Construction Safety

Safety is not optional. We all say it, the best builders insist on it.  A construction safety culture in residential work is no where near as strong as in large construction projects. Everything from personal protective equipment (PPE) to equipment use training and general site safety is taught and enforced every day. Whether you are building a 12-story building or a 2-story house, these safety practices need to be part of your project.

I have 30+ years experience in large hospital construction projects but started my career in residential construction. There are vast differences in how each works and how safety is implemented. My goal is to take the best practices I've learned and scale them to meet the needs of an individual home construction site. 

One thing I have learned is that if the safety program is overwhelming it won't be followed, if it is too expensive it won't be supported. Having said that, there are absolute minimum requirements that are not compromised. I will be working with residential construction partners to build a customizable safety program which is easy to understand and use. 

There are several good safety programs to work with, start with the NAHB, National Association of Home Builders for a comprehensive program. There are other vendors who provide policies and forms and on-line tracking Apps to monitor compliance but many of them are driven towards meeting OSHA recording requirements. This program will use all available information and build a practical program starting with the field workers.