Do-it-yourself scaffolding: wooden, metal, photo, video

During the construction, repair and maintenance of a private house or cottage, some work has to be done at a height. With the help of a ladder, not everything can be done, and it is not very convenient. It is much more convenient to use scaffolding. 

Homemade wood scaffolding

Metal scaffolding is, of course, reliable and durable, but most often they are made of wood. Anyone can work with wood, and all that is needed is a saw, nails / screws, a hammer / screwdriver / screwdriver. The set of tools is uncomplicated, which any owner can find, and if there is nothing, then a lot of money is not required to purchase. Metal in this regard is more difficult. It requires at least some handling skill, the presence of a welding machine and at least some idea of ​​uXNUMXbuXNUMXbhow to properly weld seams. That is why do-it-yourself scaffolding is in most cases made of wood.

What to make

Everyone understands that scaffolding or scaffolding is needed for a short time. But for their manufacture it is necessary to use good quality construction wood, with a minimum of knots. Some masters advise making forests exclusively from spruce. Unlike pine, its knots are located singly and almost do not affect the strength of the board.

But spruce boards are rarely available, but pine is usually enough. Scaffolding can also be made from pine boards, but each of them must be checked (in any case, those that go to the racks and flooring). To do this, two columns are added (three or four bricks one on top of the other, a couple of building blocks, two boulders, etc.). When checking three-meter boards, the distance between them is 2,2-2,5 m. A board is placed on the posts, standing in the middle, they jump on it a couple of times. If there are weak points, the board will break or crack. Withstood – can be used.

It is necessary to speak specifically about the thickness of the board, being tied to the design of scaffolding, the distances between the racks and the planned load. The only thing that can be said is that for racks and flooring, a board with a thickness of 40 mm or 50 mm is most often used, for jibs – 25-30 mm. Such a board can be used in the most detailed construction work, if it is possible not to damage it when dismantling the scaffolding.

Nails or screws

There is always a dispute about whether nails or self-tapping screws are better, but in this case it is aggravated by the fact that the work is carried out at height, and increased reliability is required from the structure. From this point of view, nails are better. They are made of soft metal and under load, they bend, but do not break. Self-tapping screws are made of hardened steel, and it is brittle and breaks in the presence of shock or variable loads. For scaffolding, this is critical – there were cases when they fell apart. But this is about “black” screws. If still anodized – yellowish green – they are not so fragile and can easily withstand all the loads. If you are seriously concerned about the reliability of scaffolding, it is better to use nails. They are not loved due to the fact that it will not work to disassemble the connection quickly and without loss – most often the wood is damaged.

With self-manufacturing of scaffolding, you can do this: initially assemble everything on anodized self-tapping screws. If the design turns out to be convenient and correct, play it safe by driving two or three nails into each joint. In order not to damage the wood during disassembly, trimmings of thin boards can be placed under the nails; whole boards, but of small thickness, can be used for an extended span. When disassembling, it can be split, and protruding nails can be easily removed.

Designs and their features

Scaffolding and scaffolding are used for different types of work. For work with light materials, too much load-bearing capacity is not needed. In such cases, add-on scaffolds or scaffolds-envelope are made.

For work on the gables or for exterior decoration of a low one-story house, construction goats are used, on the rungs of which the flooring is laid.

For laying brick walls, any building blocks, for finishing the facade with brick or stone – for all these works, full-fledged scaffolding is required.

As a rule, all these structures are not attached to the walls of the building, but are fixed with stops that support the racks. Let’s take a closer look at each of these structures.

Side scaffolding

They are called so because they are usually not attached to the wall, but simply lean against. They are held in place by a stop. The more this type of scaffolding is loaded, the stronger it stands. There are two designs, both of them are made in the form of the letter “G”, only deployed in different directions.

The figure on the right shows a simple and reliable scaffold design. Their only drawback is that they are not adjustable in height. Convenient, if necessary, for example, to hem roof overhangs, mount or clean a drain, all those works that have a small variation in height. Some even adapt such scaffolding for building a house from logs (beams). It is convenient to roll up or lift logs along the edges of the stops.

In the picture on the left, an envelope scaffolding or Armenian scaffolding. The design is simple and reliable, although it does not seem so. But it has already been tested on many thousands of houses under construction. It is attractive in that it requires a minimum of building materials; they can be assembled / disassembled / moved in a matter of minutes. The main thing is to make triangles, and setting it to a given height takes a little time: raise the triangle, support it with an inclined beam, which is fixed in the ground.

For the manufacture of triangles, a board 40-50 mm thick and 100-150 mm wide is used. The vertical part can be long – for it it is convenient to raise the scaffold to a given height. The upper crossbar is made with a length of 80-100 cm, flooring boards are laid on it. By the way, they are also 50 mm thick, and the wider the better, ideally also 150 mm.

In the manufacture of corners, the joint must be positioned so that the horizontal board is on top. To increase the reliability of this node, you can use metal lining in the form of a corner. But if the corner is fixed with the help of three jibs nailed on both sides, this is not necessary.

Such triangles are installed approximately every meter. If the facade allows, they are nailed; if not, they manage only by gravity. The main load in this design falls on the thrust board – the one that is placed at an angle and one end rests on the ground, the other – on the top of the triangle. These stops are made from a bar, a board with a thickness of at least 50 mm, a pipe of solid diameter (at least 76 mm) or a section (for a profiled pipe at least 50 * 40 mm). When installing the stop, it is placed exactly in a corner, hammered into the ground, additionally fixed by driving in wedges.

