What is a ladderspan tower?

Ladderspan towers became popular around 20-30 years ago as an alternative to the original stair tower which incorporated a stair unit between platform levels.

Originally a lot of the impetus for this was a cost saving exercise as stair units could be eliminated and some manufacturers also eliminated almost all of the intermediate platforms. The consequence of this is of course the greatly increased risk of a serious injury in the event of an operative falling from the ladder due to the greater distances involved.

This advantage has been significantly reduced by the improvement in standards and regulations over the years which mean that there is much less scope for omitting intermediate platforms.

Now users are broadly left with a ladder access - which is not terribly convenient compared to a staircase and a series of hatches to negotiate - also a needless inconvenience.

Scaffolders are being strongly encouraged to move from ladder to stair access on the grounds of the substantial safety benefits - we think there should be a similar move for tower users too (at least for double width towers).

The safety and workflow benefits are fairly obvious as far as we can see.