Scaffold Inspection Checklist

Who this scaffold inspection checklist is for

Four people depend on this inspection, and only one of them will ever read the sheet.

• The competent person inspecting it

  Your job is arithmetic as much as observation. Sections 2 and 3 ask you to count components against a specification rather than form an impression, because the defect that matters most is an absence and absences do not look like anything.

• Facilities or estates, as the duty holder

  You own the building the scaffold is attached to and usually the contract it was erected under. The number to escalate is alterations carried out by others, because that is somebody modifying a structure they did not design and cannot assess.

• Anyone who climbs it

  Section 5 is the one that protects you, and it only works if it is absolute. An untagged scaffold is not to be climbed, and the system fails the first time somebody senior steps past a red tag because it is only for a minute.

• The scaffolding contractor

  Alterations are yours alone, and the record of any alteration since erection is how that stays true. A structure changed by a trade who needed to get past is a structure now carrying loads nobody calculated.

Which section matters the most in your sector

The structure is assessed the same way everywhere. What changes is who else is on it, what gets stored on it, and whether the public is walking underneath.

• FM service providers

  Section 5. Facade and high level work in occupied buildings puts a scaffold where tenants, cleaners and other contractors all have reason to be near it, so public protection, barriers and who may climb are the lines that carry the exposure.

  FM service provider software
• Commercial real estate

  Ties, in section 3. Facade work on a let building runs for months, trades come and go through the structure, and the tie count on week eight is rarely the tie count on the handover certificate.

  Portfolio maintenance software
• Retail and malls

  Falling object protection in section 5. A scaffold over a trading frontage has people underneath it continuously, and brick guards, netting and the protection below the working area stop being a formality.

  Retail maintenance software
• Healthcare

  Access control. A scaffold on a hospital elevation sits beside windows, ventilation intakes and routes patients use, so preventing access matters as much for who must not get on it as for who may.

  Healthcare maintenance software
• Education

  The reason for inspection field. Campus work pauses for term dates and holidays, so a structure stands unused for weeks and then gets climbed again, and the inspection that matters is the one after that gap rather than the last one before it.

  Campus maintenance software
• Corporate facilities

  Loading bays and the duty rating. Scaffolds on office refurbishments get used for material storage because there is nowhere else to put it, which is the fastest way to exceed a rating erected for light trades.

  Corporate facilities software

What a scaffold inspection checklist should contain

A. Fields specific to a scaffold inspection checklist

B. What it looks like filled in

Five weeks on one facade scaffold, taken from the Inspection Log tab.

How do you inspect a scaffold?

One scaffold, one inspection. Start from the handover certificate rather than from the structure, because the whole method here is comparison rather than observation. Six steps.

1. Start with the handover, not with the scaffold

   Site and building, scaffold reference and location, purpose and the trades using it, type, who erected it and when, the design or drawing reference, and then the two fields everything else depends on: the handover certificate reference with its duty rating, and the reason for this inspection, whether that is before first use, weekly, after an alteration, after weather or after an impact.

2. Work the foundations and standards, and count the bracing

   Ten checks. Ground firm, level and able to bear the load, base plates and sole boards under every standard, nothing bearing on soft ground, tarmac or drain covers, standards plumb and correctly spaced with staggered joints, no missing or damaged components, couplers of the correct type and tightened, ledgers and transoms level and correctly spaced, ledger, facade and plan bracing all present and counted, and nothing removed since the last inspection.

3. Count the ties, and ask whether the structure has been clad

   Eleven checks. Ties present at the specified pattern and spacing, of the right type and tested where required, none removed or loosened since erection, through ties, box ties and anchors sound, facade attachments secure. Then the question that changes the calculation: sheeting or netting as designed rather than added since, with the additional loading accounted for. Outriggers and castors on towers, and the height to base ratio within limits.

4. Walk the platforms, looking for trap ends first

   Twelve checks. Platforms fully boarded with no gaps and no trap ends, boards sound and correctly supported without excessive overhang, secured against lifting in wind, guardrails at both principal and intermediate heights, toe boards along every open edge, brick guards where materials are stored, platform to structure gaps within limits, access by ladder, stair or tower correctly secured, gates and hatches closing, platforms clear of debris and ice, and loading bays signed with their limit.

5. Check the tag, and who is allowed to touch the structure

   Twelve checks. A tag at every access point showing status, inspection date and inspector, with the status matching the condition you actually found. A red tag or physical barrier on anything incomplete, access prevented where it is not fit for use, users briefed that an untagged scaffold is not to be climbed, alterations restricted to the scaffolding contractor with a record of any that have happened, duty rating signage displayed, public protection and lighting where needed, falling object protection below, and rescue arrangements understood.

6. Grade the defects, then escalate what somebody else changed

   Mark every defect Critical, Major or Minor. Critical means the scaffold is red tagged now and nobody uses it until it is corrected, whatever the schedule says. Then the result block: completion, ties specified against ties found with the percentage between them, alterations since erection and how many of those were carried out by others, and the status the scaffold is left in. Update the tag, tell the contractor and the users, and set the next inspection date.

The scaffold as handed over versus the scaffold in front of you

A scaffold inspection is not an assessment of whether the structure looks safe. It is a comparison between two things, and only one of them is in front of you.

When the template starts to feel limiting

One scaffold over a few weeks is manageable on paper. Several structures, several contractors, and a continuous weekly record is where it stops.

• The weekly interval is somebody’s diary entry

  Next inspection due is a date on a sheet filed somewhere. A scaffold that has gone eight days rather than seven, or that was never inspected after a weekend of wind, looks exactly like one that is current.

• Tie counts never line up against each other

  The number only means something as a sequence. Seeing that twenty-four became twenty-two became nineteen means finding three sheets and reading one cell from each, which nobody does while the scaffold is still standing.

• The tag and the record are separate things

  The tag on the structure says one thing and the paperwork in the site office says another, and the only point at which anybody checks that they agree is the inspection that just wrote both of them.

• Alterations by others never add up to a pattern

  One trade removing a brace is an incident. The same trade doing it on three structures is a briefing problem, and nothing about a folder of per-scaffold sheets will ever surface that.

What running this in Facilio looks like

Frequently asked questions