Alta goes mobile to test new scaffolding planks

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Alta goes mobile to test new scaffolding planks
By Louise Small
Tuesday, 5 June 2012



A new business to help construction companies ensure their scaffolding meets health and safety requirements has received support from Invest NI.

Alta Scaffolding Solutions in Newry is a mobile scaffolding plank testing company which has been devised Paul and Rosaleen McCann.

The husband and wife team have invested over £100,000 of their own money in the venture and have received £30,000 from Invest NI.

The duo, with significant management experience within construction, have employed a business development manager and plan to employ a further five staff.

All new scaffolding planks used within the UK and Ireland must be tested to BS 2482:2009. The mobile service involves Alta Scaffolding Solutions taking the test equipment to the customer's place of work to carry out testing.

The company also intend to introduce a scaffolding repair service to coincide with the plank testing service.

Manager of Invest NI's southern regional office Mark Bleakney said: "This is an innovative business idea that has substantial export potential, particularly in the Republic of Ireland market."



Read more: Alta goes mobile to test new scaffolding planks - Business News, Business - Belfasttelegraph.co.uk
 
Surely you pay more to buy top grade boards , so if you decide to buy cheaper boards why would you then want to pay to have them tested , and where would it leave you if a large percentage of your boards failed , why dont the suppliers stop selling sub standard kit under the pretence of B.S standard , fittings that are stamped B.S but are made from rubbish materials , tube thats getting lighter then plastic , tin sheets you cant stand on , monoflex you can literally read the news paper through , the suppliers are buying in vast amounts and under cutting the genuine B.S suppliers and people will buy whats cheaper in these hard times. Good luck to these guys in the venture but i cant see people paying to have what they already know is not up to standard tested .
 
There is now a course about to be rolled out to qualify an operative on grading boards
It was mentioned at erith
 
Planks???

Feck sake. Boards. Wood!

Not a bad thing, but it's pretty simple to tell if a boards had it isn't it??
 
Flinty said:
Planks???

Feck sake. Boards. Wood!

Not a bad thing, but it's pretty simple to tell if a boards had it isn't it??
Click to expand...

ya never stood on a lapped board thats made you think youve lost about 3/4 inch in height and sound like a tug boat? lol i knwo i have ya can never really really tel but if in dout throw it out
 
shouldnt boards be tested 1 per every X amount in a batch???

i might be wrong but havent boards shrunk from 2 inch to 1 1/2 inch?
how are they still keeping to standard if theyve lost 1/4 of theyre depth?

---------- Post added at 11:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:53 PM ----------

**shouldnt boards be tested 1 per every X amount in a batch by the people who make/cut them?
 
I back this idea 100% best of luck to them. If it saves one life, then its worth it.
 
Ungraded Scaffold Boards

Flinty said:
Planks???

Feck sake. Boards. Wood!

Not a bad thing, but it's pretty simple to tell if a boards had it isn't it??
Click to expand...

I agree the obvious ones should be easy.
I have given many presentations to large scale contractors whose staff end up with a good understanding of the principles of grading scaffold boards. Admittedly some of the younger ones occasionally let their eyes close during the course ( hard shift the previous day?) but I have had many of the more senior guys who have been "doing the job" for years come up to me and say - thank you very much, you learn something new everyday. Didn't know that wood could be as interesting as that!

Also the ones where you might not be sure if "they have had it" i.e a borderline case, are more likely to be discarded. That is a cost to your company that trained staff might be able to keep to an absolute minimum whilst keeping safety as a priority.

Unfortunately the industry uses ungraded "Grade A" boards which may have defects from day one that someday may end up on the wrong place at the wrong time with failure as a result.

Graded boards with the appropriate 3rd party cert mark are safer (even they need checked after use and abuse!) but until the industry insists on them, companies like Alta Scaffolding Solutions and ourselves for that matter, should be considered to address the problem of the large number of ungraded boards in circulation.

Stay Safe.
 
Got to much time on there hands, how about a machine that picks up all the crap left round the scaffold!!! It's about time brickies and chippies came into the 21st century
 
allan666 said:
put one end on the back bumper of the wagon ,jump up n doon on it , if its still in one piece its sound
Click to expand...



There you go no need to spend money , allan maybe you could get a start going around he country jumping on firms boards to test them , could be a nice little earner mate ;)
 
Nice one Allan -
THAT will work but as i say these "large scale contractors" have a lot more at stake on having it going right - or perhaps I should say a bigger reason for proving their efforts on ensuring employee safety if ( heaven forbid) it goes wrong.

Make sure your employers are doing what is right by you.
 
woodexperts said:
I agree the obvious ones should be easy.
I have given many presentations to large scale contractors whose staff end up with a good understanding of the principles of grading scaffold boards. Admittedly some of the younger ones occasionally let their eyes close during the course ( hard shift the previous day?) but I have had many of the more senior guys who have been "doing the job" for years come up to me and say - thank you very much, you learn something new everyday. Didn't know that wood could be as interesting as that!

Also the ones where you might not be sure if "they have had it" i.e a borderline case, are more likely to be discarded. That is a cost to your company that trained staff might be able to keep to an absolute minimum whilst keeping safety as a priority.

Unfortunately the industry uses ungraded "Grade A" boards which may have defects from day one that someday may end up on the wrong place at the wrong time with failure as a result.

Graded boards with the appropriate 3rd party cert mark are safer (even they need checked after use and abuse!) but until the industry insists on them, companies like Alta Scaffolding Solutions and ourselves for that matter, should be considered to address the problem of the large number of ungraded boards in circulation.

Stay Safe.
Click to expand...

Cheers for the response. :)

Stepped on a board that split beneath me in the week, luckily I'm a ninja and somehow, though I don't know how, ended up still on the scaffold rather than crashing onto the concrete ground below me along with the pieces of the board. Think the yard boys could do with this so they don't send rubbish out!
 
Flinty said:
Cheers for the response. :)

Stepped on a board that split beneath me in the week, luckily I'm a ninja and somehow, though I don't know how, ended up still on the scaffold rather than crashing onto the concrete ground below me along with the pieces of the board. Think the yard boys could do with this so they don't send rubbish out!
Click to expand...

you were wearing your harness and cliped on my friend lol :laugh:
 
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