Fittings
What is a board clip?
A board clip fixes a scaffold board down to the tube beneath it, stopping the board lifting or being displaced.
Use this diagram+
Free to use on your own site, in training material or in a course handout, as long as the credit link stays on it. Paste this where you want the diagram to appear.
<figure>
<img src="https://scaffoldoptix.co.uk/glossary/board-clip/diagram.svg" alt="board clip — scaffold diagram from ScaffoldOptix" width="880" height="620" loading="lazy">
<figcaption>
<a href="https://scaffoldoptix.co.uk/glossary/board-clip">What is a board clip?</a> — diagram by
<a href="https://scaffoldoptix.co.uk">ScaffoldOptix</a>
</figcaption>
</figure>Boards normally sit under their own weight, which is adequate until wind gets under a platform or a board is short-supported near its end. Clips remove that risk where it matters.
They are most commonly used on exposed platforms, at the ends of boards, and anywhere the platform is above a public area where a displaced board would fall outside the scaffold.
A clip is not a substitute for supporting a board properly. A board that needs clipping because it would otherwise tip is a board on the wrong transom spacing.
What goes wrong on site
- Clips used to make an inadequately supported board safe rather than fixing the support.
- Omitted on exposed or high-level platforms where wind uplift is a real prospect.
- Removed to lift a board for material and not refitted.