Rigger
Moderator
Old School Scaffolders
Are men of a certain age, with skills and knowledge obtained throughout their life. These skills and knowledge are not limited to the scaffolding game but also include the hard lessons learned at the University of Life and the experience that only comes when you have gone through the mill a few times
My own experience in scaffolding, started at 18 years for Mills scaffolding think I did about 3 month in the yard before going out with a gang. The gangs comprised a chargehand, spanner man, and labourer normally. All the gangs were on price work but your presence was not deducted from the price, you were in effect an extra man at no cost to the gang. You were rotated around several gangs over the next three month or so. If you were a good grafter and did as instructed by the chargehand the gangs were all after you to be sent with them.
That’s when the real training started if it was heavy on the labouring you were on the deck feeding gear to the scaffs or pulling on a rope and wheel all day or loading unloading wagons It was the norm that on dismantles once the job was down the scaffs were off. It was up to the labourer to clear up. This encouraged him to keep up with the clearing of gear and not toss it off. Other times the chargehand would have you up top and explain what he was doing, have you spreading gear and if you were really lucky you might get to wrap the bottoms of dog-legs (did not know what a ledger brace was until 1995 ha ha ) or a few transoms.
From there on in you built your reputation as a scaffolder and believed in the old saying “your as good as your last job.” And did not ask anybody to do something you could not do yourself
To me Old School is about the in depth training we received from the scaffs of the day, the ability to look at an access problem and solve it without the dubious help of Designers, risk assessment, method statements, PPE, and all the knobs that have never been on a scaffold telling us how to do The a job
When the chargehand was in charge of the scaffolding erected and was responsible for his gang and there actions
When you were employed directly by a scaffolding or main contractor,
When employment agencies were for white collar jobs.
When jobs were advertised you expected to have at least 6 month work not the 2/3 weeks work that is regularly advertised today. Or with a scaffold company years of work
When there were not thousands of scaffold companies cutting each others throats and driving prices down and the risk of injury up.
When rope work, cradles, and system scaffolds were all part of our job description
I could go on forever; there have been that many changes over the past 40 years, but you will have to buy my book for more, when I finally write it.
To try and sum up, Old School to me is how we were taught the job, how we passed this on to others, how we were competent to tackle the job at hand, how we stuck together and backed each other up, how we treated others when we climbed the ladder through chargehand, foreman, supervisor, contacts manager, and owners in some cases.
I believe that there are scaffolders still being trained with the values and ethics of the Old School and I wish them well in their careers. The job is just as hard and demanding both physically and mentally today, as it was the first day I started. If not more so with all the “experts” in scaffolding that have never swung a spanner offering their advice at premium rates.
Are men of a certain age, with skills and knowledge obtained throughout their life. These skills and knowledge are not limited to the scaffolding game but also include the hard lessons learned at the University of Life and the experience that only comes when you have gone through the mill a few times
My own experience in scaffolding, started at 18 years for Mills scaffolding think I did about 3 month in the yard before going out with a gang. The gangs comprised a chargehand, spanner man, and labourer normally. All the gangs were on price work but your presence was not deducted from the price, you were in effect an extra man at no cost to the gang. You were rotated around several gangs over the next three month or so. If you were a good grafter and did as instructed by the chargehand the gangs were all after you to be sent with them.
That’s when the real training started if it was heavy on the labouring you were on the deck feeding gear to the scaffs or pulling on a rope and wheel all day or loading unloading wagons It was the norm that on dismantles once the job was down the scaffs were off. It was up to the labourer to clear up. This encouraged him to keep up with the clearing of gear and not toss it off. Other times the chargehand would have you up top and explain what he was doing, have you spreading gear and if you were really lucky you might get to wrap the bottoms of dog-legs (did not know what a ledger brace was until 1995 ha ha ) or a few transoms.
From there on in you built your reputation as a scaffolder and believed in the old saying “your as good as your last job.” And did not ask anybody to do something you could not do yourself
To me Old School is about the in depth training we received from the scaffs of the day, the ability to look at an access problem and solve it without the dubious help of Designers, risk assessment, method statements, PPE, and all the knobs that have never been on a scaffold telling us how to do The a job
When the chargehand was in charge of the scaffolding erected and was responsible for his gang and there actions
When you were employed directly by a scaffolding or main contractor,
When employment agencies were for white collar jobs.
When jobs were advertised you expected to have at least 6 month work not the 2/3 weeks work that is regularly advertised today. Or with a scaffold company years of work
When there were not thousands of scaffold companies cutting each others throats and driving prices down and the risk of injury up.
When rope work, cradles, and system scaffolds were all part of our job description
I could go on forever; there have been that many changes over the past 40 years, but you will have to buy my book for more, when I finally write it.
To try and sum up, Old School to me is how we were taught the job, how we passed this on to others, how we were competent to tackle the job at hand, how we stuck together and backed each other up, how we treated others when we climbed the ladder through chargehand, foreman, supervisor, contacts manager, and owners in some cases.
I believe that there are scaffolders still being trained with the values and ethics of the Old School and I wish them well in their careers. The job is just as hard and demanding both physically and mentally today, as it was the first day I started. If not more so with all the “experts” in scaffolding that have never swung a spanner offering their advice at premium rates.
