Tag Archives: construction job site

Sprinkle water to keep the construction site dust free

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It becomes difficult to breathe while you are inside a construction site. The amount of dust that you can see all around the site will make you wonder how the employees are working in such a perilous zone. They might contact any air borne disease which could be quite fatal to them. Also comes into the mind the necessary steps the company is taking to keep the dust under control. Well, frankly where construction is in full swing, dust is bound to flow in the environment and nothing much can be done by anybody to contain it. However, there is one step that can be taken to contain dust and it is to sprinkle water at regular intervals so that the water pulls the dust on the ground and allows fresh air to breathe. But there are places where there is water scarcity in that particular area. In such places, even sprinkling water can be a problem.

In order to bring dust under control, there is no other medium other than spraying water on the ground and if at all there is any other way to contain this problem then that will be very expensive, probably out of the reach of many construction companies. They will certainly not want to invest a good chunk of money to keep the dust level under control. Though it is a must to equip and implement whatever process you can to keep the construction site dust free, construction companies would not want to adopt any expensive modes. So this leaves them with the option of spraying water.

For places where there is water in abundance, construction companies can store gallons of water in a storage tank and then later fill it up in a truck that has a pipe attached to it and then use the truck to spray water all over the site. By doing this, you make the process portable; which means you need not have a large pipe that goes across the entire corner of the jobsite. One can only imagine this and wonder how tedious it will be for the person who moves around the jobsite with the pipe spraying water. For a big construction site, using a water tanker that can move while spraying water is the best option. Please do not make use of fresh drinking water for this purpose. You will only end up finishing your resources sooner than you have thought.

You can make use of water that you get while excavating earth. Though the proportion of that water will be quite limited for your use, you can also make use of saline water of the sea. For that, you need to make necessary arrangements to port water from the seabed to the construction site. This exercise may prove to be a bit expensive but certainly advisable rather than exhausting the fresh water to control dust. Using nozzles while sprinkling water is recommended as it not only settles down the dust but also allows it to return to the ground making it a convenient process of dust control.

Are two-way radios still use on a construction job site?

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With the world constantly moving towards technological advancements, there is a huge tendency of users to switch over to the use of smartphones in comparison to any other old and traditional methods of communication. However, the question is, whether the smartphones are always the best choices or not, remains.

At a construction site, where there is a continuous need to communicate with each other, it becomes absolutely impossible to complete any task if the communication is hampered or hindered. Hence, proper communication methods or medium should be used to ensure constant communication between all the workers.

About Smartphone and Two-Way Radios:

Traditionally, the tool that has been loved and vastly used by most of the workers at almost every construction site is the two-way radio. It is a handy tool, something that looks like a walkie-talkie and helps the workers to stay connected at all times and with everyone in the loop. But, its usage is limited only up to communication.

As the technology is ever growing and advancing in its features and facilities, even the heavy construction equipment and machines can now be synced with smartphones and operated well. Many other machines, contacts, alarms, notifications and apps can help you to make your construction work easier with a smartphone that is the reason why many of the construction site workers as well as the leaders, managers and executives are switching towards using the smartphones as their mode of communication.

Which One is the Better?

Now that you have known about the two most popular modes of communication at a construction site, it is now a question, which one is better. There are a few factors that need to be taken into consideration then.

  • Ease of use:

 

One of the most important factors that need to be taken into consideration is the ease of use and that is great in case of the two way radios. With just a single push, you can communicate with one or more workers at the construction site at a time. The smartphones do not give the facility of communicating with every person at the construction site a single go.

  • In case of emergency:

 

There can be emergency situations when the cell towers or networks of the smartphone operators stop working or responding. The two way radios work even in such emergency situations.

  • Affordability:

 

Yet another important factor that needs to be kept in mind is the factor of affordability. Since you will be purchasing them for all the workers at a construction site or for you on-site construction workers, you need to buy something that is cost-effective. The two way radios are way cheaper than the smartphones.

Hence, it can well be said that the two way radios have a great acceptability at the construction job site and its popularity is not going to lessen any time soon. With the world famous companies such as Motorola making great two way radios for the construction job sites, you can be satisfied that the performance of these radios will be unparalleled.

