Trench Work Site, Trench Shoring Equipment

You need to dig a trench at your work site, you will want to make sure that you properly shore up the walls to help promote safety and to ensure that you will not have to re-dig your trench. There are a couple of different trench shoring systems that you can use to help prevent the collapse of your trench walls, and matching the right equipment to the job is a must for safety and efficiency.

One of the easiest trench shore systems to use is hydraulic shoring in which hydraulic pistons are placed between steel plates or hard plywood sheets and then pumped outwards until they exert the proper amount of pressure on the trench walls. You can also find hydraulic trench boxes which are usually steel boxes with hydraulic pistons already attached. The hydraulic shoring system is generally used for temporary trench shoring and can sometimes be rented instead of purchased.

You can also use beam and plate trench shoring systems in which I-beams are driven into the ground to hold the metal plates against the sides of the trench. This method is usually used for larger excavations or over longer periods of time when hydraulics are impractical. For instance, if you need to use the open space in the trench to move equipment and personnel then you will probably not want to have horizontal hydraulic

presses spanning the top and bottom of the trench when a vertically placed beam can keep the walls secure. This method is also used for trenches with walls that are too far apart for most hydraulic pistons to reach.

Both of these trenching shoring systems, as well as other systems, will have their purposes, and the type of job you are doing will determine with method you use to shore your trenches. Since not every job is the same size or has the same requirements, you will want to evaluate each trench for the type of shoring system you will need to use. Make sure that the system you use can handle the weights and pressures applied to it, be safely installed and removed, and can be easily acquired.

You will not want to purchase a system and go to install it, just to find out that it is too big or too small for the job at hand. You can find systems to purchase and to rent, both online and in your local area, and many times these same companies will be able to offer you some advice and training so that you can better choose, install, and use your shoring system correctly and safely.