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Lifts & Aerial Access

Aerial lifts and access equipment guide

Every job above eight feet gets done from one of four things: a scissor lift, a boom lift, a mast climber or a scaffold. Picking the wrong one costs a rental you did not need or a week of setup you could have skipped. These guides explain how the four divide the work, what they cost, and what the rules require before anyone goes up.

19–40 ft
Slab scissor lift platform heights
Four classes; 19 and 26 ft fit a standard door
30–185 ft
Boom lift platform heights
Articulating to about 150 ft, telescopic beyond
$100–150
A 19 ft scissor lift per day
About $300–450 a week
Always
Harness on a boom lift
29 CFR 1926.453(b)(2)(v)

The guides

6 guides, about 9,600 words, every one saying when scaffolding is the better answer.

  1. Worker in a boom lift basket working on the upper floor of a building under construction01Scissor lift vs boom lift vs scaffoldingFive questions, in order, that pick between a scissor lift, a boom lift and a scaffold for a given job.
  2. Yellow articulating boom lift parked beside an industrial building02Types of boom liftsArticulating vs telescopic, towable and rough terrain booms, with the heights and reach each class covers and how to read a model number.
  3. Yellow electric scissor lift with its guardrails up, parked outside a building03Scissor lift sizes and heightsThe 19, 26, 32 and 40 ft scissor classes with capacity, weight, width and door clearance, plus slab vs rough terrain.
  4. Row of scissor lifts in a rental fleet, ready for delivery04Aerial lift rental costTypical day, week and month rates for each scissor and boom class, the extras on the invoice, and the rent-or-buy break-even.
  5. Operator working from an articulating boom lift inside a large atrium05Aerial lift certification and trainingWhat lift certification actually is, what OSHA and ANSI A92.24 require of operators, occupants and supervisors, and what it costs.
  6. Orange boom lift basket raised against a clear sky06Aerial lift fall protection and safetyHarness rules for booms and scissors, the pre-use inspection, and the four hazards behind most aerial lift fatalities.

The four ways up, and what each is for

Access equipment splits into machines that carry a small platform to the work (aerial lifts, which the standards now call mobile elevating work platforms or MEWPs) and structures that put a large platform beside the work for as long as it takes (scaffolding). Within the machines, scissor lifts go straight up, boom lifts reach up and out, and mast climbers ride a mast fixed to the building. Each has a job it does better than the others.

Where each option fits, in the terms a superintendent uses
OptionBest forReachWeak spot
Scissor liftOne or two workers on a firm, level surface doing overhead or wall work that moves along: ceilings, MEP, glazing, painting, fit-out.Platform heights of 19 to 40 ft on slab models, 26 to 50 ft on rough terrain.Straight up only. Cannot reach over a parapet, a duct run or a machine.
Boom liftReaching over or around something: façades, steel, signage, tree work, anything above 40 ft.Platform heights of 30 to 185 ft; articulating booms bend around obstacles.One small basket. Slow for work that runs along a wall for days.
Mast climberMasonry, cladding and window work on a long, tall façade where crews and material stay up all day.Effectively unlimited with tie-ins; platforms 30 to 100 ft wide.Engineering and erection time; not for short jobs.
ScaffoldingContinuous access for several trades over weeks, material staging at height, stairs, enclosure, anything the machines cannot fit under or around.Any height with engineering.Erection and dismantle labour, and a plan.

The first guide, Scissor lift vs boom lift vs scaffolding, turns that table into a decision you can make on the phone with a supplier.

