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Scaffold area

How to calculate scaffold area (m²)

Scaffolding is often priced and rented per square metre. This page shows how the scaffold area is measured, how it differs from the wall area, and the numbers for ScaFix’s example house, worked out by the same engine as the app.

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Layher Blitz scaffolding around a house of 11.4 × 5.3 m with a gabled roof (eaves 4.5 m, ridge 6 m), drawn by the ScaFix 3D model
Layher Blitz around the example house, as ScaFix draws it in 3D.

How do you calculate the area of a scaffold?

Scaffold area is the scaffold’s elevation: the length of the scaffold along the wall times its height from the ground to the top of the scaffold, wall by wall. On ScaFix’s 11.4 m × 5.3 m example house with Layher Blitz, the walls measure 158.25 m², but the scaffold covers 210.36 m², because it runs past the corners and stands above the eaves.

Step by step

  1. Measure each wall: its length and its height (to the eaves, or to the ridge on a gable).
  2. Take the scaffold’s length, not the wall’s: whole bays, including the corner bays where two walls meet.
  3. Take the height from the ground to the top of the scaffold, not to the top deck.
  4. Multiply length × height for each wall. On sloping ground each bay is a trapezium: use its mean height. On a gable, measure the scaffold’s own top, which is often level and below the ridge.
  5. Add the walls together. That is the scaffold area in m².

Example: the walls of the example house with Layher Blitz

ScaFix’s own example house, 11.4 m × 5.3 m, eaves 4.5 m, ridge 6 m, scaffolded all round. The mean height is the scaffold area divided by the scaffold length.

Wall area and scaffold area per wall, example house with Layher Blitz
WallWall areaScaffold lengthMean heightScaffold area
Wall 151.3 m²12.28 m5.71 m70.12 m²
Wall 2 (gable)27.82 m²6.14 m5.71 m35.06 m²
Wall 351.3 m²12.28 m5.71 m70.12 m²
Wall 4 (gable)27.82 m²6.14 m5.71 m35.06 m²
Total158.25 m²210.36 m²

Wall area or scaffold area?

The wall area (158.25 m² here) is the facade itself, gables included. The scaffold area (210.36 m²) is what the scaffold covers: longer at the corners and higher than the eaves.

Prices per m² can be based on either. Say in the quote which area the price uses, and check the measuring rule in your contract.

Close-up of the corner where the long wall and the gable wall meet, with Layher Blitz standards, decks, guardrails and toe boards in the ScaFix 3D model
The corner: the bays of the two walls meet, with deck, guardrail and toe board on each lift.

Limits

  • The number of wall ties follows the system's tie rule. Their positions must be checked against the manufacturer's assembly instructions.
  • Round corners, silos and hanging scaffolds are in Pro. A round scaffold is not a standard configuration and needs a calculation or the supplier's documentation. A hanging scaffold (Layher Allround and HAKI Universal) always needs a structural calculation from the supplier or an engineer.

Questions and answers

How do I calculate scaffolding square metres for one wall?

Multiply the scaffold length by the height to the top of the scaffold. On the example house, the first long wall has 12.28 m of scaffold with a mean height of 5.71 m, so 70.12 m²; the wall itself is 51.3 m².

Is the scaffold area the same as the wall area?

No. On ScaFix’s example house the walls are 158.25 m² and the scaffold is 210.36 m². The scaffold is longer than the wall at the corners and reaches above the eaves.

Does ScaFix work out the scaffold area?

Yes. ScaFix shows the wall area and the scaffold area for your own walls in every plan (Basic Light, Basic and Pro), next to the parts list.