Health and safety remains a fundamental and ongoing priority across the construction industry. The specialist property maintenance sector is no exception to this.
With exposure to hazardous chemicals, working in a variety of environments both domestic and commercial, and working with a wide array of tools and techniques, there are a multitude of things that can and do go wrong.
Even when you think you’ve thought of everything, it only takes a small lapse in judgment or a training misstep to create an avoidable situation that has real life consequences for our technical staff, our clients, and even bystanders passing by one of our work sites. With that said, it is integral that we maintain the highest standards of health and safety training to limit preventable accidents and emergencies.
In this blog, we take a deep dive into the health and safety considerations within the property care industry, and how Timberwise approaches key initiatives to protect the health of our staff, our clients, and others.
Understanding the Risks in Property Care
To understand the behaviours and processes we embody, we first must understand the inherent risks of working in the property care industry, specific to the situations Timberwise finds during surveys and treatment work. Here are a few examples of relevant factors we expect when surveying or treating any property.
Damp Environments
It goes without saying that rising damp and penetrating damp are two prevalent issues that we diagnose and treat for, both in commercial and domestic settings. Damp environments create additional risks with slips and trips, but also create the ideal environment for greater health concerns to appear if you’re exposed to these conditions over a long period of time.
Fungal Decay and Mould
Often created because of long-term damp issues, both wet rot and dry rot can present a risk to life. While neither fungus releases toxic chemicals into the air directly, both can be linked to respiratory issues caused either by exposure to their spores or by the damp environment they thrive in.
These damp environments are also often linked with the development of black spot mould, a pervasive mould common in bathrooms and areas of high condensation. Black mould has recently promoted changes in the house rental industry with the passing and amendments to Awaab’s Law, named after a 2-year-old child who died in 2020 due to prolonged exposure to mould within a property.
Structural Instability
A property needs to remain in a watertight condition to property ventilate and remove moist air. Whether your property is constructed from timber, masonry, concrete, or a combination of materials, each one can fail for a variety of reasons. Issues such as damp or fungal decay can weaken a structural component like a lintel, your roof, or floorboards if left in that condition for long periods. Eventually, these structures collapse, causing significant damage to your property, but also physical injury to anyone within the property at the time.
Restricted Spaces
To identify the full extent of a property care issue, it is necessary to survey both the living and structural spaces within a building, where possible. To that end, it’s often necessary to navigate crawlspaces, lofts, and the voids beneath floorboards and in ceilings, as well as the immediately visible damage that you might have noticed already.
Working in restricted or confined spaces is highly dangerous due to limited entry and exit, poor ventilation, and the potential for invisible, life-threatening hazards like toxic fumes, oxygen depletion, and engulfment. The confined nature of the space makes immediate escape and emergency rescue difficult.
Working at Height
Damp issues aren’t just restricted to moisture from the floor. Often, our technicians are required to work at height, such as when conducting timber repairs in high-ceilinged buildings like churches or community halls. Falls then become a significant risk factor for our teams, whether they’re working from scaffolding or a ladder. Falls from height are also the biggest cause of fatalities in construction, and even a fall of a few feet can cause life-changing injuries.
Risk Assessments and RAMS
A key component in any site visit is planning around what you might expect to encounter within that environment. To that end, Risk Assessments and Method Statements (RAMS) Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (Regulation 3), employers must make a “suitable and sufficient” assessment of the risks to their employees and anyone else affected by their work. This process identifies hazards, evaluates risks, and implements necessary control measures.
RAMS are split into two key areas. The risk assessment portion of the document focuses on identifying potential hazards, evaluates who might be harmed, and details the measures taken to reduce as much risk as possible from those hazards.
Once defined in the risk assessment, the method statement details the specific order of events to carry out a task successfully and safely. This document then acts as an actionable instruction manual for any specialists on the site, whether our own or another contractor’s.
RAMS statements can be generalised to an extent for repetitive tasks or environments. However, to be legally compliant and effective, a specialist must also identify the site-specific hazards. Every site has unique properties, and failing to recognise these hazards can inadvertently create new hazards or invalidate any safety documentation in the event of an incident.
