Modern day scaffolding standards, practices and processes can be attributed to these men and their companies: Rapid Scaffold Tie Company Ltd, Tubular Scaffolding Company and Scaffolding Great Britain Ltd (SGB).

The process was revolutionized by Daniel Palmer Jones and David Henry Jones. Scaffolding was erected by individual firms with wildly varying standards and sizes.

Reconstruction of Buckingham Palace in 1913, under the scaffolding of Patent Rapid. Early scaffolding was made of wood and secured with rope knots. Egyptians, Nubians and Chinese are also recorded as having used scaffolding-like structures to build tall buildings. The Berlin Foundry Cup depicts scaffolding in ancient Greece (early 5th century BC). Sockets in the walls around the paleolithic cave paintings at Lascaux, suggest that a scaffold system was used for painting the ceiling, over 17,000 years ago. Specialized components used to aid in their use as a temporary structure often include heavy duty load bearing transoms, ladders or stairway units for the ingress and egress of the scaffold, beams ladder/unit types used to span obstacles and rubbish chutes used to remove unwanted materials from the scaffold or construction project.

Brackets, used to extend the width of working platforms.

Scaffold tie, used to tie in the scaffold to structures.

Coupler, a fitting used to join components together.

Batten or board decking component used to make the working platform.

Brace diagonal and/or cross section bracing component.

The transom, a horizontal cross-section load-bearing component which holds the batten, board, or decking unit.

The standard, the upright component with connector joins.

A base jack or plate which is a load-bearing base for the scaffold.

Each type is made from several components which often include: These are tube and coupler (fitting) components, prefabricated modular system scaffold components, H-frame / façade modular system scaffolds, suspended scaffolds, timber scaffolds and bamboo scaffolds (particularly in China and India). There are six main types of scaffolding used worldwide today. Scaffolding is also used in adapted forms for formwork and shoring, grandstand seating, concert stages, access/viewing towers, exhibition stands, ski ramps, half pipes and art projects. Unsafe scaffolding has the potential to result in death or serious injury.

Scaffolds are widely used on site to get access to heights and areas that would be otherwise hard to get to. Scaffolding, also called scaffold or staging, is a temporary structure used to support a work crew and materials to aid in the construction, maintenance and repair of buildings, bridges and all other man-made structures. Scaffolding for rehabilitation in Madrid

Definition of scaffold