Construction Safety Tip: Proper House Keeping

Safety tip Proper house keeping

One thing you might not think about when you think of a construction site is how clean it is. Well times have changed and so have safety regulations. In the modern age of construction safety comes before all else when building custom homes. One of the simplest things a construction company can do is demand that their employee’s and their sub-trades keep a clean and tidy work area.

There are many reasons why you should keep a clean and tidy work area:

• You reduce the chances of people tripping and falling.

• The site looks more appealing to clients, inspectors and perspective clients that are being given a tour of the project.

• You can damage important and expensive pieces of equipment if their left lying around or left under a pile of debris.

• Important parts to plumbing, electrical or windows can get lost or thrown away if they aren’t properly cleaned up and separated from regular construction waste.

• It is more efficient to take 5 minutes to clean up the mess around you instead of trying to walk through it, over it or around it endlessly.

• It’s a major fire hazard. Piles of paper, construction debris and wood can be a major fire hazard, if a plumber’s torch were to spark them or a roofer’s tiger torch it could be a disaster.

• If you have food containers or old lunches lying around you can end up with an animal or bug infestation.

• Small hand tools can be easily lost in a debris piles, not found they can be damaged or thrown out with the rest of the garbage.

• Important instructions to windows, plumbing or lightning can be lost or thrown away when projects aren’t properly cleaned up.

• Newly installed flooring can be damages from workers walking over discarded nails or other hard objects ruining the finish.

• If you don’t sweep or vacuum up dust then you could cause problems for workers lungs and vision when it is stirred up from future work.

It’s not hard to take a labourer and give them the job of cleaning up a couple of times a day; it will save you money and can also save your employee’s from injury.

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.