Scaffold enclosures are used in a variety of situations and as the cold winter weather arrives here in Canada, more and more enclosures are being erected. Enclosing a scaffold structure offers protection from rain, snow and windchills for personnel, gear, and can prevent weather delays. But there are serious safety issues that need to be addressed when installing scaffold enclosures.

Scaffold Sheeting is used for covering scaffolds and offers many jobsite benefits:

• Enhances the security & safety for the workers on the scaffold
• Serves as a climate shield to protects workers, machinery and open construction against the winter weather elements; rain, wind, snow etc.
• Ensures a stable working climate on the scaffold so deadlines can be respected regardless of the weather

Enclosing a scaffold structure has many benefits, but it also creates an engineering challenge when it comes to wind loads.  

Adding a tarp or sheet covering to a large structure can be dangerous without the right engineering. The tarp acts like a trap for large wind gusts and can turn your heavy metal structure into a giant sail creating a safety hazard for not only those working on site, but for all pedestrians, residents, and other building structures nearby. Like this one pictured below, from a few years ago in South West Norway. The structure was incredibly close to collapsing was a featured story in Scaffmag who reported that, amazingly, no one was injured.

It is for this reason that the Ministry of Labour in Ontario and Manitoba require that anytime you put a tarp or enclosure on a scaffold structure that it must be engineered to withstand wind loads. And we take this point of scaffold enclosures and wind safety seriously. All of Northstar’s scaffold enclosures are designed to meet and exceed these safety requirements.

Northstar primarily uses Monarflex Scaffold Sheeting, Shrink Wrap and the SAIL system when designing and installing scaffold enclosures for our customers. Each of these three products offer different benefits and engineering challenges, you can read more about these in our previous blog post on how to Winterize Your Job Site

Ready to enclose your project safety for the winter? Contact our team of experts today, your build is our business.