How does rain affect a construction job site

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Challenges have many faces and sometimes it comes in the face of weather. If there is a hostile weather and you have strict deadlines, it is just not possible to complete the job on time. You have to stop work as your men will have a tough time to carry on with the site operations and it also not makes any sense to risk the lives of your workers when you know that it is not going to happen. Though excuses do not work in the construction sector but this does not mean that you are going to put the lives of the workers at risk. A stormy weather or heavy monsoon can be a real spoilsport for your work. Other seasons like summer and winters can still be managed but during monsoon it just becomes unmanageable. One good thing is that it does not rain heavily all throughout the monsoon. There are few days in a month when you will not see the sky pouring water and this is perhaps the time when you should work hard to try and complete the work and be ahead of schedule.

Rain has always been a major threat to the construction business. If it rains a lot it may also affect the quality of the building. The workers have nothing to do as they are instructed not to proceed with the work for a couple of days. This makes things quite difficult for the company. The delay caused due to rains has to be compensated on other days by working for extra hours. The engineers may have their own plans to sort things out but rain can turn things away from them and not all might end up as per the plan laid by them. Heavy rains also impact the digging work. Excavation work becomes riskier as the earth becomes soft and quite unpredictable. Moreover the ground is watery and this can turn really ugly for the guys employed for digging work. No number of safety equipments can be of much use when they work in a situation like this.

Industry experts believe that nothing more can have a much greater negative impact on the construction sector other than hostile weather and specifically monsoon which has after effects too. Some companies have even experienced the worst. It took them almost 3 months to place a slab of a building which ideally does not take more than a couple of weeks. It seemed to rain every day and when it did not workers could not find it convenient to work.

Heavy rains also block the supply of materials to the jobsite. Materials are all blocked for days and it becomes tougher for the company to operate in such a situation. Now one can’t control rains and therefore need to chart out a strategy by keeping these things into consideration. Rains can cause quite a havoc in the construction industry and the companies should be prepared to take on challenges that comes along with it.

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Winters may cause immense health hazards to construction workers

Places where it snows are not conducive for construction industry to flourish. But it does not mean that the construction industry will not flourish at all at such places. If it snows throughout the year then it is a grave concern for this industry to set its foot in. However, if it is only during the winters that it snows and for the rest of the year, it becomes conducive for the industry to thrive then that will really help. We all know how immensely difficult it is to take care of heavy equipment and also to work on a project during the cold weather but less care has been given to the fact that it also takes a toll on the construction workers who find it all the more difficult to work in a rough weather and with very limited help from machines.

During winters, heavy equipment tend to stop working which means that the construction workers will have to put their efforts and try to get the work done. At times, it may not be possible for them to finish a job without the use of equipment. In such case, it becomes a loss to the company. In situations like these, companies tend to risk the life of the workers by pressuring them to work overtime in difficult work conditions. The workers have to work on snow or ice and have high risk of slipping while working. They may cause severe damage to themselves. It is therefore very important for the construction companies as well as the workers to follow the correct safety parameters while working in snow. By following these parameters, they will only save their as well as their colleagues lives.

Check if the brakes and other vital parts of the equipment are in order:-

Before you start with your day, it is very important to check if the brakes, horn and other important parts of the equipment are in order. Once the operator is sure that everything is in place, he should carry on with the work. In case if he finds any issues, it is advisable that he get that sorted first and then starts off with the day’s work. Any negligence on his part can cost the company as well as the worker dearly.

Ensure that all the workers wear their safety accessories:-

In many of the occasions, workers skip wearing their safety accessories assuming that they will be safe and wearing those stuffs will be time consuming. Calamity does not knock the door before arriving. It just strikes you and workers should understand this important part. More importantly, the supervisor on the construction site should take the responsibility that all the workers are equipped with complete safety accessories and that there is an emergency team active at the site. Just in case, if there is an emergency situation, the team will be able to deal with it.

Report anything that you find to be dangerous:-

Construction workers should report anything that they find to be dangerous. This will help to save the life of many other workers who may not know about the danger on the site.