Renovating a home safely in Paisley

You can hardly turn down a road in Paisley and not be met by the site of a house or two undergoing renovations. There is a growing trend for improving your living environment as well as increasing the desirability and value of your home with well-planned updates and building projects.

When undertaking a project like this, especially when you are managing it yourself, site safety can be somewhat of an afterthought. However, if any issues with safety are faced during your renovation project, this can seriously impact on your deadlines and at worst may result in costly legal action. To avoid such accidents during the renovation period, a folding security gate is a very perfect equipment for blocking foot traffic from an area.

In this guide, we give you the rundown on what must be considered when safely renovating your home in Paisley.

Selecting the best contractors

 There are plenty of options for building contractors in Paisley, so picking which one is right for you can be a little tricky. Recommendations are always a good place to start when picking your contractors. However, you must also undertake your due diligence to make sure they are suitable for the job at hand.

Whether you chose to work with a recommended contractor or not, taking the time to sit down with them and question their understanding of site safety is a good starting point. Just because they have experience in building, doesn’t necessarily mean they will do it safely.

Checking contractors qualifications is especially important when it comes to more technical and regulated areas such as gas and electricity.

Planning safety

Once you have selected your contractor, you can work with them to make a clear plan for keeping your site safe. This can be as simple as noting down the full renovation plan and assessing any risks that may be faced at each stage.

You can then use this list to build in mitigating actions to increase safety. For example, if a particular area is hazardous, you may choose to fence this off with clear signs highlighting the hazard.

Although no one should be on your site except yourself and your contractors. It is also important to ensure that any access to the public is well blocked and signposted to ensure no accidents occur.

Responsible person 

If you are project managing the build yourself, you will likely be the person responsible for site safety. This is a role that should be taken seriously and you should not be afraid to pull people up on risky scenarios, as this could have serious implications for yourself.

When you are not on-site, you need to make sure that there is always an allocated responsible person in your place.

Scaffolding

 If you are undertaking work at height, you will likely need to use scaffolding as part of your renovations. In these cases, you must use a competent and qualified scaffolder for its construction.

When scaffolding is being placed on public pavements of highways, you will also need to ensure that any relevant licences are applied for and received before beginning.

 Heavy materials

 In larger renovations, there is a high possibility that you will need to have heavy materials delivered to site. This can be a hazardous process and must be considered before execution.

For example, if you plan on using reinforced concrete, you will likely need heavy materials such as A393 reinforcement mesh delivered to site. When this is that case, you need to ensure that access is clear, a safe area is allocated to the truck and a detailed plan for unloading is in place.

Undertaking a renovation project is an exciting time. Taking a smart approach to planning site safety will ensure that everyone is kept safe and the risk of anything going wrong is limited. This will drastically increase the likelihood that your project will be completed in time and to budget.