Overheard a foreman say he never uses his outriggers on flat ground

Mila Craig · 2026-06-17T23:10:04.042562+00:00

I was grabbing lunch from my truck on a site in Phoenix last week and heard a foreman tell his apprentice that outriggers are optional on flat concrete. He said he's been doing it for 10 years and never had a tip over. That scared me honestly because even flat ground can shift or have subsurface voids. Has anyone else run into old school guys who skip outriggers and how do you handle calling them out?

the_nathan4mo ago

Pulled a younger guy aside once and just said man, that's not worth losing your legs over.

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drew554mo ago

Did the foreman have any reason for skipping them or just lazy?

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adamk954mo ago

Geez, is it really that serious? Flat concrete is about as stable as ground gets, and if the guy has been doing this for a decade without a tip over, maybe he knows what he's talking about. I'm not saying outriggers are useless, but acting like it's a death sentence every time seems a little dramatic.

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