QEDSpecialist Scaffolding Services
Scaffold wrapping the arches of a Victorian railway viaduct over the Mersey at sunset
QED Specialist Scaffolding Services

Every scaffold starts as a doubt.

We turn it into a drawing, a calculation and a structure. Rail, heritage, commercial and residential scaffolding from one yard in St Helens. Family-run since 1995. RISQS rail-accredited for 13 years in a row.

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  • 1995Trading since
  • 13 yrsRISQS rail accredited, in a row
  • 80%+Operatives grown in house
  • ISO9001 · 14001 · 45001
Longevity

Thirty-one years. One yard. Still independent.

Q E D Scaffolding Limited was incorporated on 11 May 1995. Since then we have traded through recessions, industry downturns and COVID without changing hands, moving yard or losing our rail accreditation.

Most scaffolding companies have not been trading as long as we have held railway accreditation. That is not a boast. It is just a fact, and it is the reason tier-one contractors, Network Rail and heritage clients keep coming back to the same number.

  1. 1995Q E D Scaffolding Limited incorporated in St Helens. Family-run from the first day.
  2. 2014First RISQS railway accreditation. Audited and passed every year since.
  3. 2026RISQS passed for the 13th consecutive year, across CDM, Core Operational Railway Services and Sentinel. ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001 recertified through to 2029.
  4. NowOver 80% of our scaffolders came through our own apprenticeship. The next intake is already on the yard.
31years and counting
Fully scaffolded rail viaduct spanning a wide river, seen from the bank at low tide
Fleet and yard

The right wagon for the job. Every time.

A young, versatile fleet of HGVs and LGVs, including lorry-mounted cranes for loading and placing kit where a forklift cannot reach. Run from our own yard on Lock Street, with the stock behind it to start a job without waiting on a hire desk.

  • City-centre stations. Smaller wagons and lorry-mounted cranes that work inside a tight road closure, a station forecourt or a platform-side compound.
  • Remote lineside sites. Kit delivered to the access point, not the nearest lay-by, and placed by crane over fences, cuttings and parapets.
  • Big commercial drops. Full loads of tube, fittings, boards and beam from our own stock, on our own transport, on our own programme.
  • Reactive call-outs. A 24-hour reactive contractor, with our own drivers and a yard that is never short of what the job needs.
Scaffold over a station canopy beside live platforms
City-centre station: delivered and built from the platform side
Helicopter lifting scaffold materials to a tunnel ventilation shaft scaffold on open moorland
Remote lineside: when even the wagon cannot get there, the kit is flown in
What we do

Rail specialists. Not only rail.

The same gangs, the same design office and the same standards, whether the job is a possession on the West Coast Main Line or a re-roof on a semi in St Helens.

  • Parapet access scaffold on a rail overbridge in open country

    Rail

    Our core trade for over a decade of RISQS audits. Possessions and isolations, bridges and viaducts, parapets, stations and footbridges, 25kV bonded scaffolds in OLE areas, relay rooms, retaining walls and embankments. Reactive call-outs for Network Rail and its principal contractors.

    • Possessions
    • OLE bonding
    • Hung and cantilevered
    • Beam and bridging
  • Tall netted independent scaffold on the face of dockside concrete silos

    Commercial & Industrial

    Refurbishment, new build and framework work for main contractors, plus the awkward stuff: live hospitals, encapsulation, plant and pumping stations, silos, chimneys and lift shafts. Programme certainty and paperwork done properly, first time.

    • Frameworks
    • Healthcare
    • Encapsulation
    • Birdcages
  • Free-standing scaffold around the Music Room, a Grade II* listed building in Lancaster

    Heritage & Historic

    Listed buildings, historic stations and Victorian structures. No-fix scaffolds, through-ties and box ties instead of drilled anchors, and temporary roofs over interiors that cannot get wet. Designed around the fabric, not through it.

    • Grade I and II*
    • No drilled anchors
    • Conservation roofs
  • Inside a temporary roof: lattice beams and translucent sheeting spanning a flat roof

    Temporary Roofs

    Tube, lattice beam and CI sheet roofs built by hand, system roofs, rolling roofs that one operative can move, and kentledge held-down roofs where nothing can be fixed to the building. Sized by calculation for wind, snow and the odd passing train.

    • Lattice beam and CI sheet
    • Rolling roofs
    • Kentledge
  • Temporary stair tower with handrails giving access down a railway embankment

    Pedestrian Access & Stairs

    Stair towers, temporary walkways, footbridge access and walk-throughs that keep public routes, platforms and shop fronts open while the work goes on above them.

