Kwikstage on a 10 m wall: how many boards, transoms and standards?

Before you rely on this guide

This guide summarises published rules to help you plan and is not legal advice. It has not been reviewed by a qualified scaffold designer or engineer. ScaFix is a planning aid, not structural approval: the manufacturer's instructions, the scaffold design and a competent person's inspection decide what is built and used on site.

How does a 10 m wall split into Kwikstage bays?

Kwikstage ledgers in ScaFix come in 3.05, 2.44, 1.83, 1.27 and shorter lengths. Three 3.05 m (10 ft) bays would leave the wall ends short; four would run 2.2 m past. The engine uses 4 × 2.44 m, 9.76 m in all (about 32 ft): close to the wall, and every ledger, guardrail and toe board the same length.

The scaffold is 0.76 m (2 ft 6 in) wide between standards. At 6 m high it has two working lifts, at 2.6 m and 4.6 m; at 8 m a third one.

Parts list: Kwikstage, 10 m wall, 6 m high

Computed by ScaFix’s engine for exactly this job, with the system’s own bay lengths and rules. Corners are in the list only where the job is a whole house; openings, sheeting, hoists and loading bays are not. The manufacturer’s instructions decide: this is a planning aid, not structural approval.

How do the boards, transoms and standards add up?

Five standard lines (four bays plus one), with an inner and an outer standard in each, explain most of the list:

• Standards: 5 lines × 2 × 2 lifts on the 6 m wall, plus a top length on each standard so the outside standards rise above the top platform for the guardrail. Waco Kwikform’s Australian guidelines (PPM51) say the outside standards must extend at least one metre above the platform (Waco Kwikform PPM51, p. 3).
• Transoms: one per standard line at each ledger level, base included. Boards sit on the transom flanges (Waco Kwikform, p. 2).
• Ledgers and guardrails: ledgers on both faces at each level, and guardrail and mid-rail on the open face of each working lift. ScaFix also rails the base bay for longitudinal stiffness.
• Boards: ScaFix counts one deck unit per bay and lift (9 on this wall, 2 with a ladder hatch). If you board with individual scaffold boards, multiply by the number of boards your transom takes side by side.
• Toe boards: one per bay on each working lift, 8 here, fixed to the standards with toe board clips.

Each new lift goes no more than 2 m above the last level of ledgers and transoms unless designed otherwise (Waco Kwikform, p. 3); that is why the lifts here are 2 m apart.

Parts list: Kwikstage, 10 m wall, 8 m high

Computed by ScaFix’s engine for exactly this job, with the system’s own bay lengths and rules. Corners are in the list only where the job is a whole house; openings, sheeting, hoists and loading bays are not. The manufacturer’s instructions decide: this is a planning aid, not structural approval.

Where should you check your supplier’s guidance?

Kwikstage is built by several manufacturers, and their tables differ. ScaFix’s Kwikstage rules are general ones, not one maker’s, and two lines in particular need checking against the guidance that comes with your kit:

1. Ties. The tie group above is marked as an estimate (≈). The engine places ties at every second standard and every 4 m in height. Waco Kwikform’s guidelines for scaffolds up to 20 m tie the first standard at each end and then at intervals not exceeding every third standard, at no more than 4.0 m above the foundation and then at no more than 4.0 m vertical spacing, preferably staggered. They also set a minimum of 600 kg push-in and pull-out per tie and say reveal ties must not be used (Waco Kwikform, p. 5). The engine’s count is the denser of the two.
2. Braces. The same guidelines put diagonal braces on the outside face at each end bay and every third bay, and laterally at each end (Waco Kwikform, p. 2). ScaFix uses its general rule of one brace per five bays, which gives 2 on this wall. If your supplier follows the end-bay-and-every-third-bay rule, add braces to match.

Kwikstage on a 10 m wall at four heights, and on 12 m

Same system, same engine. The 12 m row shows the engine switching to longer ledgers.

Which UK rules sit on top of the list?

• Guardrails and toe boards. The Work at Height Regulations 2005 require the top guardrail at least 950 mm above the edge, an intermediate guardrail so that no gap exceeds 470 mm, and toe boards suitable and sufficient to prevent the fall of people and materials (SI 2005/735, Schedule 2).
• Design and inspection. HSE expects system scaffolds to be erected to the manufacturer’s instructions, with a design for anything outside them, and inspected after installation, at intervals of no more than 7 days, and after events such as high winds (HSE: Scaffolding).
• Not TG20. NASC TG20 covers tube and fitting. A Kwikstage scaffold follows its supplier’s guidance, or a design.

What is not on the list?

• Corners, returns and hop-up brackets.
• A loading bay, a ladder access tower or a stair.
• Sheeting and netting, and the extra ties they need.
• Sole boards under the base jacks, and transport.

Draw your wall in ScaFix, choose Kwikstage, and the app produces the 3D model and the full parts list with the same rules.

This is a planning aid, not structural approval. Your supplier’s guidance, HSE guidance and a competent person’s inspection decide how the scaffold is built and used.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

Primary sources used for this article, with the date each was read.

• Waco Kwikform, Guidelines for the safe use of Wedgelok / Kwikstage scaffold (PPM51, August 2013) (read 25 October 2026)
• The Work at Height Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/735), Schedule 2 (read 25 October 2026)
• HSE: Scaffolding (read 25 October 2026)