Falsework and Scaffold: Look into CIS23:2021

By Ts. Ling, Thomas Kiong, MIEAust., PMP, MMIM.

Often, we are confused with two, usually used interchangeably by the public when referring to them: scaffold and falsework. Scaffolds and falsework serve two very different purposes, although they look similar. Scaffold's primary goal is to create an elevated work platform for construction personnel to work on and, in some cases, might be designed to support some minor construction materials. The standard scaffold tube used for elevated platform erection is covered under MS 1462-1. However, when we look into the context of falsework, its primary function is to support a building during its construction or maintenance phase, especially during retrofitting work. Thus, different material standards are used to establish a falsework system; BS EN 12813, MS EN 1065, and BS EN 16031. Recent inspection activity by CIDB Enforcement has caught a contractor red-handed in which scaffold material is used to establish a falsework system in one of the projects in Shah Alam, Selangor.