As a construction site manager, it shouldn’t surprise you to know there are guidelines on the welfare facilities you must provide on-site for your construction workers. But what do you need to consider, and is the quality of your site facilities something that can influence how happy your workers are? Here we explore some of the things you might want to consider.
Basic requirements
As a bare minimum, you need to provide areas where men and women can change separately if they have to wear special clothing. Your site should have somewhere for workers to sit down and facilities to dry their wet clothing if necessary. There should be space to keep contaminated protective clothing away from their everyday attire.
You also need to offer somewhere such as a site office or van where construction workers can securely keep their clothing and personal effects on site.
Workers must have a dedicated area to take a break and eat, with sufficient tables and seats for the number of workers likely to be in need at any time. They also need to have somewhere they can boil water. Drinking water should be easily identified and readily available, and you need space for workers to prepare and eat food. The areas should be kept tidy and clean and free of plant equipment and materials. The room should have sufficient ventilation or heating as required to provide a suitable temperature environment to be comfortable.
You will also need sufficient toilet facilities for the number of on-site workers. Some construction sites will also want to offer shower facilities if your workers are away from home for a period.
So with the list of facilities growing, hiring the facilities you need for each site will give you the maximum flexibility and reduce the cost of owning and storing many welfare units to ensure you always have what you need. Consider getting help from a specialist construction site, and event facilities hire company such as SRP Hire Solutions. This way, you know you can get all you need from one supplier to make your job easier.
Construction site welfare hire facilities
- Toilets – toilets can be hired as single units or trailer blocks and combine toilets and urinals. If you want better than a standard toilet, then a hot wash recirculating toilet will make life more comfortable as it includes a built-in immersion type heater to provide warm running water and a 75-liter arm wash sink.
- Site welfare and accommodation – welfare units can be mobile or static to offer flexibility to fit your construction site. Mobile units are compact and able to accommodate 5-16 people. As towable units, they contain all the facilities, such as toilets, running hot water, microwaves, and kettles, in a range of unit sizes to suit smaller and larger sites.
- Static welfare units are ideal for long-term sites. They are equipped with a generator to provide heating and lighting, as well as toilet facilities, office space, offset drying room, rest area, and canteen facilities. A standard site welfare unit of 24 feet provides sufficient space for up to six people.
- Site cabins – Site cabins can provide on-site secure storage, dedicated canteen facilities, an office and meeting space within individual units or as a 50/50 combination unit such as a canteen/dry room, office/canteen, or canteen/store, so you can change what you need according to your latest site requirements.
If you want to know the legal, here is guidance on the minimum requirements by the Health and Safety Executive for providing welfare facilities during construction work. It’s essential to look after your construction workers; they’ll be more loyal and better prepared, so keeping their welfare facilities up to scratch makes good business sense. It can be more cost-effective, flexible, and stress-free if you choose to hire rather than buy and provide quality facilities that will make it a pleasure to work on your site.