    • Stair towers
    • Covered walkways
    • Protection decks
  • Terrace of social housing in the North West, the kind of street QED re-roofs for housing associations

    Residential

    Housing association programmes, re-roofs and domestic work across the North West. The same crews and the same standards as the railway, scaled to a semi. Plain quotes, tidy sites, scaffold tagged and inspected.

    • Housing associations
    • Re-roofs
    • Domestic
What QED means

Quod erat demonstrandum.

That which was to be proven. The line written at the end of a mathematical proof. Our name is not an accident. It is the job.

  • 1Can you span that?
  • 2Can you tie into Grade II* masonry without touching the stone?
  • 3Can you work over a live line in a four-hour possession?

Then it becomes a drawing. Then a calc. Then a structure.
We draw it. We build it. We prove it.

Detail from a QED in-house scaffold drawing: hook tie and sole pad details with loads The finished structure: beam and bracket support under a viaduct access scaffold
DrawnProven

Drawn

In-house design and CRE. Our own designer holds CRE Construction and CRE Design competences, so most drawings never leave the building. For independent checks and the biggest temporary works we use specialist external temporary works engineers.

Calculated

Every scaffold is designed and checked to the current standards, with the load path proven before a tube goes up.

  • TG20:21 design guide and SG4:22 fall prevention
  • TG4 tie testing, proof-loaded on site
  • BS 5950 and Eurocode checks for wind, uplift and passing trains
  • Form C and independent design checks where the client needs them

Proven

Possession planning done properly: RAMS, task briefing sheets, erection sequences timed to the possession and isolation, and a gang that has done it before. Then the structure stands, the inspection tag goes on, and the doubt is answered.

Projects

Not all scaffolds go up.

Some hang. Some roll. One is a dam and one is a bridge. Nine recent jobs that show how we think. Select a project for more photos.
Accreditations

Audited. Every year. By everyone.

The certificates behind the stat strip. All current, all held in the company's own name, and all available in full to any client who asks.

  • RISQS certificate of audit for QED Scaffolding, expiry June 2027RISQSRailway Industry Supplier Qualification Scheme. Audited and verified, 13 consecutive years. Modules: CDM, Core Operational Railway Services, Sentinel.
  • NASC full membership certificate 2026NASCFull contractor member of the National Access and Scaffolding Confederation. It has to be NASC.
  • ISO 9001:2015 certificate of registrationISO 9001Quality management, UKAS accredited through World Certification Services, certified to 2029.
  • ISO 14001:2015 certificate of registrationISO 14001Environmental management, UKAS accredited, certified to 2029.
  • ISO 45001:2018 certificate of registrationISO 45001Health and safety management, UKAS accredited, certified to 2029.
  • CHAS Elite certificate of complianceCHAS EliteHealth, safety and compliance assessed against the Common Assessment Standard.
  • Constructionline Gold member certificateConstructionline GoldPre-qualified for public and private sector procurement.
  • CIRAS certificate of membershipCIRASConfidential Incident Reporting and Analysis Service member. Our operatives can raise a safety concern independently, at any time.
  • SSIP record of certification through NASCSSIPSafety Schemes in Procurement, assessed through NASC. Scope: scaffolding contractor.
NASC contractor member, RISQS, Constructionline, CIRAS and CHAS marks

CITB registered employer. CISRS-carded workforce. Railway competences held in house.

QED operatives at the top of an access stair beside the running line
People and apprenticeships

We don't hire scaffolders. We build them.

Over 80% of our current scaffolding workforce started with us straight from school and were taken all the way through to Advanced Scaffolder. The answer to the skills shortage is not to poach from competitors. It is to grow your own.

  • School
  • Part 1
  • Part 2
  • Advanced
  • CISRS
  • 80%+of scaffolders came through our own apprenticeship
  • PTSand the other railway competences our rail gangs need, held in house

We take apprentice intakes and work experience placements every year, and we are always looking for the next one. If you want a trade that is in demand on every job in the country, and a firm that will train you properly, get in touch. No CV needed to start the conversation.

Ask about apprenticeships
The team

The people who answer the phone.

One office, one yard, and the same names from first enquiry to final inspection. Each card links to their LinkedIn profile.

News

Updates go on LinkedIn first.

Job write-ups, apprentice milestones, audit results and the occasional plain-English explainer on how the trade works. Follow the company page, or Ian Ross, our Senior Contracts Manager, who writes most of it.

QED Specialist Scaffolding ServicesCompany page: projects, people and news Follow Ian RossSenior Contracts Manager: the write-ups and explainers Connect
Contact

One yard. One number.