Health and safety paperwork for residential builders

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.

Falls from height

The eave of a single-storey house is around 2.4 m, below every figure people remember and well inside the range that causes permanent injury. Roof work, scaffold use, trestles, ladders and unprotected floor penetrations are the recurring four.

Respirable crystalline silica

Cutting, grinding or drilling fibre cement, concrete, brick and engineered stone releases silica fine enough to reach the deep lung. Dry cutting outdoors is still exposure. On-tool water suppression or extraction, then respiratory protection.

Asbestos in renovation

Any building worked on that predates 2000 may contain asbestos: cement sheet, textured ceilings, vinyl backing, roofing, lagging. The duty is to identify before the work, not to find out during it.

Timber and MDF dust

Hardwood and composite dust are respiratory sensitisers and the exposure accumulates over a career rather than a day.

Power and nail guns

Contact-trip nail guns, circular saws and nail gun recoil account for a steady share of hand and eye injuries.

Manual handling

Sheet materials, framing and joinery, usually with awkward access and a two-person lift done by one.

Mobile plant and deliveries

Truck and HIAB deliveries into a site set up for people, often with no separation.

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:

• Building Act 2004, restricted building work and the Licensed Building Practitioner scheme
• Health and Safety at Work (Asbestos) Regulations 2016, identification before refurbishment or demolition
• Health and Safety at Work (Hazardous Substances) Regulations 2017, for adhesives, solvents and treatments

Competence and licensing

Restricted building work on a house must be carried out or supervised by a Licensed Building Practitioner in the right class: carpentry, roofing, external plastering, bricklaying and blocklaying, foundations or design. A record of work is required on completion. Asbestos removal above the small quantity thresholds requires a licensed removalist.

Notifying WorkSafe

Scaffolding from which a person could fall 5 m or more, and excavation deeper than 1.5 m and deeper than it is wide, both require 24 hours' notice to WorkSafe. The full list and its exclusions are in notifiable work: the 10 categories.

What a main contractor will ask you for

• Your contribution to the site plan, or your own if you hold the head contract
• A Task Analysis for each task: roof work, scaffold use, cutting and grinding, excavation
• LBP details and the record of work for restricted building work
• Asbestos identification for any pre-2000 building before work starts
• 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 Residential Building & Carpentry 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)
• Building Act 2004, restricted building work and the Licensed Building Practitioner scheme
• Health and Safety at Work (Asbestos) Regulations 2016, identification before refurbishment or demolition
• Health and Safety at Work (Hazardous Substances) Regulations 2017, for adhesives, solvents and treatments
• 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.