Scaffold types
What is a facade scaffold?
A facade scaffold is a scaffold built up one elevation of a building, giving working platforms at each lift along that face. It is the most common type in the UK and the one most compliance sheets cover.
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<img src="https://scaffoldoptix.co.uk/glossary/facade-scaffold/diagram.svg" alt="facade scaffold — scaffold diagram from ScaffoldOptix" width="880" height="620" loading="lazy">
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<a href="https://scaffoldoptix.co.uk/glossary/facade-scaffold">What is a facade scaffold?</a> — diagram by
<a href="https://scaffoldoptix.co.uk">ScaffoldOptix</a>
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</figure>A facade scaffold is two rows of standards running along the elevation — an inner row near the building and an outer row — joined by ledgers along the length and transoms across the width, with the platform boarded out at whichever lifts the work needs. It is the arrangement most people picture when they hear the word scaffold.
It is nearly always an independent scaffold, meaning it stands on its own standards and is tied to the building for stability rather than resting on it. A putlog scaffold, by contrast, has its inner ends built into the wall, which is why it appears mostly on traditional brickwork.
Because facade scaffolds are so common, TG20 covers a wide range of them. That is the practical significance of the type: an ordinary facade scaffold within the usual bay lengths, lift heights and tie patterns is very likely to be coverable by a compliance sheet, where an unusual structure heads towards bespoke design.
What goes wrong on site
- Treating the scaffold as free-standing because it looks solid — a facade scaffold depends on its ties, and sheeting one that was tied as an open structure changes the loading it has to resist.
- Running the scaffold past a corner without deciding whether the return is part of the same structure or a separate one, which then confuses both the design and the measure.
- Boarding out every lift as a matter of habit rather than because the work needs it, which changes the loading the scaffold was set out for.