Temporary Job Site Safety

By Jeff Williams on Exterior Repairs, Home And Personal Safety

City Steps In

It doesn’t take an expert in masonry to see there is serious movement happening to the facade and that it could fall at any time. A concerned resident noticed the issue and called the city. The city stepped in and cited the building, ordering the owners to repair it before someone is seriously hurt or killed when the facade falls. Originally the city wanted jersey barriers installed but that would have required a crane to place and remove them. The compromise was to have us come in and fix it quickly.Temporary job site safety-4

Consulting with the Fire Marshall

Temporary job site safety-9Concrete and mortars rely on ingredients that cannot be frozen at the time of mixing or placement and must be kept a bit above freezing until hydration occurs. For repairs in the winter months this means that a heated enclosure has to be erected around the work area. This enclosure has to go a little ways past the work area and sometimes it can interfere with egress of a building. On this project one of the main entry doors was partially covered by the enclosure and covered most of the sidewalk. We called the local fire marshall to come out and help us make sure that the rest of the building had adequate exits in the event a worst case scenario occurs.

A fire inspector met me out at the site and he discussed egress of the building from a whole building perspective. He was able to get access and evaluate the other exits and signage in a way that an exterior contractor can’t. He advised on proper signage for the exit door and even to cover up the interior lit exit sign so that in a power outage people wouldn’t attempt to follow the exit sign into an area of higher danger. Together we came up with a signage plan to not cut off the entry door entirely but to encourage users to use alternate routes.

We also chatted about building a guardrail around a window well that was now quite close to the walking path. Our enclosure covered up half of the exterior lighting so the well would also be hard to see in the dark compounding the danger. Erecting a guard rail as a temporary job site safety measure was absolutely the right call. It didn’t take long to build and would payback in spades with added safety of the site.

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About the author

Jeff Williams

Writer / Carpenter / Woodworker

Jeff Williams comes from a long line of contractors. His parents started a commercial General Contracting firm many years ago and it has afforded him life-long, hands-on learning opportunities from rough and fine carpentry all the way to structural steel and concrete. He formalized his training by completing a Construction Management degree. Currently he's a carpenter for a commercial General Contracting company specializing in concrete, steel, and wood buildings. For him, nothing beats the thrill of being able to coordinate and successfully manage large projects all the way through to completion. Inspired by the difficulties sometimes encountered to complete punch lists his motto is, "Work hard until the job is done."

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