Training and Competency
Timberwise is committed to developing a culture where health and safety is a core value, adopted and practiced throughout all levels of the business. Our commitment to our employees and stakeholders is demonstrated by our leadership team’s management of Health, Safety, Security and the Environment and our continual drive towards zero incidents.
Timberwise are also a long-standing member of the Property Care Association (PCA). As part of this partnership, Timberwise are regularly audited on its training practices to ensure they meet or exceed the requirements for the industry to ensure our staff and those around them are always safe. Timberwise also regularly undertakes audits from independent external bodies such as CHAS and Constructionline. Information about these and our other partnerships are available on our Accreditations page.
Regular discussions form a large part of our continued approach to health and safety. Some of the measures we take to maintain and improve our approach include:
- Monthly Toolbox Talks, which focus on specific risks such as vibration from tools and dust inhalation
- Quarterly committee meetings and regular team meetings to discuss issues and concerns
- Continuous Professional Development CPD to broaden the skillsets of our specialists
- Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) fitting and training for multiple tasks to ensure specialists know what equipment to use in each situation
- Regular equipment competency and checks to ensure equipment is working correctly and that specialists are proficient in its use
These among other behaviours help to forge and improve Timberwise’s vision for health and safety in the specialist property care industry.
However, health and safety, while integral to our technicians and surveyors, is not the only place of importance for our business. Our office staff, both in our head office and regional locations, are integral to the planning of health and safety and providing adequate and suitable equipment
From workstation and DSE (Display Screen Equipment) assessments to fire safety procedures and first aid provision, Timberwise continually reviews its office environments to ensure they remain safe, comfortable, and supportive places to work. Regular checks and maintenance of office equipment, electrical systems, and welfare facilities help minimise risks and support the wellbeing of our colleagues throughout the business.
Occupied Property Safety
Of course, it’s not just enough to protect our specialists and our in-office staff: We also have a responsibility to our clients, their families and pets, as well as other members of the public that might pass by while we’re working on a building site or in a property.
In treating a domestic property, one of the main challenges is in containing any work areas effectively. This is achieved by covering a work area in , as well as closing any surrounding doors. This prevents the transmission of dust to any other rooms, as well as preventing damage to a client’s belongings, or contributing to a change in their health. This dust sheeting can be removed from the property containing any debris once remedial work has been completed.
Protection is especially important when considering vulnerable clients, specifically those who have ongoing respiratory conditions such as asthma, or those who at more at risk of developing these conditions, such as infants or the elderly. These conditions can be exacerbated by dust created from removing timbers or plasterboard during repair work.
Additionally, though many fungal rot spores are omnipresent, leaving large remains of fungal material can cause problems to reoccur once treatment has concluded. Fungal rot does not contain hazardous toxins, but the spores can also contribute to ill respiratory health if inhaled. Spores can easily spread into the air during removal, allowing them to circulate and potentially cause irritation or harm.
Another key consideration is noise. Some of our equipment produced high levels of noise, particularly when working with solid concrete or masonry. PPE hearing protection reduces noise exposure to safe levels, preventing noise-induced hearing loss in our technicians.
Although noise levels are usually quieter the further away from a work area you are, we also consider our clients’ health. Sealing an area with plastic sheeting does help mitigate some of the noise travelling through a property. We also communicate with our clients to ensure that noise levels are reasonably limited, are contained to agreeable times, and cause as little disruption to their daily life as possible.
Where possible, we also isolate high noise producing activities away from a property. For example, we may have timber components machined off-site. This means that timbers can be cut to size and then transported to the property for fitting, eliminating the need for these noisy tools on site.
Finally, we also need to consider the public when working within any property or commercial environment. This is especially important when working in communal areas, near entrances, public footpaths, or shared access routes where residents, visitors, delivery drivers or passers-by may be present.
To help maintain public safety, Timberwise uses clear signage, temporary barriers and controlled work zones to restrict unauthorised access to hazardous areas. Tools, materials and equipment are stored safely when not in use to reduce the risk of trips, falls or accidental contact. access routes are carefully managed, and we prefer the use of cordless tools where possible to minimise disruption and prevent avoidable hazards.
