Christmas Holiday Site Safety

It’s that time of year again and amid the festivities and gift-giving, you need to decide how you’re going to close your business for the holidays.

Many in the construction industry are planning a well-deserved break. With many sites closed until mid-January, planning your site shut down needs to be high on the list of priorities – even if you still have your holiday shopping to do!

The Christmas holidays are generally the longest period of closure for a construction site, so with this in mind, site security ought to be a top priority to prevent any unwanted visitors and/or damage.

Prevent Trespass, Theft, Arson

To reduce the risk of theft, ensure you remove valuable items from the site or at least remove from view. Lock vehicles, doors, and windows and lock up tools and equipment within a secure storage area. It is beneficial to have exterior lighting or cameras that comes on at night to deter thieves. 

Keep Out Winter Weather

Even though it is summer, it is still important to remember we can still get bad weather. Rains, storms and high winds can have devastating effects on scaffolding and other structures such as site fencing. Ensure that entire scaffold structures or similar are secure and remove any unnecessary materials from site that could become missiles in the wind.  Remember to cover any drains or drum that could fill with water!

Put Protection in Place

The last thing you want to worry about on your holiday “is my site is safe”. Display emergency contact numbers should anything urgent need attending to, such as a break-in or weather damage. Take a moment to review your insurance so that you know you are well and truly covered.

And finally… managing safety after your holiday

People come back to work and they’ve taken their mind off the job, they’ve had a well-earned holiday and sometimes it may take them a little while to ‘kick back into gear’ and do the basics of making sure they’re working safe, this may also include when restarting and recommissioning equipment and tools.