Health and safety paperwork for demolition and strip-out contractors

The hazards that actually matter

Every trade has a long list and a short one. The short one is what the task documents have to deal with properly, because it is where the serious harm comes from.

Asbestos

The dominant hazard of the trade. Any building from before 2000 is assumed to contain asbestos until a survey says otherwise: cement sheet, roofing, textured coatings, lagging, vinyl backing, fire doors and electrical boards. A refurbishment and demolition survey comes before the work, friable material requires a Class A licensed removalist, and the clearance certificate is what lets the demolition start.

Uncontrolled collapse and sequence

Removing a member that was doing more than it looked like it was doing. The order of removal, temporary propping and what is left standing overnight are engineering decisions recorded in a demolition plan, not decided by the operator on the day.

Services believed to be isolated

Electricity, gas, water and fibre into a building that is being demolished. Isolation is obtained in writing from the asset owner and proven at the point of work, because a disconnected-looking service and a de-energised one are not the same thing.

Falls, penetrations and leading edges

Floors with holes cut in them, stairs removed early, and an edge that moves as the work proceeds. Protection that is reassessed each shift rather than installed once.

Falling material and exclusion zones

Material dropped deliberately and material that comes down early. Exclusion zones sized for the drop and the bounce, hoardings and overhead protection where the public is close, and no one working below the machine.

Lead paint and other contaminants

Pre-1980 paint, contaminated soil, refrigerant gas, PCBs in old transformers and ballasts, and bird or vermin contamination in a long-empty building. Each has its own handling and disposal path.

Plant, attachments and operators

High-reach excavators, shears, grapples and pulverisers working close to the structure, with the operator's sightlines limited and the machine's stability dependent on the ground under it.

Silica and dust suppression

Breaking concrete and masonry is a continuous silica source. Water suppression is the control, and it has to be running rather than available.

Confined and oxygen-deficient spaces

Tanks, pits, basements and voids opened up during a strip-out, including spaces nobody knew were there.

What applies beyond the general duties

The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and the General Risk and Workplace Management Regulations 2016 apply to every business. These sit on top of them for this trade:

• Health and Safety at Work (Asbestos) Regulations 2016, survey, licensed removal, notification and clearance
• Health and Safety in Employment Regulations 1995, reg 26, for falls of 5 m or more and the use of explosives
• Health and Safety at Work (Hazardous Substances) Regulations 2017, for fuels, gases and contaminated material

Competence and licensing

Asbestos removal above the small quantity thresholds requires a licensed removalist, and friable asbestos requires a Class A licence. A demolition plan should be prepared by a competent person and, where the structure is engineered, that means engineering input into the sequence and the propping. Plant operators need competence for the machine and the attachment, and confined space entry has its own training and permit.

Notifying WorkSafe

Construction work where a person could fall 5 m or more requires 24 hours' notice to WorkSafe, and the use of explosives is separately notifiable. Licensed asbestos removal carries its own notification duty before the work starts, which on most demolition jobs is the first notice given. The full list and its exclusions are in notifiable work: the 10 categories.

What a main contractor will ask you for

• A demolition plan with the removal sequence and any temporary propping
• The asbestos survey, the removal licence, the notification and the clearance certificate
• Written isolation confirmation from each service asset owner
• A Task Analysis for each task: soft strip, structural demolition, loadout, confined space entry
• Exclusion zone and public protection arrangements, including hoardings and overhead protection
• Operator competence for each machine and attachment
• Sign-on sheets against each document

A document per task, not one for the job. The crew doing one task should not have to read past three others to find their controls, and a site manager checking one task should not have to either.

Where to start

If you are writing from scratch, how to write a Task Analysis sets out the order. If you have been asked for something and are not sure which document it is, which document do you need covers the difference between a site plan and a task document. Our prepared documents for this trade are the Demolition & Strip-out Task Analysis Pack, or single documents from the catalogue.

Sources

• Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, s22 (reasonably practicable), s34 and s36
• Health and Safety at Work (General Risk and Workplace Management) Regulations 2016, regs 5 to 8
• Health and Safety in Employment Regulations 1995, reg 26 (particular hazardous work requiring notice)
• Health and Safety at Work (Asbestos) Regulations 2016, survey, licensed removal, notification and clearance
• Health and Safety in Employment Regulations 1995, reg 26, for falls of 5 m or more and the use of explosives
• Health and Safety at Work (Hazardous Substances) Regulations 2017, for fuels, gases and contaminated material
• WorkSafe New Zealand, Identifying, assessing and managing work risks

This guide is general information about New Zealand health and safety law as at the review date. It is not legal advice and it does not describe your site. Confirm what applies to you with WorkSafe New Zealand or your adviser.