Unsafe building site, or is this par for the course?

[GB]

The house next to us finally sold, and the new neighbours have the builders in for a massive renovation job. It's, really, more like a reconstruction job.

They are currently demolishing the side extension, which seems to have been really well built with loads of concrete and reinforcements.

They have a really large track mounted breaker, plus guys going round with angle grinders for the reinforcements.

There's no PPE in sight. Not even a hard hat between them, let alone ear defenders or masks. Are they complete idiots, or is this normal?

I expect lots of dust, but they've sent some sizeable lumps of concrete into our side passage, where we keep the rubbish bins. The largest was

1/2lb. (I am sad enough to have weighed it!) They must have loads more flying around on their side.

Nobody in my family has been hurt, so far, but I'm amazed that nobody on the site has been.

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

Have you thought to complain to the HSE, before there is an accident?

[Fredxx]

+1

I was thinking the same thing. They can do 'allegedly' unannounced site visits. Actually the threat of one might be sufficient!

[wrights...]

Then the new neighbour will have you down as an interfering busybody.

Bill

[Fredxx]

The neighbour won't know. If they are told, then I would jump up and down regarding data protection and GDPR.

[wrights...]

Of course they will. The builder will guess who complained and he will tell his customer. Your ears will burn as you are being referred to a cult.

Bill

[Rod Speed]

But only the most stupid wouldn't have noticed him weighing bits of concrete that have ended up in the walkway.

Fat lot of difference that would make after the event.

[Colin Bignell]

Is there a builder's board outside? If not, they could just be mates of the new neighbour, using hired equipment. A friend of mine did some fairly big house renovations that way.

If it is a firm of builders, perhaps they have done a risk assessment, which should always be done for any job, and found that:

Nobody is at risk from falling objects, so no hard hats are needed The bloke with the angle grinder is congenitally deaf, so ear defenders won't be of any use. Nobody is going to be close enough to the dust to need a mask.

Of course, they could just be cowboy builders who gave the lowest quote.

[Brian Gaff]

Yes many planning applications seem to stipulate safety of the public and method of demolition and construction under reserved matters, so it might worth calling the planning authority or find the application on the council web site and take a look at it and approach building control after that. I have noticed that the main culprits not wearing hard hats and putting up screening to save passers by and neighbours are in fact from Eastern Europe Poles and Latvians. They usually do a very good job, but its the method and risks they take that worries me about it. Watch out for trailing sockets with tape mending damage and all sorts. Health and safety seem to be so poorly staffed these days that you need a body before somebody comes out. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Only if they knew it was you. However, last time I tried this some years ago, they were giving a visit three months on, by which time they had all finished.

My main problem was when the people demolished a building that fronted straight onto a footway, and the only protection seemed to be a bit of thick plastic sheeting between the skip and the people throwing the concrete into it from several stories up. After complaints the council blockaded the footway and made all pedestrians cross the road. No crossing of course, you took your chances. Brian

[Rod Speed]

Brian Gaff [e-mail] wrote

They would clearly guess and that alone would be a problem with a new neighbour.

[John J]

Christ on a bike! I'm glad you aren't a neighbour of mine. You'd probably have a brain aneurism watching me pick apples from a ladder.

[wrights...]

Presumably he would have been surreptitious. It's easy to do sneaky things if you're cunning. Bill

[jkn]

We've all seen what you get up to when you think you are being sneaky, Bill...

[Rod Speed]

[e-mail] [e-mail] wrote

But unlikely no one noticed that he was watching what they were up to and might even have noticed that half pound lump of concrete in the walkway had gone missing.

Yes, but few nosy neighbours bother to do that.

[ARW]

It's par for the course for a domestic. And I have seen worse than your description of what is happening.

HSE usually just turned up unannounced on commercial and industrial building sites. They seldom turn up at domestic properties.