It's 6:40 on a Tuesday. The forecast said "gusty" and overnight it delivered. You pull into site and the first thing you notice is the shade cloth on the north face of the scaffold flapping loose at one corner. The crew are already unloading the ute, and the plasterers want to be up on the third lift by seven.
This is the moment a scaffold inspection is really for: the check after something has changed while nobody was watching. Here's how we'd approach it, and how to get it on record without a soggy clipboard.
Why a windy night is different from a normal day
On a still morning, the daily check is mostly confirming that nothing has changed. After strong wind, you start from the assumption that something might have.
Sheeting, netting and shade cloth act like sails, and they put load on ties and couplers in a way a bare frame doesn't. Loose boards can lift or slide. Offcuts or buckets left on a platform may now be on the ground below, or jammed against a guardrail. If it rained as well, sole boards sitting on soft ground can settle unevenly.
Most of that isn't obvious from the gate, which is why "it looks fine" isn't a check.
Before anyone goes up, close the access
Keep people off the scaffold until it's been looked at. Put a barrier or sign at the access ladder, and say it at the morning briefing: closed until inspected.
It sounds obvious, but the easy mistake after a storm is someone keen to get started climbing before the inspector has even arrived.
What the inspector actually walks through
Our Scaffold Inspection template has eight checks. After wind, here's what each one looks like in practice:
- Scafftag current and visible. Tags can tear off or flip around in wind. If the tag is missing or unreadable, treat the scaffold as untagged until it's re-inspected.
- Bases and sole boards sound. Look for settlement, washed-out ground, or a base plate that has shifted off its sole board, especially if there was rain too.
- Standards and ledgers secure. Walk the frame looking for anything out of line. Look hard at ties and couplers near sheeted areas.
- Platforms fully boarded. Boards that have lifted, slid or disappeared. Check every working lift, not just the one you plan to use today.
- Guardrails and toe boards. Debris blown against a rail can hide damage. Check toe boards are still fixed.
- Access ladder secure. Still tied off at the top, still at a sensible angle, still clear at the bottom?
- No unauthorised alterations. Wind doesn't make alterations, but a well-meaning worker might have "fixed" something loose at knock-off. If anything has been moved or re-tied by someone who isn't a scaffolder, write it up.
- Area clear below. Debris on the ground, sheeting hanging into a walkway, exclusion barriers knocked over.
Give sheeting and shade cloth their own look. If it's torn or flapping, get the scaffold company to re-fix or remove it rather than the crew cutting it free.
Anything structural, like a bent standard, a missing tie or a moved base, is a job for your scaffolding contractor, not a quick fix by whoever is on site.
Filling it in on a phone at the base of the tower
This is where paper falls over. The walk happens, and the sheet gets filled in later in the site office, from memory. Or not at all.
With a shared fill link, the inspector opens the form on their phone while they're standing at the scaffold. In the FormSafely template it goes like this:
- Inspection type: pick After weather event. It separates this record from an ordinary daily check.
- Scaffold ID / location: something like "North elevation, Block B".
- Checks: tick each item that's OK. Leave anything that isn't unticked and describe it under Defects / actions required, for example "two boards lifted on lift 3, east end; shade cloth torn at NE corner".
- Photo: one of the tag, plus one of any defect. It saves a lot of explaining later.
- Scaffold safe to use? Answer honestly. If it's No — do not use, that answer is your record that the scaffold stayed closed.
- Signature: the inspector signs with a finger on the screen.
Required fields mean the form won't submit with gaps. A slim progress bar at the top shows how many required answers are left, handy when you're working one-handed with gloves under your arm.
Want extra questions only on bad days, like "Scaffold company notified?" Add a show-if rule in the builder so they appear only when someone picks No — do not use.
What happens to the record afterwards
Once it's submitted, the inspection shows up in Reports in the builder. The supervisor sees it straight away, without waiting for paperwork.
When the answer was No — do not use, the record is the brief for the scaffold company: what's wrong, where it is, and a photo. Once they've fixed it, a fresh inspection clears it. Pick After alteration or Handover / first use, whichever fits.
Now you have two records side by side: closed first thing with the defects listed, reopened after the repair, each with a name and a signature. That chain is hard to rebuild from a whiteboard and a few texts.
When a principal contractor, a client or an auditor asks "was the scaffold checked after that storm?", you can filter Reports and export the inspections as PDF or CSV instead of digging through a box of damp sheets.
Make it a habit, not a scramble
- Watch the forecast. If strong wind is due, say at the afternoon briefing that the scaffold will be closed first thing until it's checked.
- Clear the platforms at knock-off. Loose materials left up top cause a lot of the morning-after mess.
- Agree who inspects. Settle with your scaffold company who is competent to do the after-weather check and what gets escalated to them. Rules on inspections vary by country, so follow the guidance that applies where you work.
- Keep the link handy. Save the fill link to the phone's home screen or pin it in the site group chat.
Try it on your next windy morning
The Scaffold Inspection template is ready to load. Open Templates in the builder, adjust the labels for your site, and share the fill link with your inspectors. The Construction page has templates that pair well with it, like Permit to Work and Hazard Report for when a defect needs escalating.