Location: A Surfers Paradise High-Rise Construction Site, Gold Coast Australia

You don’t need to be an Einstein to figure out where this washer should go on this 90 degree scaffold clamp. Obviously, it should go under the nut to prevent wear and tear of the clamp and to stop the nut possibly slipping through the slot.

Scaffold Clamp Fitted Wrong

This scaffolding is used as a guardrail in a high-rise stairwell. On this job it is the responsibility of the formwork company to install these guard-rails.

Instead of saying thanks, The bloke that did this job wanted to debate the issue with me when I gave him the free tip. Sometimes this is what happens when you cast your pearls among the swine. Blokes like this should pull the cotton wool out of their ears, put it in their mouth and harden up a bit.

Sure this scaffold clamp will probably hold, however, when the Client you are doing this work for continually sees stuff like this, they will perceive your company as being dodgy and using incompetent people. When I see a scaffold clamp fitted like this, I straight away don’t trust any other safety rectification work performed by the rogue agent.

Some say that the client rarely uses the stairwell because they use the personnel hoist instead. However, I know for a fact that many construction management people who primarily work in the site office frequently use the stairwell as a form of exercise.

For this reason, all safety rectification work should be quality controlled.

It is also not a “good look” to use gear which has not received any maintenance for a long time. For example, scaffold clamps with visible rust. The threads on scaffold clamps should be oiled well before they start to look like this.

If they don’t bother to service scaffold clamps, what else don’t they service – The Hydraulic Jump Form? The Hydraulic Slip Form? The Personnel/Material elevator?