Come winter, and while many try to stay indoors as much as possible, others must brave the cold and work outside. For construction work, the work never stops, no matter the weather conditions. While we may be familiar with safety tips for working outdoors during hot weather, less is known about the precautions to take during the chilly winter months.
Work in winter can be hazardous, with rain, frost, blizzards, reduced visibility, and icy surfaces. However, there are several winter construction safety tips that help ensure worker safety and compliance with regulations.
Without a proper construction site safety plan, your project can get delayed and you can compromise worker health, leading to financial loss. For example, slipping and falling due to icy conditions can result in severe injuries.
In today’s blog, we’ll look at a variety of winter construction safety tips, discussing how a warm break area, such as a climate-controlled welfare unit, plays a key role in keeping workers safe and comfortable.
Let’s explore ten tips to help ensure cold weather safety in the workplace.
1. Provide Warm Break Areas
Construction workers need regular breaks to rest, eat, drink and shelter from particularly bad weather. Site managers must ensure there are enough on-site cabins to accommodate the entire workforce.
Exposure to cold weather for a long duration can lead to extreme tiredness and low concentration, potentially leading to fatal accidents. It can also result in potential life-threatening conditions, such as hypothermia.
Ensure workers can make hot drinks and food, and encourage them to take shelter to warm up and dry.
2. Provide Lighting
Construction in winter can be challenging as it’s known for dark days. Even during daytime, the sky can be overcast and cloudy, reducing visibility. If you add fog, mist or snowfall, visibility worsens dramatically. Low visibility can lead to accidents and open up opportunities for vandalism and break-ins.
Project managers must make sure construction sites are well-lit during the winter. One way to do this is to set up LED floodlights and motion-activated lights, especially near walkways and work zones.
3. Encourage Appropriate Wear
One of the most important winter construction safety tips is to encourage and advise workers to wear insulated clothes and boots. Workers should wear multiple layers to stay warm, but they should make sure this doesn’t hamper mobility.
The first layer is the wicking layer, which can help absorb sweat (construction work is labour-intensive, meaning workers sweat even in the cold). Next are the light and heavy insulating layers, which help trap body heat.
The outer layer must be windproof and waterproof to protect workers against cold wind, rain and snow. Without proper insulation, workers become more susceptible to hypothermia and frostbite.
4. Cover the Extremities
Construction in winter can be challenging due to harsh weather conditions, and managers must provide adequate rules for on-site winterwear.
When establishing winterwear guidelines, remember to include provisions for protecting workers’ extremities, such as their feet, hands, and heads.
Gloves should be worn to keep the hands and fingers warm, and hats encouraged too. A significant amount of body heat escapes from the head, so wearing a hat is important to retain heat.
Hard-shell hats are a must on construction sites for protection, but it’s still possible to wear a beanie underneath on particularly cold days.
5. Undertake Winter Safety Training
Your construction site safety plan must have provisions for winter safety training. This will ensure your workers know the importance of following winter construction safety tips and best practices. Proper training helps them identify dangerous working conditions, as well as recognise and avoid cold weather-related injuries and illnesses.
Proper training reduces the risk of accidents and fatalities, ensuring your workers are safe and your project stays on track.
6. Clear the Site of Hazards
Ice and snow are a big cause behind on-site winter accidents. To prevent workers from slipping on surfaces, it’s important to keep salt handy and de-ice walkways and stairs. In the event of consistent, heavy snowfall, pathways must be cleared at regular intervals.
Any particularly slippery area should be closed off and proper signage should be put in place. Workers must be encouraged to walk slowly and keep their hands free when walking on particularly slippery, or icy areas, to discourage falls.
7. Identify Signs of Cold Weather-Related Illnesses
Workers who spend too much time in the cold are prone to weather-related illnesses. One of the most essential winter construction safety tips is to check workers for signs of cold stress, such as frostbite and hypothermia.
Some common symptoms to watch out for are:
- Fatigue
- Dilated pupils
- Uncontrolled shivering
- Lack of coordination
- Loss of consciousness
If you notice a worker displaying any of these symptoms, immediately get them to the site accommodation and call for emergency medical help.
8. Check for Severe Weather Changes
UK weather can be difficult to predict, so keeping a weather app handy is recommended, especially as a project manager. If heavy rain or snowfall is forecast, the best decision may be to call off all building work. Although this might delay your schedule, it avoids having injured workers, which can impact worker morale and lead to further delays.
Make provisions for emergencies in your construction site safety plan so workers can seek safety in nearby site accommodations if there are sudden weather changes.
9. Regularly Inspect and Maintain Equipment
Like humans, machines are impacted by the cold. Check tools and heavy construction vehicles, replace worn-out parts, and properly lubricate movable sections. Sensitive equipment, like air compressors, need to be stored appropriately, as they can be damaged by low temperatures.
Low temperatures can also cause batteries to drain faster, lubricants to thicken, and concrete and mortar to set incorrectly.
10. Ensure Safe Use of Heaters
It’s not uncommon for heaters to be used in site accommodation. However, improper use of heaters can lead to risk of fire and injuries. Keep combustible materials like clothes and paper away from heaters and ensure proper ventilation in the welfare cabins to avoid fire risk or carbon monoxide poisoning.
Choose Cabin Solutions for Safe and Warm On-Site Accommodation
Now that you’ve explored some useful winter construction safety tips, you can see the key role that on-site accommodation and welfare cabins play in keeping construction workers safe and warm during the winter months.
Are you looking for high-quality on-site accommodation and cabins? At Cabin Solutions, we’ve got you covered.
Cabin Solutions is here to help you buy and sell your on-site accommodation, cabins. With a wide supplier network, we have access to a variety of welfare units, cabins and containers. We can also help with bespoke container design to suit your unique business needs.
Contact us today to learn more about our site accommodation and cabins.
I have worked within the industry for 12 years both as an employee for a large nationwide hire company and for the past four years running my own business.
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