The six guides

  1. [Scissor lift vs boom lift vs scaffolding](/lifts-and-access/scissor-lift-vs-boom-lift-vs-scaffolding). The decision itself: reach, surface, duration, crew size and what each costs per week of access.
  2. [Types of boom lifts](/lifts-and-access/types-of-boom-lifts). Articulating vs telescopic, towable, rough terrain, electric vs diesel, and the platform heights each class covers.
  3. [Scissor lift sizes and platform heights](/lifts-and-access/scissor-lift-sizes-and-heights). The 19, 26, 32 and 40 ft classes, slab vs rough terrain, capacity, machine weight and door clearance.
  4. [Aerial lift rental cost](/lifts-and-access/aerial-lift-rental-cost). Day, week and month rates by machine class, the extras on the invoice, and when buying beats renting.
  5. [Aerial lift certification and training](/lifts-and-access/aerial-lift-certification-and-training). What OSHA and ANSI A92.24 require, operator vs occupant training, and what a card does and does not prove.
  6. [Aerial lift fall protection and safety](/lifts-and-access/aerial-lift-fall-protection-and-safety). Harness rules on booms, guardrails on scissors, the pre-use inspection and the mistakes that end up in incident reports.

Where scaffolding still wins

A lift is a machine that moves one small platform. A scaffold is a structure that holds a large one still. That difference decides most jobs. If the work runs the length of a wall for three weeks and three trades need to be up there at once, a frame scaffold or system scaffold costs less per worker-hour of access than any lift, and it carries the material too. If the work is a day of ceiling fixings in a warehouse, a 19 ft scissor lift is on the slab and working before a scaffold crew has unloaded the truck.

  • Several trades working the same elevation at once: scaffold.
  • Material stored at height, or a hoist landing: scaffold.
  • Enclosure, weather protection or containment: scaffold, with sheeting or shrink wrap.
  • Stair access for the public or for crews carrying tools: stair towers.
  • Soft ground, slopes or no room for outriggers where a lift cannot set up safely: scaffold.
  • Work that moves along or up and down all day with one or two people: lift.

Many of the suppliers on the map rent both. If you are not sure which you need, describe the job in a quote request and let two or three of them price it both ways.

The rules, in one paragraph

Federal OSHA regulates boom-type aerial lifts on construction sites under 29 CFR 1926.453, which requires training, fall protection tied to the boom or basket, and staying inside the rated load. Scissor lifts are treated as mobile scaffolds under 1926.452(w), so their guardrails are the fall protection and the scaffold training rule applies. In general industry the parallel rule is 1910.67. The industry consensus standards are the ANSI A92 series: A92.20 for how the machines are designed, A92.22 for safe use, and A92.24 for training, which is what a rental company means when it says your operators must be trained. The certification guide and the fall protection guide cover both in detail.

Start here

Suppliers, services and guides that pick up where this one stops.

Questions

Aerial lift questions

The questions contractors ask before renting a lift, answered in a few sentences.

An aerial lift is a self-propelled or towable machine that raises a small platform, one or two workers, to the work and moves it as the work moves. A scaffold is a structure erected beside the work that holds a large platform still for as long as the job takes, and can carry material and several trades at once.

Mobile elevating work platform, the term the ANSI A92 standards adopted in 2018 for what the industry still calls aerial lifts: scissor lifts, boom lifts and similar machines. Group A machines stay within the tipping line of the chassis (scissors); Group B extend beyond it (booms). Type 1, 2 and 3 describe whether and how they travel while raised.

For a day or a week of work by one or two people on a firm floor, a scissor lift is cheaper: about $100 to $350 a day with no setup labour. For continuous access over weeks, for several trades, or where material needs storing at height, scaffolding costs less per worker-hour once the erection cost is spread over the job.

There is no government licence. OSHA requires the employer to train each operator before use, and ANSI A92.24 sets what that training covers, including hands-on familiarization on the specific model. A wallet card from a training provider records that training; it is not a licence and does not transfer the employer's responsibility.

Often, yes. Many scaffolding suppliers in the directory also rent scissor lifts, boom lifts and material hoists, and they are used to pricing a job both ways. Filter the map for suppliers who list forklift and reach-lift rental, or send one quote request describing the work and let suppliers propose the access.

Rent the lift, or the scaffold, from a supplier who does both

Suppliers in the directory who list lift and reach-lift rental also rent and erect scaffolding, so one quote request can price the job either way.

Suppliers who rent lifts →Request quotes