Masonry Magazine April 2005 Page. 20
ELEVATING SCAFFOLDING
John Cotton, a mason for 35 years, has been a field superintendent with ALL Masonry in Chicago for more than 15 years. "We own maybe 300 or 400 Non-Stop towers and some mast climbers, too. We usually set up our mast climbers mainly for very high work, but we recently had a job where we had to set scaffold on a roof and go up 289 feet with the brick. The point loads were way too high with the mast climbers, so we used our towers. It worked very well. We were also able to stock more material ahead since the load was spread out."
Concerning the difference between tower scaffolding and frames, Cotton says, "It's way faster and better. We use a lot less labor on the towers. Any time you keep a mason at a good working level, you'll get a lot more production. Anything four stories and under, especially if we are in tight quarters, we use the tower scaffolding, Going higher than that, since you're going to be on the wall a while, we start to use our mast-climbers along with towers."
One-time Setup
MONARCA DESCRIBES going from frames to elevating scaffolding: "There's no comparison. You set it up once and forget about it. You're done, all the way up. Instead of raising planks, you're laying brick. You save 20 minutes right there.
"Maybe it's easier to look at what your laborers are not doing on elevating scaffolding," he says. "They're not setting up and tearing down frames, they're not raising planks and outriggers, they're not rehandling materials, and they're not having to worry about resetting guardrails. Their only job now is to tend the bricklayers and crank it up. How could it be any easier?"
Sinclair Masonry in Wichita, Kan., has expanded its use of adjustable scaffolding to include all three of its crews. Says Foreman Alan Hansen, "We use two less laborers to tend eight bricklayers because we aren't raising planks and materials all day and building and tearing down frames. The laborers tend the bricklayers, and that's all. They crank for about three minutes and then tend for about 20 minutes. They just keep doing that until they top out."
Making the Change
MOST MASON CONTRACTORS started out as bricklayers working on the line. Over the years of growing their own businesses, they develop a "way of doing things" based on their own experiences in the field, and most of them began their careers on frames. Switching scaffold systems would seem like a major undertaking. So, how did they do it?
Monarca describes his crew's learning curve. "Working on it is a no-brainer. Everybody loves it. The only new stuff to learn is how to set it at the wall, how to move from wall to wall, and how to move it to the next job. It's easy once you see it done, but my guys had never seen it done. When the factory rep came out and walked us through it all, my guys caught on right away. It's different, but actually better. For instance, setting up in pairs of towers down the wall means you lay it out a little different, but it actually makes it a lot easier to set up scaffold in problem areas and corners. After a week, my guys never looked back."
Ricky Skinner, owner of Skinner Masonry in Dallas, used a novel approach to show his foreman the benefits of change.
"I worked on elevating scaffolding back when I laid brick for another company, and I knew it was the only way to go for my new company. But I had a foreman who was raised on frames, and that's all he wanted to use. You know how some people just don't like change. Well, I went out on his job and ran a crew myself with elevating scaffolding on the other side of the building. That gave him a chance to see how much faster we worked and how easy the scaffolding really was to use. That won him over."
Ricky's brother, Monty Skinner, tells of other benefits elevating scaffolding has brought to their job site operation. "Safety is one of the big things we watch out for. With this scaffold, the safety equipment is always in place and there's nothing to worry about."