California Bracket Scaffold Plank Requirements
California requires not less than two 2 x 10 inch nominal size planks on a bracket scaffold platform. The planks must extend not more than 18 inches and not less than 6 inches beyond each end support. This is set by 8 CCR 1645(e)(5).
The federal minimum is a single 12 inch wide platform. California's is wider and more specific, and a crew working to the federal number is out of compliance here. This page covers what the California rule requires, why it differs, and what it means when you are buying plank for a top plate bracket scaffold.
What does 8 CCR 1645(e)(5) require?
"The platform shall consist of not less than two 2- x 10-inch nominal size planks extending not more than 18 inches or less than 6 inches beyond each end support."
8 CCR 1645(e)(5)
Section 1645 governs outrigger and bracket scaffolds. Subsection (e) covers carpenters' bracket scaffolds, the family that includes the top plate bracket scaffolds used to set trusses and sheath roofs on wood frame buildings.
Why is the California rule different from the federal one?
Federal OSHA sets a minimum platform width of 12 inches for ladder jack, top plate bracket, roof bracket and pump jack scaffolds. California does not express the requirement as a width at all. It specifies the plank: two of them, 2 x 10 nominal.
A nominal 2 x 10 measures roughly 1.5 by 9.25 inches actual, so two side by side give a platform around 18.5 inches wide. The practical effect is a platform half again as wide as the federal minimum, built from a plank size a framing crew already has on the job.
How much overhang is allowed past the bracket?
Between 6 and 18 inches beyond each end support. Both ends of that range matter. Less than 6 inches and the plank has too little bearing and can slip off the support. More than 18 inches and the unsupported end behaves like a diving board under a worker's weight.
Does the plank have to be secured?
On a Wall Walker top plate bracket scaffold, yes. Plank brackets are included with each pair of brackets and clamp the plank to the horizontal arm. Whatever system you are using, an unsecured plank on a bracket scaffold is a plank that can shift when someone steps onto the overhang.
What about plank grade?
Wall Walker's own specification permits up to a 20 foot OSHA grade aluminium plank per pair of brackets. If you are running timber, use scaffold grade plank rather than framing lumber pulled off the stack. Bracket spacing on the Wall Walker system must not exceed 8 feet once the platform is more than 10 feet above the level below, which also keeps guardrail post spacing inside 8 feet.
Where this sits in the wider rule
Scaffolding is the first compliance method listed in 8 CCR 1716.2(e)(1), which since 1 July 2025 has applied at 6 feet on wood frame framing in California, including multi-family and light commercial work. A bracket scaffold only counts as scaffolding if it is planked to the standard. See fall protection for framing in California for the full picture, and bracket scaffold load limits for how many people and how much material the platform may carry.
Written by Matthew Horovitz — Competent Person, former OSHA 500 authorized construction outreach trainer, 20 years in risk management. M Squared Safety Solutions, Inc., San Clemente, California. Published 28 August 2026; reviewed against the operative regulation text on the same date.
M Squared Safety is the exclusive California distributor for the Wall Walker top plate bracket scaffold system. We write and rebuild fall protection plans for framing contractors, train crews and foremen, and supply the equipment that makes the plan workable on a frame. Consulting covers Southern California from Ventura County to the Mexico border; equipment ships across the U.S. and Canada.
Questions on a specific frame? Call 949-954-6581 or see Framing Scaffolding Solutions.