Protecting your crew’s hearing from power tools and saws
Hearing loss from site noise is permanent, and it builds so slowly that workers rarely notice it until the damage is done. Protecting a crew starts with knowing which tasks are loud, not with handing out earmuffs.
11 min read
Blog
Safety and WHS
Site safety that works on real jobs: the hazards that hurt builders, the duties behind them, and the controls and paperwork that hold up.
Protecting your crew’s hearing from power tools and saws
Hearing loss from site noise is permanent, and it builds so slowly that workers rarely notice it until the damage is done. Protecting a crew starts with knowing which tasks are loud, not with handing out earmuffs.
11 min read
Storing and moving gas cylinders safely on a house site
Gas cylinders are the most ordinary item on a house site and one of the least respected. Where they stand, how they travel and what is kept beside them decides whether a bad day stays a bad day or becomes a fire.
12 min read
Hot work on house sites: welding, cutting and fire watch
Hot work inside a half-built house is a different risk from the same work in a workshop. The controls are planning, clearing, a signed permit and a fire watch that outlasts the torch.
11 min read
Getting experienced subbies to follow site rules without a standoff
Experienced subbies know their trade better than most supervisors, and that is exactly why the old ‘because I said so’ approach fails. Here is how to influence behaviour and hold the line without a standoff.
11 min read
Workers compensation and insurance after a site injury: what it costs the business
Regulator notification is one obligation after a site injury. The insurance and premium consequences are a separate set of problems, and they arrive later, on a renewal notice you did not expect.
11 min read
Keeping safety records that defend your business
Safety records are the only proof that a control existed, a toolbox talk happened or an inspection was done. Keep them so they can be found, read and relied on years later.
10 min read
A WHS management plan sized for small builders
A WHS management plan is not a document you buy and file. It is the written version of how you control risk on a particular job, and it only works if it is short enough that you and your subbies actually use it.
11 min read
Emergency and evacuation planning for house sites: the site plan and the crew briefing
An emergency plan that lives in a folder is not a plan. For a house site, it is a marked-up site plan and a briefing that every subbie on the job has actually heard.
14 min read
First aid kits, trained officers and emergency plans for NSW house sites
First aid on a house site is not just a kit in the shed. It is a kit, a trained person, a route out and a route in for an ambulance, all decided before the first trade starts.
12 min read
Safe demolition and strip-out before a rebuild
Demolition is the phase where the site is least like the job you priced, and where the safety controls are hardest to retrofit. The work is short, the hazards are concentrated, and the trades on site are often the ones you have least control over.
11 min read
Working near overhead powerlines: safe approach distances and load movement
Overhead line contact is one of the few site hazards that can kill the operator and the spotter in the same moment. The control is planned load movement, not vigilance.
11 min read
Silica dust on residential sites: controls for cutting concrete, brick, tile and pavers
The engineered stone ban removed the worst material, not the hazard. Concrete, bricks, tiles, pavers and mortar all contain crystalline silica, and cutting, chasing and grinding them on a house site can produce dangerous dust. Here is what the rules require and the controls that work.
7 min read