Components
What is a ledger?
A ledger is a horizontal tube running along the length of a scaffold, parallel to the building face. Ledgers connect the standards to each other, hold the structure square, and carry the transoms that support the boards.
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<img src="https://scaffoldoptix.co.uk/glossary/ledger/diagram.svg" alt="ledger — scaffold diagram from ScaffoldOptix" width="880" height="620" loading="lazy">
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<a href="https://scaffoldoptix.co.uk/glossary/ledger">What is a ledger?</a> — diagram by
<a href="https://scaffoldoptix.co.uk">ScaffoldOptix</a>
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</figure>Ledgers are the members that run the way you walk. They fix the lift heights — the vertical spacing between ledger levels is the lift — and they brace the standards against each other along the face, so a scaffold without them would fold along its length.
On an independent scaffold there is a ledger on the inner row and one on the outer row at each lift, and the transoms bridge between them across the width. That is the relationship worth holding on to: ledgers run along, transoms run across, and the boards sit on the transoms.
Ledgers are also what most of the rest of the scaffold hangs off. Guard rails, intermediate transoms and bracing are all fixed to them, so a ledger that is not level or not properly coupled does not just affect itself.
What goes wrong on site
- Confusing ledgers with transoms, which is the single most common mix-up in scaffolding terminology — the giveaway is the direction: a ledger runs along the face, a transom runs into the building.
- Ledgers set out of level, so the boards they eventually carry sit at a fall.
- Couplers not tightened to the required torque, which matters more on ledgers than almost anywhere else because so much else is fixed to them.