Demolition Work and Work Health and Safety Regulations

Discuss about the Safe Design and Execution of Demolition.

Any job connected to the demolition of a building is known as work of construction under the regulations of work health and safety. When performing the demolition work, the necessities connected to construction work must be followed. Demolition means to dismantle a structure of load bearing or that is related to the physical integrity of the structure after the life of serviceability by controlled and pre-planned methods but does not include the false work designed to provide the support, containment or access during construction. Also, it does not include the removal of telecommunication poles, power and lights. A structure is any constructed thing, whether movable or fixed, permanent or temporary and comprises the storage tanks, silos, chimney stacks, towers, sheds and buildings (Australia, 2010).

The codes give the guidance on how risks associated with the demolition work can be managed and follows the systematic process such as; identifying the hazards, assessing the associated risks with the identified hazards if necessary, implementing the measures of control and reviewing and maintain the effectiveness of the control measures. Demolition of a house and the structures are needed for many reasons, for example, the building design has a lifespan known as the design life. The building is constructed considering the lifespan and when the design life is over, the building is not safe for the neighboring buildings and living (Boonstra, 2014). Old structures can be replaced by the new ones, the building can also lose its stability or, might have a damage, some of them are also demolished to construct the bigger ones.

The top-down way is the self-descending grid structure made of the steel and work according to the hydraulic principle controlled by the systems automated. It assembled on the ground and its component of load bearing are mounted on top of the high rise building (Best, 2013). The shape of the top way system modular can be adapted to the shape of any high rise building. it enables the work demolition and as the work proceeds, the platform of top way system, descends in the controlled manner and position on the floor down, the skyscraper is demolished floor by floor until the level of the ground is reached.

Identification of the risk that is connected with the demolition work are the first things to do in the management process, examples include; unplanned collapse of the structure, falls from one level to another, objects that falls, the location of underground and above the essential services such as supply of water, gas, chemicals, telecommunication and electricity, exposure of the dangerous chemicals that may be available in the materials demolished or the ground where the work or demolition is to take place, dangerous noise from the plants and explosives used in the demolition and the building’s proximity being dismantled to other structures (Castro, 2014).

Demolition Methods and Reason

Above shows the workplace where the demolition has to take place and the signs and posters are put to shows the people around that they should keep away because the site is dangerous

Under the work health and safety regulation, the management of the risk is not important for the dismantle work but it is needed for the exact situation. For examples when dealing with explosives or asbestos (Collins, 2013). In many cases, the assessment of risks will help in knowing the measures of control to be applied. It will enable the identification of workers who are at the risks of coverage, regulate the processes and causes that are the root cause of the risks, identify the type of measures to be applied and check the efficiency of the obtainable measures of control. when doing the risks assessment there are some of the things that should be considered such as; the structural integrity of the building to be demolished, the demolition methods and its sequencing, work schedule, the workplace layout, the equipment and plants to be used exposure that it might cause UV or noise, number of the involved people and condition of the local weather (Cramer, 2013).

Specific measures of control are more appropriate compared to others and can be graded from the maximum level of protection and reliability to the lowermost (Cramer, 2013). Hazards must be eliminated and the risk must be minimized by the following;

• Substitution; for example by using demolition of the mechanical method if it is safer than the manuals methods.
• Sequestration; such as the use of the concrete barrier to detached the powered mobile plant and pedestrians to lessen the effects of collisions.
• controls of engineering; such as installing the escalator of the open cab with a falling object with the protective projects of the falling objects to reduce the problem of being struck by the falling object

If the risks persist it should be reduced by the implementing the controls of administration like installing signs of warning and making the excluded zones around the demolition work (Gropius, 2016). Any remaining problems must be reduced by the appropriate personal protective equipment like giving workers steel cap boots, hard hats and high visibility vests.

Reviewing control measures the control measures put in place should be reviewed regularly for them to be appropriate. The common methods of review are the inspection of the workplace, consultation, analyzing records and data after testing (Haggar, 2010).

Demolition work should be planned carefully before the starts of the work. Planning comprise the identification of the risks, assessing them and determining the best control measures with the relevant people in the work including the contractor of demolition, principal contractor, mobile plant operators and structural engineers (Laidman, 2015).

