Important Health and Safety Considerations for The Building Site

If you’re a property developer visiting the building site to check on progress, there are a number of health and safety considerations you should have in mind. Read these pointers and brush up on your knowledge of the Health and Safety Executive’s guidance to make sure you’re protected from harm.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) isn’t optional

All tradesmen and visitors to a building site must wear personal protective equipment. This includes high visibility clothing such as reflective jackets, hard hats, safety goggles and strong boots. You may also need to wear ear plugs, work gloves, face masks or any other safety equipment you’re presented with. Don’t worry if you think this is a touch of ‘overkill’ on the health and safety front: it’s better to be safe than sorry, even if other people aren’t following the rules!

You’ll need to watch where you’re going

In the same way high traffic floors use anti-slip paint to prevent people from taking nasty falls inside buildings, make sure you’re walking on a safe surface when you’re on a building site. Beware of wooden planks that can become slick and slippery when wet, and watch out for trip hazards too. Construction work is messy and it’s not uncommon for materials and equipment to be left lying around (though it’s good practice to encourage everyone to maintain a tidy site!)

Curiosity could get the better of you, if you’re not careful

It’s tempting to stand beside a piece of heavy machinery in action (seeing walls demolished or watching a hole being dug on your land is strangely captivating!), but doing so could pose a big health and safety hazard. An operator might use the horn to warn you to stay back or check behind them before backing up the machine, but there’s always a chance you wont be spotted, so stay well away from the machine operating area.

Electricity is one of the biggest risks on site

The refurbishment of buildings can often be risky business, but it’s electrical work that provides some of the biggest challenges of all. Specific specialist electrical work should only be performed by tradesmen who are qualified to do so, and as a visitor to the site and non-electrician, it’s critical that you don’t touch anything unless you’re certain it’s not live.

You’ll need to tread carefully

When you’re visiting a building site, take care not to walk on fibre-cement roofs and roof lights, corroded metal roofs, glass or rotted chipboard. Don’t walk on anything that hasn’t been confirmed as safe to put your weight on, and check to see if guard rails or safety nets have been put up. They’re all good preventative measures to put in place and indicate that the building site’s manager is taking health and safety seriously.

There are plenty more health and considerations to keep on mind when you’re visiting a building site. However, if you use your common sense, make your whereabouts known to those operating machinery and wear the right protective clothing, you ought to be safe.