Safety tips when renovating or building a house - part 2

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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. ​

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In this article we look at more safety tips:

• Ensure that live services have been disconnected where there’s a possibility you could damage them. Turn off gas and power when you’re working near electrical wires and gas pipes. Ensure these can’t be turned on accidentally by somebody unaware that you’re working near them.
• Never leave live electrical wires exposed.
• Keep all work areas clean and tidy. Rubble and material lying on the site creates trip hazards. Bits of wood with nails and screws sticking out are a leading cause of injury.
• Use the right tool for the job. Often injuries are caused when the wrong tool is used, or when a tool is used which is too small for the job.
• Check all equipment every time before use to ensure that it hasn’t been damaged and that all the safety features are in place. Broken equipment should be fixed by the appropriate repairers. Don’t use faulty equipment.
• Ensure that all work areas are barricaded. Regrettably serious injuries have been caused when children have been playing on construction sites.
• Make sure that materials are stacked properly. Heavy objects leaning against a wall can easily be knocked over falling onto someone.
• Check that materials that could be blown loose in a storm are secured at the end of the day or when severe weather is on its way. Stacked materials could be blown over and loose materials such as metal and tin sheets can be blown about, turning into dangerous missiles.
• Take care not to damage electrical extension leads. All electrical cables should be checked and equipment with exposed wires, damaged electrical plugs and loose connections should not be used until the item has been properly repaired. Needless to say electrical equipment shouldn’t be used in the wet and electrical leads should not lie in water.
• Never leave dangerous tools lying around where children could accidentally, or intentionally, turn them on causing injury.
• Care must be taken when doing any demolition work.
  • No load bearing walls must be demolished (or have pieces cut from them) unless an engineer has inspected the wall and all permanent and temporary supports recommended by the engineer have been installed. Read Before removing walls or adding new windows and doors check your house will not fall down
  • Before cutting through any bracings in the walls or roof structures first obtain clearance from an engineer.
  • Care must be taken to ensure that the portions of the structure left standing are stable. Unfortunately, some demolitions are poorly planned so that the demolition work is only partly completed when the rest of the structure becomes unstable and collapses, often causing serious damage and injury. Read House collapses during renovations

​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

Learn more about renovating and building houses

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.
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