Platform & edge protection
What is a edge protection?
Edge protection is the collective arrangement at the open edge of a platform that stops people and objects falling — guard rails, toe boards and, where needed, brick guards or netting.
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.
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<img src="https://scaffoldoptix.co.uk/glossary/edge-protection/diagram.svg" alt="edge protection — scaffold diagram from ScaffoldOptix" width="880" height="620" loading="lazy">
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<a href="https://scaffoldoptix.co.uk/glossary/edge-protection">What is a edge protection?</a> — diagram by
<a href="https://scaffoldoptix.co.uk">ScaffoldOptix</a>
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</figure>It is collective protection, meaning it protects everyone on the platform without anyone putting anything on or clipping anything in. That is why it is preferred over personal fall protection wherever a platform can be edge protected at all.
Guard rails address people falling; toe boards, brick guards and netting address objects falling. A platform needs whichever of these the work and the surroundings require, and having one is not having the other.
The Work at Height Regulations set minimum heights for guard rails and maximum gaps between them. Those are legal minimums, not design targets.
What goes wrong on site
- Guard rails present and toe boards absent on a platform where tools are in use.
- Edge protection removed at a loading bay with no alternative arrangement.
- Protection provided on the outer edge and not on the inside where the gap is too wide to board.