To exclude the possibility of lateral shift, the installed stops are fixed with several jibs connecting them into a rigid structure. For these jibs, you can use an unedged board, if any, but of sufficient thickness and width.

If it becomes necessary to grow the thrust boards (if they are needed more than 6 meters long), an additional emphasis is made for such a board. It rests approximately in the middle of the main one, removing part of the load.

Now a little about the flooring of these side scaffolding. It is made from a wide board 40-50 mm thick. In this case, it is desirable to fix them to the triangles, at least with self-tapping screws. This design does not provide for the presence of railings, and the slightest movement under your feet will cause increased discomfort. Therefore, fixation is highly desirable.

Wooden scaffolding: drawings and photos

The options described above are good if the job does not involve the presence of heavy materials. Also, it is not always possible to support scaffolding on a wall – any ventilated facade or a multi-layer wall – and you will not be able to install such a structure. In this case, full-fledged forests are made. Their construction is also not complicated, but a decent amount of lumber is required.

For their device, boards of considerable thickness are also used – 40-50 mm. First, the racks are assembled. These are two vertical beams or thick boards fastened with crossbars. The dimensions of the crossbars are 80-100 cm. They must be made on the basis that the minimum more or less comfortable flooring width is 60 cm. But you will feel much more confident if you have at least 80 cm. To give the structure greater lateral stability racks can be made tapering upwards.

Racks are placed at a distance of 1,5-2,5 meters. The span depends on the thickness of the boards that you will use for flooring – it is necessary that they do not sag. The racks installed at the required distance are fastened together with slopes. They will not allow the structure to fold sideways. The more crossbars and jibs, the more reliable the scaffolding is.

The crossbeams prevent sideways folding, but there is still the possibility that loose scaffolding could fall forward. To prevent this from happening, the beams are supported with jibs. If the height of the scaffold is 2,5-3 meters, this may not be done, but if you need to carry out work at the level of the second or third floor, such fixation is necessary.

If the work will be carried out at high altitude, it is advisable to make a railing. They can be made from a not very thick board, but there should be no knots, as well as cracks. Handrails will help those who are afraid of heights feel more confident at the top.

Construction goats

There is still a way to make light mobile scaffolding – to build the same construction goats, stuffing with a certain step the crossbars, which will be both a ladder and a support for the floorboards.

This version of scaffolding is good, for example, when sheathing a house with siding. Sheathing goes from bottom to top, the height has to be changed all the time, there is no way to lean or fix against the wall. Therefore, this option for such a case is the best.

Sometimes one rack on one side is made vertical, without tilt. This allows you to install them closer to the wall, the flooring is then located closer to the wall. In some cases, this is convenient – for example, when caulking, painting, preventive treatment.

Types and units of metal scaffolding

When building a house from stone, building blocks, metal scaffolding is more suitable. They are able to withstand any load. They are less popular only for the reason that in many regions wood is still the cheapest type of building material. The second point, which is often decisive, is that after dismantling the wooden scaffolding, the boards can be put into action – used in further construction. And metal parts should gather dust in the barn.

But metal scaffolding also has its advantages. When disassembled, they do not take up much space. The owners of wooden houses still have to use them from time to time: the log house requires maintenance, so once every two or three years, forests are needed. In this case, metal ones are more practical than wooden ones. They are easier to assemble, more durable and stronger.

All metal scaffolding has the same shape – vertical posts connected by crossbars and slopes. The only difference is the way the parts are attached to each other:

• Stud forests. They are called so due to the fact that the crossbars with the racks are connected using pins. Pipe sections or perforated disks are welded on the racks, and bent pins are on the crossbars. Such a system is assembled very simply, withstands heavy loads. It is very easy to implement pin scaffolding for buildings of a simple form, bypassing bay windows and ledges is much more difficult.
  

• Clamp. For racks and crossbars, round pipes are used, which are fastened together with clamps of a special design. The system turns out to be very mobile and mobile, you can easily bypass any curvilinear facades. Minus – limited load capacity and height (according to GOST – no higher than 40 meters).
  

• Frame. Frames of the same size are welded from a round or rectangular pipe. They are connected to each other by transverse pipes and jibs. They are modular and can be easily extended both in height and length. They have a certain step in length – 1,5 / 2 / 2,5 / 3 meters, one section is usually 2 meters in height, the standard depth is 1 m. Some frames have wheels – for easier movement on a flat surface. The connection of elements of the flag type – pins with a slot are welded on the frame, into which the flag is inserted. Holes are made in the crossbars and slopes. The elements are put on the pin, fixed with a flag. Sections are built up with the help of connecting pipes of smaller diameter, welded to the racks of the frames on one side. With this method, it is important to perfectly match the dimensions of the pipes so that there is no backlash.
  

• Wedge. With a general similarity, the designs differ in the form of the connection. On jays with a certain pitch (usually 2 meters), perforated discs are welded. On the jumpers at both ends special locks of the “wolf’s mouth” type are welded. The locks are fixed on the disc with a wedge of a special shape. Such scaffolds connect and disconnect quickly, have high mobility, and can be used on facades of complex shapes.
  

With self-manufacturing of metal scaffolding, pin scaffolding is most often made. They are the easiest to implement, however, they are good only on rectangular facades, to bypass more complex shapes, you have to weld additional tubes.