Things You Can Do With Reclaimed Scaffold Boards

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Reclaimed scaffold boards are perfect if you fancy taking on a creative new challenge and if you are looking to build a new piece of furniture or would like to add some authentic finishing touches to your home.

Other than just being used as a working platform, scaffold boards have a number of other uses. A simple search on Pinterest demonstrates some of the creative, aesthetically pleasing and cost-effective projects out there. From indoor projects including shelving and tables, to outdoor projects including decking and flower beds, scaffold boards can be used in so many different ways.

At home

Reclaimed scaffold boards are versatile, easy to work with and can be used to create all sorts of furniture in your home.

Flooring

Reclaimed scaffold board is a cheaper alternative to your average wooden floorboard. Depending on your desired style, they can be sanded down, treated or varnished providing a hardwearing flooring option for your home.

Shelving

Simple scaffold board shelving adds an authentic, urban feel to any room. To make single row shelving, simply cut the board to your desired size and depending on the look you’re going for, sand and stain it before fixing it to the wall.

Building a bookcase out of scaffold board would also be a great addition to match your shelving.

Tables

It is relatively easy to build tables from scaffold board, whether you’re looking for a large dining room table, a new desk or a coffee table for your living room. The design options for a scaffold board table in your home are endless! You may be looking to create a bench-style table, a box-shape table without legs for your hallway or a stylish dining room table with legs made from a different material of your choice.

Kitchen worktops

Using scaffold board for your kitchen worktops creates a rustic appearance; a look that can be difficult to achieve with shop-bought products.

TIP: Make sure you slightly over calculate the amount of scaffold board you need for this project to ensure you have enough to complete it.

In the garden

Scaffold board has a variety of uses in your garden too. For outdoor use, reclaimed scaffold boards can be left untreated for a more natural aesthetic.

Decking

Either new or reclaimed scaffold boards can be used to create a long-lasting decking area. Your decking area can be built in all shapes and sizes to correctly fit your garden and can even be a raised area with steps.

Pergola

Scaffold boards are perfect for creating a beautiful pergola in your garden, providing a spacious outdoor living area. A pergola also creates a great habitat for creeping plants, such as vines.

If you have any extra material left over, you could also build an outside bench-style seating area to put under your pergola.

Raised flower beds

Reclaimed scaffold boards can be used to create a simple border around your flower beds or raised flower beds. These are ideal for planting flowers and plants, as well as for growing fruit and vegetables if you are a keen gardener.

You could also build planters and pots using scaffold boards; a far more cost-effective alternative to shop-bought garden accessories. Scaffold board can also be painted so you can add a finishing touch to your scaffold board planters to suit the design of your garden.

Get in touch

At Gilray Plant, our board grading process rejects approximately 5% of the total throughput due to it not being suitable for use on scaffolding. Using reclaimed scaffold boards around the house is a great way to recycle reject boards.

Our reclaimed scaffold boards can be used for furniture, flooring and flower beds in your garden; their uses are endless! Call 01322 442006 for more information.

Sustainability in Scaffolding

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When, in 1970, Joni Mitchell sang about how “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone/They paved paradise/And put up a parking lot”, she was way ahead of her time.

The world’s economies ploughed on regardless in a headlong rush for ever greater development.  Here in the UK, we have now reached the stage where the construction industry is directly associated with 10% of the country’s carbon dioxide emissions; and is the generator of 32% of all landfill waste.

Only now, nearly half a century after Joni’s lament, is the realization dawning in the construction world that buildings and the processes used to create them – such as scaffolding – need to be sustainable i.e. we need to be able to meet current demands for housing and office space whilst at the same time supporting the environment in the long term.

Websites abound that give advice on strategies as how to reduce the level of CO2 produced during construction. There is research into exciting technical innovations such as self-healing concrete.  But optimizing the use of less polluting existing materials is an obvious step that can be taken immediately to aid in greenhouse gas removal.

The Government’s Clean Growth Strategy states it will work with industry to increase the amount of “timber used in construction, creating a conveyor belt of locked-in carbon in our homes and buildings”.

And therein lies the clue: when it comes to scaffolding and responsible procurement, your best eco-friend is the humble scaffold board.

Sustainability, rather than exploitation and depletion, is a key factor in the timber industry.  In his book Sustainable Use of Wood in Construction, Jim Coulson points out that in the managed softwood forests of Europe and North America, trees are planted on a ‘three for one’ basis.  Thus, for every one harvested tree, three more are planted.  And indeed, in the Czech Republic – a source of high-quality lumber – the principles of renewable forest management have been applied since the 18th century.

During its life cycle, a European spruce spends its growing life absorbing carbon dioxide.  When it is felled to become a scaffold board, three other trees get planted and the board becomes a store of locked-away carbon.  And at the end of its use on a scaffold, it can recycled into furniture or raised garden beds; or chipped and used to generate biomass power.

How do you check your boards are coming from sustainably managed forests?

Easy: ask your suppliers for their Chain of Custody certificate.  Then check its validity on the PEFC and FSC websites.  But please note – to meet the UK government’s Timber Procurement Policy, purchasers of wood must not specify one or other of these schemes – they must simply stipulate ‘Chain of Custody Certified Timber’ because both PEFC and FSC are deemed to provide equal and valid proof of sustainable sourcing.

Having satisfied yourself that you are buying a carbon-neutral material from a regulated source, the next consideration is the safety of your scaffolders and other site workers.

Have the scaffold boards – that workers will be treading on at height – been made to BS 2482:2009?  And have they been strength-graded, not merely X-rayed?

The boards should be being passed through a Cook-Bolinder or Computermatic stress-grading machine.  These machines, unlike an X-ray machine, will detect problems with slope of grain or compression wood and reject the boards accordingly.

If you follow the steps outlined above, you will have a safe and sustainable platform from which to work.  And your company will have helped in a small way to save, not pave, paradise.