If you work on a residential building site, then you’ve probably encountered a home purchaser who wanted to visit the home while it was still under construction. However, accessing a home during construction can be dangerous for many reasons, such as: unfamiliar busy construction sites, lack of proper safety wear, unprotected openings, and unstable stairs.
If you allow visitors on your site despite these risks, it is your responsibility as the home builder to keep everyone safe. That’s why strict rules regarding visitor safety must be enforced. There are two main ways that you can achieve residential building site safety: control and communication.
Control
As the home builder, it is important that you establish proper guidelines, rules and procedures for who, when, and how a person may access your job site. All guests should make appointments or inform you in advance about their visit. This will allow you and your workers to ensure safety standards are in place before their arrival.
Once your visitors arrive, make sure to provide them with safety equipment, such as hard hats.
If you, an employee, or a visitor notices an area where someone could be hurt, make sure you correct or protect them. These areas could include:
- Holes in the floor or ground – To remedy this issue, cover it or put up a protective fence/barrier around the hole.
- Balconies, second or higher floor exits or roofs – These areas should always be marked, fenced or enclosed.
Communication
It’s important to establish open lines of communication with the home purchaser, in order to make sure you are both aligned with safety protocols. Some things that you should discuss with your visitors include:
- Who, when and how visitors can enter your building site.
- The homebuyer’s needs, desires, and vision for the building. You can then provide the purchaser with regular updates and/or progress reports in order to keep them in the loop.
- What you expect of the homebuyer, and how the building process will work.
- Agree on how often the purchaser will have access to their new home, as the purchaser may have many reasons to visit the building site.
- Set up appointments with the purchaser to view their building.
- Communicate to visitors that this is an authorized access site only and that they must check in with the contractor.
- You can also communicate to the general public regarding restricted access.
Best practices for a safe and happy visit
It is extremely important to ensure that your building site is safe. It is equally important that you have a good working relationship with the purchasers, as their safety and satisfaction are vital to your business’ success. Here are some best practices that you can employ to make sure that any site visitors have a safe and pleasant experience:
- Develop a brochure that will inform your site visitors about your job site policy. You could include information such as: supervised access to the job site, children on the job site, workplace safety and health act requirements, company safety policy, and more.
- Check your Workplace Safety and Health Act for age restrictions on job sites. Each province has different guidelines and regulations for age restrictions, requirements for contractors, etc.
- Consider including a clause in your sale agreement that will restrict your liability if a purchaser is injured on the building site.
- Agree to and sign a Site Visit Policy for you and the purchaser. This gives you the opportunity to discuss visiting the building site during the sale process.
Protect yourself and your business with insurance
Despite your best efforts and preparation, there are some things that you simply can’t control. Want to make sure your residential building site is properly protected? Learn more by visiting our construction and contractors’ insurance page today!
