Essential Gear For Your Construction Team: Running A Small Business Safely

Managing a team, especially a smaller one can be challenging. Throw in the added difficulties of good health and safety practices and avoiding risks on a construction site, and you’ll find there are an incredible number of things to think about. One wrong move or minor mistake could spell disaster for your team if you end up being a man down. Ultimately, the safety of your team is your priority, and the success of your contracts depend on you maintaining a healthy and productive crew. One of the most important considerations is your team’s workwear. We’ve listed the most essential pieces of clothing for construction jobs so that you can be sure your team is as well-protected as possible. 

Work Jackets

First and foremost, wearing great quality work jackets is going to help you and your team withstand bad weather conditions. Low temperatures and bad weather can be a great risk to your team, however, the ability to work through undesirable conditions is sometimes essential, especially if there are work deadlines to be met. Keep yourself and your team warm and comfortable, and also make sure these jackets have protective linings to provide some defence against injury too. Jackets like this are also designed with efficiency in mind, presenting you with multiple pockets and handy attachments to make your job that little bit easier. 

Heat Regulation

While a heavy, comfortable jacket is great, if you really are working in poor weather conditions, keeping warm is essential for not only morale, but the overall safety of your team. Hypothermia can set in if body temperature drops below 35°C and this can occur if you’re not wearing enough warm clothes, stay out in low temperatures for too long, or have wet clothes which further drains your body temperature. To prevent or reduce the risk of this, consider providing your team with thermal underclothes, especially socks, and even thermal underwear which cover the torso and legs entirely. It’s also worth providing warm hats that cover the ears too as this is a prime location for heat to escape the body. 

Sturdy And Useful Trousers

On a construction site, no matter how big or small, there are occasions where you and your team need to be prone or on your hands and knees. There are countless risks here from puncture wounds caused by random debris or nails and screws. To reduce the chances of injury here, it’s a good idea to wear protective trousers with fortified knees and sturdy materials. Suppliers like Snickers Direct provide work trousers that serve many different purposes and roles too. As well as being much safer option compared to jeans or cargo trousers, proper reinforced work trousers can increase efficiency too by giving access to multiple pockets and attachments and even padded knees so you can work for longer.

Multipurpose Gloves

Just like the need for sturdy trousers, it’s possibly more important that your crew has protective gloves. Working with your hands everyday means that you should be keeping them safe. Our hands can be at the most risk in professions like this, and you could suffer from everything from puncture wounds and general cuts and scratches to severe issues like heat and chemical burns to the loss of fingers. Any injury, no matter how minor, can reduce your ability to perform your job properly, and some can be life changing. Protect your team by providing tough multi-purpose gloves that allow for good dexterity and interaction with touch screens too. 

High Visibility

It’s not just nighttime working that requires high-visibility clothing. In busy work environments, especially with vehicles driving around your site, it can be easy to miss someone in your peripheral vision before it’s too late. Brightly coloured vests and reflective strips will help to keep everyone aware of each other’s presence, reducing the chances for accidents to happen. 

Head Protection

One of the most essential items of gear for construction sites is the hard hat. These items have proven time and time again to be lifesavers. Sadly, in the UK, 13% of deaths on construction sites were from head injuries. In many cases, this is due to the removal of hard hats when workers are feeling too warm or uncomfortable. Make sure you purchase comfortable and sturdy headwear that keeps your team safe and reduces their chances of removal. Of course, you need to instill these safe practices in your team and also provide safe areas for them to remove these items when taking a break.

Noise Protection

A much less obvious concern for those running a construction site is the damage that high noise levels can do to your team’s hearing. Noise-induced hearing loss used to be quite a devastating and wide-spread issue, although nowadays, people are taking note and providing workers with ear defenders and ear plugs when subjected to sound levels above the recommended limits. Flexshield are proven industrial noise control specialists for numerous corporations and sectors. This can be from tool use, whether manual or mechanical. Ensure you and your team have access to noise protection whenever necessary to negate these issues.