What is a stair tower?

When towers were first deployed, they were all stair towers. As the name suggests, they use staircases to gain access to various levels rather than ladders either built or clipped into the frames of the tower.

Ladderspan towers became more popular around 20-30 years ago as they involve a few less components and are consequently a little simpler to erect and are cheaper for hire companies to buy.

However, a ladder is intrinsically a riskier thing to use than a staircase - all other factors being the same. It is certainly pretty difficult to safely carry any tools or materials up a ladder in a tower and negotiate the hatch opening safely.

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.