Pins and Wedges used to secure Formwork

How it works is you drill a hole into the slab, put a steel pin into the hole, then use a timber wedge to secure the formwork hard onto the previously installed fiberglass pins which define the edge of concrete.

Formwork Tip

Drilling a hole slightly larger than the pin allows for the pin to be extracted with little or no effort. For example, if you are using a 12mm pin, then the correct drill bit is 14mm. If you are using a 16mm pin, then drill an 18mm hole, etc.

To any observer, the pins and wedges in these photos look normal, however, there was extra labour involved to extract the pins because the holes were drilled the same size as the pin.

Close-up of Pins and Wedges Method

Bozo

Too often I see formworkers smashing a 12mm pin into a 12mm hole

What happens next is the pin cannot easily be extracted, so then an angle grinder, grinder blades, full face shield, generator, a crane to bring the generator, fuel for the generator, power leads, lead stands, RCD box, etc etc, must be organized just to cut the pins off.

On big mining and civil construction jobs, this “small” job could take over a day depending on the availability of all the above tools, plant and equipment. For example, the crane could be busy with much higher priority jobs, so you get no generator until the crane is free.

To me it makes much more sense to simply keep some extra drill bits in the drill box!

And Worse – On some jobs, the specifications require that the tops of those cut off pins be sealed with special epoxy resins which supposedly prevents corrosion of the slab.

This too however is incorrect because only the top of the pin is sealed which means the slab will eventually corrode due to the fact that there is steel with less than the required cover. In reality, the concrete around the pin should be jack-hammered down to the required “cover” and then epoxy sealed.

Conclusion

Taking short-cuts is not necessarily quicker!

• There is no future in being a fraud by creating the illusion of getting the job done quickly. This form of bullshitting only works on the gullible, and on those who have not been around the traps of the building industry.
• There is no freaking point in creating more work on the job.
• Credibility really goes to the formworker who takes the time to think ahead.

The above conclusions do not only apply to formworkers, they apply to all construction personnel.

Normally, when the red light is flashing and the safety boom is down at a railway crossing, the intention is that drivers wait until the train passes, the safety boom raises and the lights stop flashing. However, some people are in a bit of a hurry and take the chance.

Truck Crossing Track whille Boom is Down

Yet another unsafe looking truck I saw while doing Bridge Formwork at Port Adelaide. It should be noted that this is not some quiet back street, but a very busy main road.

Dodgy Unsafe Looking Truck Load

Bids for Gold Coast Big Day Out Tickets

A Slap in the Face for Genuine Fans?

An old news article states that organizers of the 2007 Big Day Out have canceled tickets sold by Online Scalpers. Who do they think they are punishing? The article also says that ebay was taking legal action in the Federal Court over the Big Day Out’s new anti-scalping ticket policy.

Well as it turns out, ebay won the case because it was found that ticket conditions were misleading and deceptive under the Trade Practices Act.

The terms and conditions for the sale of Big Day Out 2009 tickets state that “the Promoter reserves the right to cancel the ticket without a refund”. Maybe they are going to hire more staff this year to police Online auctions and newspaper classifieds in order to catch buyers and cancel their tickets again

Imagine showing up to the Big day Out Music Festival all excited with genuine tickets that you have paid for, and the Promoters don’t let you in! Would you blame the scalper, or would you say that the Promoters of Big Day Out are against Free Enterprise?

Don’t get me wrong, I really do think it sucks that fans pay through the nose for scalped tickets. What gets up my nose is the backward way they go about trying to do something about it, by dissapointing genuine fans who paid through the nose!

People will be traveling from far and wide, from country and regional areas. I think these ticket holders are holders of genuine tickets and should not be punished due to participating in the Free Enterprise system.

The flip side of all this is if nobody ever buys tickets from scalpers, the scalpers themselves would stop buying the tickets.

Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth and Auckland Big Day Out Tickets are selling fast, so hurry, will see you at Adelaide If you are going to Auckland, these KIWI translations might come in handy.

While doing bridge formwork at Port Adelaide, I was surprised to see so many trucks with either uncovered and/or unsecured loads driving down the street. It became normal to see some kind of uncovered or unsecured truck loads almost daily while working on this job.

Unsecured and Uncovered Truck Load

This photo was quickly captured after another formworker saw some of the load fall off the truck.

In a previous post, we asked what was wrong with the mobile scaffold, but that pales in comparison to the following photo taken today at a Beenleigh construction site 37 KM south of Brisbane CBD.

Dodgy Mobile Scaffold

Yep, that’s somebody actually working up there.

Dodgy Mobile Scaffold Wheel

Don’t you love technology? Somebody in Queensland takes a photo, sends it to me here in South Australia and minutes later it is live on the World Wide Web. Thanks Joe

I just received this photo today. This V-Dub is transporting what looks like a full 6 meter length of roof guttering on a busy main road on the Southside of Brisbane. At least he did the right thing and attached a white plastic bag at the end

I hope it’s not heading towards the South East Freeway. Thanks Joe

Use scaffolding whenever there is a chance of falling from heights. Don’t feel under pressure to get up there without a scaffold just because the “concrete is coming”. You didn’t order the concrete, therefore it’s not your problem.

