catching gear

paul

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Whats the legal stand on passing gear down a scaffold or as most of us do is catch gear from three lifts or more , reason i ask is i had a propper ass kicking from the manger as we were stripping a ten lifter but there was four of us so to get the gear down we dropped it to each other through the scaffold and it works the other way round as in throwing gear up from the ground , we all do it whether its fittings or short tube
 
It should be passed hand to hand , but what do you do so as not to be double handling . I have been catching gear for years just to avoid stacking it on lifts and passing it down again . It`s easy for non productive guys to say don`t do it but I can assure you sometimes it is unavoidable .As for the legal side it goes without saying , NOT LEGAL .
 
Paul,
I have a feeling you knew the answer before you asked ;)

Scaffarobbo
"It`s easy for non productive guys to say don`t do it but I can assure you sometimes it is unavoidable .As for the legal side it goes without saying , NOT LEGAL ."
Don't take this the wrong way,

No action you take is unavoidable you make the choice and it is you who will end up in court if the sh*t hits the fan.By non productive guys I assume you mean guys on an hourly rate as opposed to price work.I believe that there should be a relistic legal minimum rate for laboures,trainees,part 1 and 2, and advanced scaffolders to reflect the training they have recieved (many at there own expense) and be treated as the true professionals they are

The sooner price work is made illegal for scaffolders the sooner all manner of bad practice will be eradicated from the industry.There are a lot of other ways to calculate wages to be paid and the supervision of labour.

Safety and rushing aroud like a blue ars*d flies has never been compatable, I do not blame the scaffs for trying to make a decent living more the companies that drive the men for more and more production The scaffold sector is now so fragmented that its a dog eat dog world when trying to secure contracts
 
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Once again this site has amazed me with guys saying i have done it like this for years. Get rid of price work and start complying with regulations this will stop the cowbows out there and give the guys who want to work safetly a better rate of pay coz at the end of the day they are the pro`s
 
its 2010, not 1970... Hand-balling, double hand-balling, do exactly what it says on the tin and you won't fall foul..
 
Regardless its classed as bombing wether downwards or upwards .... its your careers .....

If the boss ask's you to do ask for it in writing and to be written into the method statement and watch his/her face......
 
Nice one Steve,

H&S is a double edged sword,with most of the duties on employers or principle Contractor
 
I can not see a prob doing it as long as the area is closed off and all the scaffs are happy to drop-catch. I always make sure I have eye contact and the person is ready to catch and never been any probs... but yes with the way H&S is these days......
 
We used to catch 5fts from 5 to 6 lifts when I started.

Now I tend to teach my guys "if you can do it" 2 to 3. I don't see any problem with 2 lift drops, again as in previous has to be controlled. I had 1 second spanner who clapped when ready.

I know in this day & age we will be stopped, but I see roofers throwing slates to each other & they are not stopped!!

Fittings in a bucket, take your lorry strap up & lower them with it. Lands them on the ground & the hook comes off. 1 man operation perfectly safe!!


Ragscaff:wondering:
 
We used to catch 5fts from 5 to 6 lifts when I started.

Now I tend to teach my guys "if you can do it" 2 to 3. I don't see any problem with 2 lift drops, again as in previous has to be controlled. I had 1 second spanner who clapped when ready.

I know in this day & age we will be stopped, but I see roofers throwing slates to each other & they are not stopped!!

Fittings in a bucket, take your lorry strap up & lower them with it. Lands them on the ground & the hook comes off. 1 man operation perfectly safe!!


Ragscaff:wondering:

If you have seen my album ''commonwealth games 2002 '' you will see that job had a lot of fittings so we had 3 builders rubbish chutes ( 1 on each section of the stand) the chutes went right into a multi-lift drop bed ,we were told go a metre high and fill the 22' bed !!
 
worked for years catching gear on the street and dropping it when i was on the tools..with no problems..but a mate of mine did losse a bit of his little toe when a 6 ft tube went thro his hands , he did not relise he had done owt till he took his trainers off..
but times have changed, even more so offshore as lads out here will tell you.. you take a big risk doing it out here thats for sure.as if you get caught it aint just you back to the beach it will most likely be the whole squad of you..they call its for re-training...but its normaly the sack....

not worth the risk any where these days...
 
Cowboys or pro's we have all done one time or another . When i worked in Bristol i was sent to give a gang a hand stripping a job and this gang was the so called top gang on the firm as the boss trusted them with all the high profile work that came his way but when we pulled up on the the job they were bombing gear from quite a height . We all know its wrong but there are guys out there pro's or not still taking shortcuts like bombing but maybe some guys on here have selective memories
 
Now that is a hell of alot of mill's doubles i bet you filled alot of beds the man hours that must of been saved rather then passing them down in bags/buckets is huge who's idea was it redviking? was the client happy with it when they realised that it was safe and the time it would save?

The main contractor was laing and when the stand was all dismantled they had to dig down 6m to install the pitch and finish the rest of the stand ,so Interserve said '' there you go all done we off '' to which laing replied '' you put the ply on and nailed it down ? You pick the nails and screws up !!) so Interserve had to hire 2 fork lifts with massive magnets to clear the full area !!
 
Cowboys or pro's we have all done one time or another . When i worked in Bristol i was sent to give a gang a hand stripping a job and this gang was the so called top gang on the firm as the boss trusted them with all the high profile work that came his way but when we pulled up on the the job they were bombing gear from quite a height . We all know its wrong but there are guys out there pro's or not still taking shortcuts like bombing but maybe some guys on here have selective memories

I tend to agree with you Paul, it's easy sitting at your keyboard pretending your whiter than white. I'm not saying bomb gear like the old day's but if you can't hit a bin with a double on the back of a truck from 2 lifts there must be something wrong.
 
Well I must admit I was never whiter than white, the thing to remember is if you get caught you could get the sack .
 
Cowboys or pro's we have all done one time or another . When i worked in Bristol i was sent to give a gang a hand stripping a job and this gang was the so called top gang on the firm as the boss trusted them with all the high profile work that came his way but when we pulled up on the the job they were bombing gear from quite a height . We all know its wrong but there are guys out there pro's or not still taking shortcuts like bombing but maybe some guys on here have selective memories

was not a certain mr harvey by any chance was it paul...i take it your talking about premier..as there was only ever a "top dog" on that firm...by the way the very same person cannot now get a job scaffolding any where...talk about how the mighty have fallen....20 cans of red bull and as much coffee as you can drink aint no good to nobody...he drive the artics about now for marks and spencer...:laugh:
 
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