Safety Tips for Home Renovation & Self Builds

Renovating your own home or self builds can be extremely rewarding as well as being both mentally and physically challenging. Building or renovating your own property, whether it’s for development and sale or a family home you can call your own, is something that not many people will have the opportunity to do in life. As well as being a challenge, it’s also a great privilege to be proud of.

Many people will appoint a project manager and form a tight ship of team members who can help to make the dream a reality. But the most important thing to remember when you are building / renovating yourself is Health & Safety.

Here are some safety tips to help you get through a self build project.

1. Appoint a Health & Safety Manager – if you are just tidying up a few areas around the house, appointing a Health & Safety Officer isn’t necessary. But if your project lasts over a period of months or you are building your own home from start to finish, it is imperative that someone is there to consider all health and safety issues and perform the necessary risk assessments before work can take place.
2. Provide Safety Clothing – if you are calling in friends /family members to help out with your build, it is essential that you provide them, as well as yourself, with the right safety clothing. This includes everything from heavy duty safety boots to hard hats and safety gloves for working. (Get safety boots, hats and HexArmor gloves at Swift Trading)
3. Hard hats for all visitors – it may seem a little over the top for anyone just walking around on the premises but if you are planning your own build, you are responsible for the safety of anyone visiting that premises. Hard hats should be worn for anyone walking around during build hours and can protect you from falling debris.
4. Have regular breaks – just like any other workplace, you will need regular breaks to keep your energy and concentration levels up. As a project manager for a home renovation project, it’s important that you give yourself regular breaks and time off to rest.
5. Close by catering / food facilities – lunch breaks are very important because you need to ensure that you and anyone else working on your project is able to keep energy levels up. Skipping meals is not recommended so having catering or food facilities close by to your build project is important. If you are renovating, make sure you kitchen area is usable and able to provide everyone with cold drinks and refrigeration for food. If you are building a new property, make arrangements to keep everyone with food and water throughout the day.