Safety on a New Home Construction Site | Posted 11.10.09
Building a new house yourself, or having it built for you, is an exciting time. However, amid all the excitement, planning
and decisions, you should never lose sight of the fact that a building site is potentially a very dangerous place.
Make safety on your construction site a number one priority.
All of the machinery used on a construction site, from mini excavators, cranes, scaffolding and ladders, right down to
ordinary electrical drills, will have it's own particular safety issue. As well as static machinery, there will generally be
a large amount of truck and van traffic moving on and off site, often through confined spaces on rough ground and on rutted
tracks.
No matter how small the building project, you should treat the construction site as a professional workplace. If you set a
high standard of safety from the very start of your house building project, and demonstrate that you are committed to keeping
that standard, tradesmen and construction personnel will follow your lead.
Make sure all the tradesmen and contractors employed by you are properly insured and certified. If you have any doubts, ask
to see the documentation relevant to this insurance.
Minimise your exposure to insurance claims, from both building site workers and also from visitors to your new house site.
Ensure protective gear is worn at all times and that notices regarding site safety are prominently displayed on your site
entrance and around the site. Move these safety signs around the building to reduce the chance of them being taken for
granted and so that they will receive more attention from contractors and visitors to your site.
Do all you can to keep the site tidy. Loose cables and tubing, piles of broken bricks and offcuts of wood should all be
regularly removed and either stored safely or else disposed of. As with safety, if you set a high standard of tidyness,
construction staff are more likely to follow your lead. If you allow your site to accumulate rubbish, the chances of an
accident are increased.
Four areas of particular danger on a house building site are machines, roofs, ladders and electricity.
Make sure machines such as mini excavators are only operated by experienced, and insured, operators. Do not allow children
to play around these machines or climb into the cab. These machines are definitely not toys and letting children treat them
as such is a serious mistake.
Working on roofs in poor light or bad weather is always accompanied by a high risk of accidents. As with all other
construction activities, you should only hire experienced personnel.
Prevent children from climbing ladders or scaffolding. After each days work is completed, make sure that ladders are not easily accessible by putting wooden sheets at the bottom of the ladders.
Electrical work, especially near plumbing or water sources, should only be carried out by registered electricians. Although
you may save some money by using someone that claims to be "handy " with electrical work, if you need to sell your house you
don't want to put off potential buyers with shoddy workmanship. In addition, any significant electrical work will have to be
certified so only hire someone that can comply with electrical regulations.
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