The laws for safe working heights differ from state to state, so remember that when you are working away from home.

Related Resources

• Working at Heights & Fall Prevention South Australia
• Work at Heights Guide Queensland
• Safety priorities for working at heights Western Australia

A Formworker built this work platform on top of a dodgy Guardrail around a Crane Base Penetration in order to do some Stripping and Back-Propping. Obviously he does not have the level of awareness required to work safely on high-rise construction sites. This is the result of poor training and supervision on behalf of the formwork company.

Dodgy Scaffolding and Guardrail Combination

What’s Wrong With This Scaffolding?

Firstly, some bloke comes along and erects a dodgy guardrail to prevent people and objects falling down the Crane Base Penetration, then some other guy comes along and builds a dodgy Work Platform on top of it. Criiiikey!

It is dodgy because the top Scaffolding Tube has a join with only one Post at each end and the Posts “wobble” because they are not anchored securely. This combination represents the danger of the two Scaffold Tubes separating at the join.

The Top-Rail in this situation should be one piece without any joins. When this is done on all four sides of the penetration, it makes a strong, rigid Guardrail protection for any square shaped penetration even if the posts are a bit wobbly (which they shouldn’t be).

Furthermore, the Sleeve-Coupler used to join the two pieces of Scaffold Tube is upside down. This type of Sleeve-Coupler should always be attached with the opening facing up and the bolts facing away from the user. The reason?

• Because the Sleeve Coupler is designed to be used that way.
• Because the Sleeve Coupler is stronger that way.
• The opening facing upwards provides a visual check-point to see if the Scaffold Tube is in fact inserted all the way into the Coupler.
• The bolts facing away from the user minimizes injuries.

Even if all the above corrections were made to this Guardrail, work platforms should not be built on top of guardrails anyway.

After reading about a killed worker as a result of being buried under wet concrete after a suspended slab collapsed, I wondered if some of us are too relaxed with our attitude towards Back-Propping.

The Do It Later Attitude

The photo below shows a small part of a formwork deck which in my opinion was done in a hurry due to the large number of incomplete Back-Propping assignments. This can only be the result of a flawed Work Method Statement.

Unsafe Back-Propping

You’ll notice that the Props are sitting on a flat timber which also needs to be propped before the concrete pour. The attitude here is “we’ll do it later”, or worse, “it’s okay” as it is. The problem with this attitude is that inside this maze of formwork frames, it can be very difficult to remember or spot all these important do-it-later jobs.

Often this do-it-later job is allocated to a Formworker experienced with spotting danger areas of a deck and back-propping accordingly. Too often this job is allocated too late only allowing time to insert the props, but not to tie them off with Scaffold Tube and Clamps (Fittings).

Top is Back Propped, bottom is Not

The other reason that this finish-it-just-before-the-concrete-pour attitude is flawed is because the deck will continue to be loaded with additional bundles of plywood, timber and steel well before the concrete pour day. Heavy compressors could also be landed on the deck along with big bundles of pipes for the concrete pump.

What this means is that it is possible to overload and collapse parts of the deck even before the concrete pour day if the Back-Propping is incomplete.

Do It Now

Never leave these Back-Propping jobs incomplete. Do them immediately and completely as you go. This procedure should be placed in the companies Work Method Statement in order to ensure that your supervisor or leading hand can not take you to another job before the Back-Propping is 100% complete.

Communicate

You should also communicate with the Deck Head informing them of the areas where construction materials should not be placed. Deck heads should also inform Doggers the correct way to lay the Dunnage/Gluts.

For example, the Dunnage should always go across several Joist timbers instead of longways in between the Joists where the loaded Dunnage could easily penetrate through the plywood. This mistake is made very often so keep an eye on beginner doggies with no formwork experience.

Secure Those Props

Too often props are not nailed at the top because there is simply no way to reach up there safely. A single prop on it’s own falling over can threaten life or limb as well as be responsible for the collapse of a formwork deck.

Even if the props are nailed to the Header, there is no guarantee that the Header is nailed properly to the Joists. For this reason, props should be secured with scaffold tube and clamps back to the frames which will ensure the props remain in the desired position.

Plan To Minimize Back-Propping

A lot of Back-Propping in the above pictured deck could have been eliminated altogether by planning the layout of the frames better. If frames are erected at the minimum required span or less, the need for Back-Propping will be reduced to a minimum.

Of course this method assumes that the formwork company does not take short-cuts by deliberately using lots of unnecessary props because there is a shortage of Frames. The general rule for this should be if a Frame can fit, put it in there.

Cause And Effect

Because every effect has a cause, be assured that it is somebodies fault that the worker engulfed in wet concrete was killed!