Health and safety is vitally important to anyone who works in public places or in ways that can affect those around them. It is especially important in the world of demolition as the impacts can often be extreme.
When dismantling dangerous or dilapidated buildings and structures, it is important to protect not only the workers on site, but also any one who happens to be near by. It isn’t possible to equip every member of the public who might come into contact with a demolition site with a hard hat, high visibility vest, steel toe-capped boots etc, so instead, the demolition company has to make sure that any demolition that is happening in either a built up area or near existing housing etc is adequately shielded from any potential danger.
In built up areas buildings are often dismantled by hand. This is often the safest way within the existing environment to dismantle a building but the most expensive for the contractor. Although using a machine for the demolition is more effective there is less control over where parts of the building can fall. In extreme cases of explosive demolition a building can fall out of the designated drop zone.
Demolition is a dangerous business due to the instability of the structures that are to be demolished. It is the job of skilled demolition experts to minimise any possible risks so that the public can continue there lives with as little disruption as possible. Demolition companies now have to wet the building where they are working in order to minimise dust creation, this works quite effectively at controlling dust generation, but does not eliminate it completely.
Performing demolition in built up areas is often difficult, as machinery needs to negotiate the power lines and phone lines. This machinery can often interrupt the lives of local residents as their phones are often needed to be disconnected to allow the equipment to enter the demolition site.