In our last article we discussed how important safety considerations were when doing home renovation and home construction projects. Do not hurt yourself while renovating or building your home. Safety tips.
​Accidents happen quickly and far to often, especially for the inexperienced builder, or someone not using the correct equipment, or when a home builder is tired, in a hurry, or trying to save money. No time or cost saving is worth the risk of a serious injury. ​

​In the final part to this article we discuss some more tips on how you can avoid injuring yourself and others while renovating or building houses. Building and renovating your home safely - part 3

​Construction is an inherently dangerous job. Unfortunately injuries caused by people carrying out do-it-yourself maintenance and renovation tasks at home are one of the leading causes of hospital admissions. An injury to yourself could, in the worst case, lead to death or permanent disability, but at the very least will lead to pain, inconvenience and additional costs. Some people are highly dependent on the full use of parts of their body, so consider how losing a finger or suffering a hand injury could impact a surgeon or a dentist (even if they lose the use of a finger or their hand for only a few days, the lost earnings could far outweigh the savings of doing the work themselves). How dependant is your job on your fingers, limbs or eyes?

Important home renovation safety tips include:

• Working at heights is a leading cause of injury. Always ensure that when working off ladders these are structurally sound, that they’re placed on a firm footing and are held in place so they can’t slip or fall over. Where possible another person should anchor the ladder.
• When working on an access scaffold always ensure that the scaffold is on a firm footing, where one leg can’t suddenly settle into the ground causing the whole scaffold to tilt. Scaffold legs should have base plates and even timbers under them to distribute the load. The planks on scaffolding should be firmly attached so they can’t accidentally tip, or fall off. Scaffold towers should never be higher than three times their width. If the tower is higher it should be tied to a wall, or have side props to prevent it toppling over. Never overload scaffold platforms. Don’t erect scaffold on the edge of excavations.
• Wear proper personal protective equipment.
  • Your eyes are valuable so it’s vital you wear glasses that provide full protection so that dust and other construction debris can’t enter your eyes. Also, some solvents and liquids can damage the eye should they splash into your eye.
  • Safety shoes are essential. They help prevent trips, slips and falls, they’ll protect your feet if something heavy or sharp falls on them, and protect the soles of feet should you stand on a sharp object.
  • Gloves provide protection to hands.
  • Inhaling dust and fibres from cutting can lead to long term health problems, including lung cancer, so dust masks are necessary when cutting or drilling into materials which generate dust.
  • Some products, particularly epoxies, solvents and glues can give off noxious fumes, so wearing a proper breathing mask appropriate to the task is essential, and only mix and use them in ventilated areas.
  • Safety harnesses are essential when working at heights where there’s a possibility of falling. These need to be anchored to a firm support that will hold and arrest your fall.
  • Darkened visors must be used when flame cutting or welding.
• Always get an injury treated properly, then take precautions to prevent dirt getting into the wound. Even a minor cut finger can become infected and end with a protracted hospital stay, or even worse an amputation of a finger.

In the next article I discuss more safety tips when renovating your home.Safety tips when renovating or building a house - part 2 and Building and renovating your home safely - part 3 
You may find this article also useful when removing internal walls or cutting out openings in walls - do not bring your house down!
Read this article Construction Accidents What to Do If There’s an Accident on Your Project?

​Paul Netscher has written 2 easy to read books 'An Introduction to Building and Renovating Houses - Volumes 1 and 2'. An Introduction to Building and Renovating Houses Volume 1 deals with Hiring Contractors, Managing Construction and Finishing Your Home.  and Designing your ideal home Volume 2 deals with Finding Your Ideal Property and Designing Your Dream Home. 
​("Great for those that DIY. Very helpful in home renovations!" said a Reader on Amazon.com 5*****)
These books are available from Amazon and other online bookstores in paper and ebook.
© 2020 This article is not to be reproduced for commercial purposes without written permission from the author.

Reinforcing steel comes in bars which are normally tied together to form a cage. The bars come in different grades or strengths and can be smooth or deformed (with small ridges). Sometimes the reinforcing is in a ready-made mesh which comes in standard sized sheets or rolls.
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Reinforcing gives concrete structures their strength and also prevents shrinkage cracking. Engineers design the reinforcing that goes in the structure. It’s important that the reinforcing is placed in the positions indicated on the reinforcing drawings, and that where the reinforcing (or mesh) joins it overlaps with the next bars. It’s obvious that the right size bars (or mesh), of the right grade and deformations is used, otherwise the structure could fail.

Reinforced concrete is usually used in foundations and concrete slabs in houses, for 2nd floor slabs and balconies, and for concrete roofs.

​Reinforcing should not be too close to the bottom, sides or top surface of the concrete. Usually the reinforcing is designed to have a minimum cover (distance from the outside edge of the concrete) which could be 25, 30, 40, 50 millimetres (one to two inches). The cover often depends on the structure and the conditions the concrete will be exposed to. Harsh conditions near water, and especially sea water will require a bigger distance from the edge of the concrete so that the reinforcing is better protected. Reinforcing that’s too close to the edge of the concrete could mean that the concrete can’t get around and under the steel bars so the bars could be left exposed, which means that the reinforcing will corrode and also that it won’t do its job. Water also penetrates the first layers of concrete and steel close to the surface will rust. Rusted reinforcing expands, which then breaks the concrete around the steel. This is unsightly and weakens the structure. Rusting reinforcing also leaves ugly rust marks on exposed concrete.

Unfortunately, sometimes reinforcing isn’t adequately supported and when the concrete is poured workers walk on the reinforcing squashing it deeper into the concrete and below where it should be. Reinforcing which isn’t where it should be in the concrete can result in a weakened structure and cracking on the surface. Always ensure mesh reinforcing layers are fixed correctly so that they stay in the right position, even after the concrete is poured.
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For reinforcing to be effective it should be clean, not contaminated with grease and oils and relatively free of rust so that the concrete sticks to it. When reinforcing is delivered to the site it should never be stacked immediately on the ground, but should rather be raised off the ground on timber poles. Reinforcing should be used as soon as possible after it’s delivered, certainly within a few weeks.

Generally an engineer should inspect structures before concrete is poured to ensure that the correct reinforcing has been used and it’s fixed in the correct place.
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Sometimes engineers replace steel reinforcing bars with fibres, which could be steel or synthetic. The fibres are mixed into the concrete during the mixing stage.