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The Essential Guide » The Planning Stage » Health and Safety on Self Build and Property Renovation Projects
This section has not yet received its final editing or checking. It is included here as it may give the reader some useful advice – even in this format.
The text will shortly be checked and edited and will then be presented in its final format.
Health and Safety
Introduction:
The Construction Industry is a dangerous place. It has a very poor record of safety when compared to many other industries. Probably one of the reasons for this is the fact that each project is unique and there is no “practice” or “run through” to get it right. Many industries can monitor a production method, note it’s weaknesses from a Health and Safety point of view, and make amendments as an ongoing process.
In the building Industry (and I think especially in the world of “Self Build” “Renovation” and “Conversion”), where contract periods are relatively short, it is much harder to monitor each project and make changes as they proceed. There is simply not the manpower available to take on such a task.
Over recent years, in response to this weakness, the “powers that be” have been taking steps to try to bring all types of construction projects into a position where they ALL have to work within one set of rules, which work adequately on ALL projects. Alongside this they have expended considerable effort and to create a better system of monitoring all projects, including the smaller “Self Build” types which have until recent years quite often “gone under the radar”.
The result of all the actions which have been taken is that now, no matter what sort of project you are considering embarking upon, you need to take stock of how the “Health and Safety” will regulations affect it. If you don’t, work on your site could be stopped, possibly permanently, and you could face prosecution.
Health and Safety issues will affect just about every part of Self Build, Renovation, Conversion and Extension projects, from the design stage through to completion, and one thing you need to be aware of at an early stage is this:
“It is not up to then Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to catch up with you to let you know about your responsibilities. – It is up to you to inform them of your intentions, and to comply with all the relevant rules, regulations and where possible, the recommendations”.
What areas do Health and Safety issues cover?
On the sort of projects that we are discussing in this guide, it would be easier to ask “What areas do Health and Safety issues NOT cover?” Your Health and Safety responsibilities are pretty much “wall to wall” starting with the design, and going right through to completion.
Self Builders will usually be looked upon by the “Health and Safety Executive” as being “The Client”, and often also as “The Contractor”. This puts a lot of responsibility on your shoulders personally to make sure that your project complies with all the regulations and responsibilities. You are officially referred to in this position as “The CDM Coordinator”, or the person whose responsibility it is to make sure that CDM regulations are complied with on the whole of your project.
If you don’t want to take on this responsibility yourselves, you may take on a qualified person to act as your CDM Coordinator. This may be a Project Manager, a Main Contractor, or some form of supervisor who capable of carrying out the duties required of the CDM Coordinator.
The main topic areas which fall under an “all encompassing” banner called “The CDM Regulations 2007” (The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007) include:
(Note: The list below is not exhaustive. It is presented to give you an idea as to the scope of the CDM regs. – It is your responsibility to ensure that you are complying with the regs in full).
1) Ensure that the working environment is “Safe” for the people who need to “work” or “pass” within or around its boundaries. As part of this, you need to provide, (or make sure that others provide) everything that is needed with regards to plant, equipment, safety gear, breathing apparatus, lighting etc, to comply with the regulations.
2) Allow safe “access and exit” to the site itself.
3) To make sure that the site is kept in a state of reasonable cleanliness, clear of dangerous obstructions.
4) To keep the site secure, usually by means of fencing which ensures that no unauthorized person can gain access into dangerous areas.
5) Use adequate signage to notify the public of its nature as a “Construction Site”.
6) To ensure that all existing or new building works are kept in a safe and stable condition, and anything related to “creating” those works is also kept in a safe state. For certain projects you will be required to present a “plan” which details how you intend to go about carrying out the work, before you start.
7) You need to ensure that all steps are taken to make excavation works safe and to avoid the possibility of collapse or falling materials. This section includes consideration as to positioning excavated “spoil” so that it does not constitute any sort of hazard. You may also need to bring in a specialist, or “Competent Person” to inspect excavations where they could be considered to be possible hazard.
8) Ensure that all power supplies, either existing or new, are safe, and that they are adequately marked.
9) Make sure that the public are not adversely affected by your work on site. – This could include vehicular traffic or individual people.
10) Cut out risk of fire within your site boundaries and also take steps to make sure that in the event of any sort of emergency, that there are procedures in place to deal with it. You also need to make sure that anyone involved with the project is aware of any such procedures.
11) Provide “Welfare” facilities within the site. – This will normally include hot and cold “running” water, a cabin, and a W.C. (this can prove difficult if you don’t have mains water, but there are ways around it which are dealt with in other sections of the guide).
12) Site Insurance is required (see previous page.
Before you start work on site you are required to notify the HSE of your intentions and register the site. You will then be required to complete a set of forms and provide a plan for the works which will involve you giving, in some areas, quite detailed and technical information. If you are new to the building industry, or even if you have been working in the industry for many years, you may find that you will struggle to provide a lot of the required information. This is where a taking on a specialist CDM Coordinator can be a good idea. - If you don’t provide the correct information at the outset, you will not be allowed to start work on the project.
Once the work is under way, the HSE can call to the site at any time to check that the regulations, and your “plan” are being adhered to. If they visit and find anything that they are not happy with, they will issue you a written notice saying that the matter must be attended to. It then becomes the responsibility of the CDM Coordinator to promptly sort out the situation to their satisfaction.
In some cases where they consider the that there is a breach of the regulations which is sufficiently serious, they can instruct you to stop work immediately. This will normally happen if they think that you could be putting people (either workers or the general public) into a position of any sort of imminent danger. You will not be allowed to start work again until they have been convinced that the matter has been properly dealt with.
( Note: It is in your own interest to try to ensure that you do not receive these “bad practice” notices. – If the HSE consider your site to be a higher risk than other sites in your area, you will find that you are visited far more regularly. This can cause disruption and extra cost. – Complying with the regs will not only give a safer working environment but a smoother running one too).
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