Inspection Detail

Inspection: 127372530 - Skillcraft Builders,Inc.

Inspection Information - Office: Department Of Labor, Licensing, And Regulation Division Of Labor And Industry Maryland Occupational Safety And Health

Investigation Summary

Employee #1 and three coworkers were framing out the first floor of a single-family home. They had sheathed all of the walls and had set and braced the rear two walls. Before they set the front and side walls, they wanted to set the main front doorway wall, which was 12 ft wide by 17 ft high and weighed approximately 250 lb. The wall, which was lying inside the house on the first level, was toe-nailed into the floor. Side boards were then added to keep it from sliding off the floor. Two 16 ft long 2 by 4 braces were attached in the middle and on the outside to the left and right sides of the doorway wall. With two workers on each side, the crew began lifting the wall; when they were about three-quarters of the way up, one worker went back and grabbed the right brace. Before his coworker on the left side could get out and grab the left brace, the right brace pulled loose from the doorway wall. The other three workers could not hold the wall and it fell on them, knocking them to the floor. Employee #1 suffered a broken back and was flown to a shock trauma unit for treatment. This method of raising the wall is accepted industry wide, and no violations were found.

Keywords: ERECTION PROCESS, FRACTURE, WALL, CONSTRUCTION, BACK, BRACE, FALL, STRUCK BY, FALLING OBJECT