Masonry Safety Inspections

Words: Justus EverettPhoto: Pakorn_Khantiyaporn

The look of confusion and utter loss on people’s faces when I tell them that I’m a safety inspector for a masonry company is often hilarious. It’s not the most commonly known job in this world, and the funny part is that the most commonly asked follow-up question I get is, “What is masonry?” Only after we’ve established what masonry consists of can we move on to what I actually do. So, what is it that safety inspectors do? Well, we save lives. This is not a bragging thing; it is our job to help make sure that the job site is safe for our workers. Sometimes when the superintendent and workers are in the midst of the day, they can forget why companies have safety standards and why they are important. It is the job of the safety inspector to remind them of why we do what we do and why it is important to do it in a particular way. The reason is family. We all have loved ones, people we care about, and that is the reason we all work. It is the job of the safety inspector to make sure every worker goes home to their families in the same condition as when they left that morning.

Where to Start:
So, what goes into a safety inspection? Where do you start? In full transparency, there isn’t a specific place you start. You simply look for the biggest danger and fix that immediately. Once that’s taken care of, you move on to the next most dangerous item if there is one. Once all the immediate dangers are taken care of or if there aren’t any, you start inspecting the job one thing at a time, looking for any hazards, risks, OSHA violations, or any risky behavior. Let’s consider a scenario: I arrive at a job where the scaffold has no safety rails at all. This would be the immediate danger. Work would be shut down and everything corrected before I would be able to move on to look at the rest of the job site. Only after this was fixed would I be able to look at the housekeeping, PPE, extension cords, etc. There may be another job where there are no immediate dangers. The scaffold looked good, and PPE looked good. It is after I made sure everything was correct that I could tackle some risky behavior. I notice that on the scaffold a few workers are moving block, and instead of walking the block around, they are tossing the block to each other. If one toss was off by the slightest, it could land on someone’s foot, bounce off something and hit a worker, or fall off the scaffold endangering someone below.

Priorities:
As a safety inspector, you must determine what is the priority of a situation. Only when you determine that there are no immediate dangers on the job is when you can start methodically inspecting the job site. I usually start with the scaffolds, due to the scaffold being the most prevalent equipment we use, making sure it’s put together properly and that everyone is wearing harnesses and lanyards. Once satisfied that the fall protection is good, PPE is next on the list, making sure everyone has all the PPE they need for the task they’re performing. After that, I may check the saws and mixing area, making sure that it has a fire extinguisher for both and that there’s the correct protective equipment for those areas. When I see the operator, I check to see his seatbelt and his license. I do the same if anyone is operating an aerial lift. The next order of business is housekeeping, checking for trip and slip hazards.
As you can see above, you start with the most dangerous and work your way down to the least. You can’t start with housekeeping if someone is climbing a scaffold tower with no harness on. You also can’t go inspect the mixer area if there are stacks of blocks that are dangerously leaning due to improper stacking.

Different Points of View:
The last order of business, for me, personally, is talking to the General Contractor. Some people may think differently, but this way the GC and I can compare notes. Some may say that it is better to talk to the GC first so that you know what he wants you to look out for, however, the way I see it is that we both can do our jobs best when we are not distracted by the points of view of the other. Then when I compare notes with him after the inspection, we can compare what stood out to us, rather than both of us specifically looking for what the other brought up. This way we both are doing our jobs to the best of our ability and we can both learn from the other.

Conclusion:
There may not be a “right way” to do a safety inspection, however, within the masonry field, there are always things that could go wrong. Our job includes heavy material, heavy machinery, and hazardous conditions. That’s why safety inspections are so important. We want all of our workers to go home back to their families at the end of the day. We want them to feel safe at work. At the end of the day, safety is all about people.

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