out from a building where there is no ground beneath it to stand on.
Use this diagram+
Free to use on your own site, in training material or in a course handout, as long as the credit link stays on it. Paste this where you want the diagram to appear.
<figure>
<img src="https://scaffoldoptix.co.uk/glossary/cantilever/diagram.svg" alt="cantilever scaffold — scaffold diagram from ScaffoldOptix" width="880" height="620" loading="lazy">
<figcaption>
<a href="https://scaffoldoptix.co.uk/glossary/cantilever">What is a cantilever scaffold?</a> — diagram by
<a href="https://scaffoldoptix.co.uk">ScaffoldOptix</a>
</figcaption>
</figure>The supporting members run back into the structure and are anchored there, so the building resists the overturning the projecting scaffold creates. Everything depends on that anchorage.
It is the answer where the ground is unavailable — over a railway, a river, a road that cannot be closed, or a roof below.
A cantilever is always a designed structure. There is no compliance sheet for one, and the loads in the supporting members are not something to estimate.
What goes wrong on site
- Treated as an ordinary scaffold that happens to stick out.
- Anchorage assumed rather than designed and checked.
- Loaded beyond what the design allowed because the platform looks like any other.