Construction site safety is an issue.
Working on tall buildings, constantly having to say: “Don’t look
down! Don’t look down!” to yourself, and constantly being one
step away from a pretty serious or even fatal injury – all this
must be very frustrating, so it is only logical that anyone who is
having the building made, the person or group of people who is
financing the construction – this, let’s call it “body”, has
to ensure that everything related to construction site safety is
regulated with appropriate planning.
In this article, I will mention the top
5 tips when it comes to organizing the construction site, but before
I do that, I will say this – It is always better to hire a
professional to do the job for you. Mainly, there are several
companies that specialize in
organizing everything related site safety. From all
the required paperwork, to predicting any and all accidents that may
occur, considering the specific properties of the area where the
building is being constructed – more or less, everything will be
handled by these people. But, nevertheless, here is something to get
you going.
- Heavy lifting? Let the machines handle that!
Some most common injuries that occur to
construction workers are due to heavy lifting. If there are things
such as trolleys – why not use them? Also, a good piece of advice
is to have those heavy things delivered somewhere close to the place
where they are needed so that everything can be handled with as much
ease as possible. If the workers have no choice but to do some
carrying, it is preferred to make sure that everyone takes up as much
as he or she can, and it would be great if they had some proper
instructions.
- Avoid having people work very high up
When making small buildings, statistics
show that a lot of fatal accidents happen due to falls. The best
solution here is to build the building from the ground up, using all
sorts of equipment – and, trust me, there is a lot of equipment
dedicated to this aspect of building construction on the market, and
you should do a little research on that. If the building is supposed
to be high, then you should have cherry picks and scaffolding
appropriately installed, with safety measures of course.
- Whilst on the subject of scaffolding
You should make sure that everything
related to this issue is done by someone who is qualified. There have
to be no loose ends whatsoever. One minor mistake and everything can
go berserk. Furthermore, once you’ve acquired the scaffolding, and
after you use it for some time, you should have it checked, and this
process should be done once a week, or even on a more regular basis.
Also, you will be having lots of scaffoldings present at the site, so
there will be the ones that are “working” properly and the ones
that are not. Make sure that no one uses the ones that are not by
putting appropriate signs at all the appropriate places. One other
thing – with scaffolding that is bad, you can not only injure the
workers, but civilians, as well. Keep that in mind.
- Define the “dress code”
You should make sure that everyone is
wearing all the protective gear needed for whatever he or she is
doing. First thing’s first – look out for your head. On each and
every construction site, the chance of something falling on your head
is great, so you need to wear a hard hat – no exceptions.
Furthermore, the uniforms that are made for construction work are
designed to protect you from all sorts of cuts and burns. Eyes are a
body part that has to be looked out for a lot as well, and finally,
when it comes to footwear, depending on the construction site, well,
you should wear appropriate footwear – in most cases, steel
toecaps.
- Make everyone work for the team
If everyone on the site is doing his or
her part, the process will be finished with ease and with little or
no setbacks. You should have someone trustworthy, who will handle
safety issues, under your supervision of course. Construct a plan,
and a detailed one for that matter, and make sure that everyone is
acquainted with it. Explain all the risks to everyone, and try to
make the working environment as work-friendly as possible, and you
should be in the clear.
To wrap up, apart from, well, humane
reasons, you should do all this because construction site injury
compensation fees are, as they say, out of this world. A building is
a great investment, and you don’t want even more expenses now, do
you?