The structures height is measured from the lowermost level of the ground to its highest point. The information type that would present in the report would be; the particulars of the contract and the person doing the work, the notice date, demolition nature and where the work is to take place,

The Top-Down Approach

The designers must ensure that the building is made to be minus risks to the safety and health of the persons in the relation to good disposal or demolition of the building. For the demolition of work there maybe the the reports of the safety designers such as the report made by the original construction of the building (Laidman, 2015). There are some of the design matter that should be take into consideration when doing demolition; stability of the structure, proximity of the adjoining building, the proposed handling methods, and provision of the safe working areas.

A license is needed to undertake the demolition work, a person is need to seek the advice from the work health safety regulator or the regulator of the building on where to get the license. The person with management must ensure that asbestos is identified by the competent person and the register of the asbestos is proposed for the workplace and must be kept up to date. The person performing the business of the removal of asbestos must make sure that the work is carried by the asbestos revivalist who is licensed (Limbachiya, 2010)

The person performing the business should consult with the designers to get the report showing the associated hazards with the structure in the arrangement stage of the work of demolition of the building and its constituents should be sustained in the steady condition to avoid unpredicted collapse (MacMahon, 2012).
Hazards chemicals and materials

The work of demolition may structure with hazards materials, such as chemicals, asbestos, lead, contaminated dust and combustible materials. Before doing any demolition work the areas including the cellars, waste dumps and vaults should be examined.

Any work of construction, demolition being one of them that involves the asbestos disturbances is defined by the work health safety regulator as the high-risk work of construction. The person performing the work has the duties to identify whether the asbestos is available and notifying others if it is. Where the building is to be dismantled, the designer must get the copy of the register of asbestos from the management. If there is no register of asbestos, the designers of the demolition must not perform any work until the building has been inspected to determine whether the asbestos in the structure, to make sure that the determination is done by the competent person and if the asbestos is assumed to be present, the owner and the occupiers should be informed (MacMahon, 2012).

Identification of Demolition Work Hazards and Assessing the Risks

All the asbestos that can be affected by the demolition should be known before the work of the destruction is carried out. If only the part of the building is to be dismantled, only the asbestos that is to be affected when demolition that portion of the building is needed to be removed before the commencement of the demolition work (Statistics, 2016). When planning demolition, the following should be considered: the age of the building and the asbestos likelihood or the other material that are hazards being available, the location of the asbestos in the relation to the proposed destruction, if there are areas that are not accessible and have asbestos, whether the asbestos can be damaged during demolition and if they can be removed, condition and the type of the asbestos available and amount of the asbestos present. The demolition part of the building can be done to get the asbestos in situ so that it can be removed safely. For example, the wall part may be demolished to get the asbestos in the opening of the wall so it can be done away with before further destruction (Taylor, 2015).

The sequence of demolishing a building can be critical in the safety and health of workers and the public. The sequence of demolition will depend on the demolition methods selected, location and construction. Many methods can be used either combination or separately and control measures should be selected on the basis of the methods of demolition (Whyte, 2012).

It comprises any system where tools such as the sledgehammer, jackhammers and picks are used. It has numerous problems including the unexpected falling, falling objects, and collapse and chemical hazards. To prevent the risk of the unplanned collapse, the situation of the floors, roof, of the house should be examined by the experienced person before starting the demolition (Australia, 2010).

Automated demolition comprises the use of the movable plant that is powered such as the loaders, cranes, bulldozers, and excavators. All the mobile powered plants used for the destruction must be installed with the appropriate mixture of the devices of protective operators. The buildings of the defensive operators should be made to the suitable standard that reduces the risks (Taylor, 2015).

This involves the systematic removal of the main structures and application of the force to cause the collapse. The advice should be gotten from the competent person before the method is used. Induced collapse can only be applied to the detached, isolated buildings. There must be a very large clear space where the material that collapses will fall. It can be done through load reduction of with chain pulling, slings and ropes (Best, 2013).

It is known as the high-risk work, the competent person with the experience in the explosives should carry out the demolition and the explosives should not be used to enhance collapsing unless approved by the authority of regulation (Castro, 2014).

The special structures are unusual because of the condition and nature of construction. They include the precast panel of concrete and framed buildings, and precast tensioned construction, slung structures, and stressed skin structures (Collins, 2013).

Conclusion

One thing about the projects of the construction of building houses is just that as they went up during construction they will come down one day as a result of demolition when the design lifetime if over. before setting up any demolition projects, it’s very significant to make the environmental considerations, through making the environmental site assessment, the health and the safety of the public, owners of the houses must be considered and determined before the demolition of then work, also the houses and grounds should be assessed to ensure that chemical hazards and asbestos are all removed before the demolition commences.

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