Commercial
What is a strike?
To strike a scaffold is to dismantle it and remove it from site. The strike date ends the hire period and returns the material to the yard for the next job.
Striking is the end of the structure's life, and it is the point at which several records should close at once: the hire period stops, the inspection obligation ends, and the material comes back into stock.
It is also the moment loss and damage becomes visible. What went out and what came back are rarely identical, and the difference is only chargeable if somebody recorded both.
Partial strikes are common and awkward — a section comes down while the rest stays up. The structure has changed, which makes it an adaptation as much as a strike, and the remaining scaffold needs its records updating rather than closing.
What goes wrong on site
- The strike date recorded as the day the paperwork was done rather than the day the scaffold came down.
- Partial strikes treated as the end of the structure, closing records on a scaffold that is still standing.
- Material returned without a count, so loss and damage cannot be charged.