What the scaffolding contractor desires to understand

A scaffolder must be able to prove for every façade scaffold that it is safe. Many scaffolding contractors are unaware that they are responsible under criminal and civil law for an accident if this evidence is lacking.

Which legal bases apply to the safety of facade scaffolding? And what must scaffolders necessarily know about the responsibility for the stability of their scaffolding?

cuplock scaffolding system

Basically, only scaffolding and scaffolding components that meet the requirements of the Product Safety Act (PrSG) may be used. This is determined by the Building Regulations Ordinance (BauAV) in Article 37. The Product Safety Law, in turn, requires that those who place the goods on facade scaffolding have to prove that they are safe.

But how does that work?

Static proof of the manufacturer is required

The product safety law stipulates that created facade scaffolding must at least correspond to the state of the art and the knowledge. This stand is defined in the standards SN EN 12810 and SN EN 12811. These standards stipulate that every scaffolding component as well as an entire scaffolding system must be dimensioned and tested in accordance with the standard.

Scaffolding manufacturers now use static calculations to ensure that their facade scaffolding meets the requirements and may be created by the scaffolder. Therefore, these static proofs must always be available.

If you do not follow the instructions, you are responsible yourself.

If the manufacturer's proof is available, a scaffolder does not have to produce his own proof. But this only as long as he adheres to the construction and use instructions (operating instructions) of the scaffolding system. Such instructions must be provided in accordance with the standards for each scaffolding system.

In it, the manufacturer passes on his findings from the static calculation and the tests by showing how his scaffolding can be safely constructed. For example, it is described up to which height the scaffold can be erected or which console extension may be attached to the scaffolding.

Therefore, the scaffolding manufacturer ultimately bears the responsibility for scaffolding that has been prepared correctly in accordance with the instructions.

However, as soon as scaffolding is not prepared in accordance with the manufacturer's operating instructions, the scaffolder himself becomes the distributor. Then he alone is responsible for his scaffolding. In this case, he must be able to provide his own proof that it is safe. This means that he has to have the scaffold computed by a scaffold construction engineer (civil engineer).

Mixed use of multiple systems - own proof required

If components of different manufacturers are mixed in a scaffold, it usually no longer corresponds to a manufacturer's operating instructions.

In most cases, there is no proof that the scaffold created is safe. This means that the scaffolder now has the primary responsibility for the stability and compatibility of the various scaffolding components. He is also the manufacturer and distributor.

In principle, therefore, a static proof of a scaffolding designer must be provided for each mixed scaffold.

Accidents can have expensive consequences

If a facade scaffold collapses, the investigating authority always demands the static proof. Anyone who, as a scaffolder, cannot sufficiently prove that the facade scaffold was state-of-the-art, must expect legal consequences.

If such a collapse still causes harm to people and material, it becomes steep and expensive. Scaffolding contractors are therefore at great risk if proof is missing.

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Created on Jun 26th 2019 02:01. Viewed 250 times.

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