Friday, October 2, 2009

Demolition Safety

By Matthew G Smyth

We live in a word where health and safety are of vital importance to anyone working in a public place, or working in such a way that it affects those around them. This is especially relevant to the world of demolition as the impact on the surroundings is often extreme.

It is important when dismantling dangerous or dilapidated buildings and structures to protect everyone that is in contact with the area. This includes the workers on the site and the public that are near by. To protect the public the demolition company need to make sure that the area is adequately shielded from any danger. Workers must wear hard hats, high visibility vests, steel toe capped boots etc.

Dismantling a building is often done by hand and not by machine in areas that are built up. This is more expensive for the contractor but is often the only way to dismantle a building safely. Using machine demolition is a lot more effective but you have less control over where the parts of the building fall. An extreme of this is where explosive demolition can cause parts of the building to fall elsewhere other than the designated drop zone.

Demolition is often rather dangerous as the structures that are being demolished are often unstable. Therefore it is the job of skilled experts to reduce the risks to the public. This is so they can continue with their everyday life without disruption. Companies now have to wet the building before demolition. This reduces the dust creation and works effectively to control dust generation, however this method will not eliminate the dust completely.

It is often difficult to perform demolition in built up areas. This is because of power lines and phone lines which are difficult to keep clear of. This can often cause disruption to the lives of the local residents as sometimes the only way to get the equipment on site is to disconnect the phone lines.

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