Communication also plays an important role. Where work may affect shared spaces or access routes, we aim to provide clear notice to residents, occupants, or site managers in advance wherever possible. By planning work carefully and maintaining good housekeeping standards throughout a project, Timberwise helps ensure that work areas remain safe not only for our specialists and clients, but for everyone around them.
Timberwise’s Safety Culture
Communication forms an important part of our office health and safety procedures. Staff are encouraged to report hazards, raise concerns, and contribute ideas that may improve workplace safety and wellbeing. Through regular internal communication, training updates, and shared responsibility across departments, Timberwise continues to strengthen a positive and proactive approach to health and safety at every level of the organisation.
This joined-up approach ensures that whether working in a customer’s property, surveying a complex basement environment, or supporting operations from the office, every Timberwise colleague understands the importance of safe working practices and their role in maintaining them.
Open communication is central to maintaining this culture. Risk assessments and method statements are communicated directly to employees affected by the work being undertaken, ensuring everyone involved understands the hazards present and the control measures required. Regular toolbox talks, internal updates and ongoing discussions also help reinforce awareness around topics such as noise, vibration, manual handling, the Control of Substances Harmful to Health (COSHH), and workplace wellbeing.
Timberwise also encourages the reporting of accidents, incidents and near misses as part of a proactive approach to continual improvement. Employees are expected to report concerns promptly so that investigations can take place, root causes can be identified, and procedures reviewed where necessary. Near miss reporting plays an important role in helping prevent future incidents by identifying risks before harm occurs. Accident and incident trends are reviewed by senior management, with findings used to improve working practices, training and risk assessments across the business.
Continuous Professional Development (CPD) and ongoing training also form a key part of Timberwise’s long-term approach to health and safety. Training needs are reviewed regularly to ensure employees maintain the necessary skills, knowledge and competency for the environments they work within. Alongside formal qualifications and external accreditation requirements, Timberwise supports continual learning through toolbox talks, refresher training and industry-led development opportunities to help ensure standards continue to improve across the organisation.
Conclusion
Health and safety in specialist property care extends far beyond simple compliance or box-ticking exercises. From damp environments and fungal decay to confined spaces, working at height, and occupied properties, the risks associated with our industry are varied and constantly evolving. Managing these risks effectively requires careful planning, clear communication, ongoing training, and a culture where safe working practices are embedded throughout every level of a business.
At Timberwise, health and safety is embedded within our day-to-day operations and working practices. Whether supporting office staff, surveying complex structural environments, carrying out remedial treatments in occupied homes, or protecting members of the public around our work sites, our aim is always the same: to minimise risk and maintain the highest possible standards for everyone affected by our work.
Specialist experience also plays a vital role. Understanding how damp, timber decay, structural instability, hazardous materials, and restricted spaces interact within a building environment allows specialist contractors to identify hazards early and implement the correct control measures before work begins. Combined with robust RAMS, procedures, regular training, continual professional development and ongoing investment in safety culture, this helps ensure projects are completed safely, professionally, and responsibly.
As National Safety Month highlights, maintaining strong health and safety standards is not a one-time initiative, but an ongoing commitment to continual improvement. Through regular review, communication and investment in our people, Timberwise remains committed to helping raise health and safety standards across the specialist property care industry.
FAQs
What is a Contractor Risk Assessment?
A contractor risk assessment is the process of identifying, evaluating, and mitigating the hazards and liabilities associated with working alongside third-party workers. It ensures external personnel, such as freelancers, tradespeople, or consultants, meet safety, legal, and operational standards without putting your business at risk.
Why is Health and Safety Important in Damp Proofing?
Health and safety is particularly important in damp proofing due to the range of hazards associated with the work. Damp proofing activities often involve exposure to dust, chemicals, confined spaces, manual handling, power tools, work at height and potentially hazardous building materials within occupied properties and construction environments. Without effective controls, these hazards can pose risks to employees, clients, contractors and members of the public.
What are RAMS?
Risk Assessments and Method Statements (RAMS) are a legal requirement that identifies the potential hazards within an environment, and outlines the procedures require to complete any high-risk tasks safely. The risk assessment portion of the document focuses on identifying potential hazards and who might be harmed, while the method statement details the specific order of events to carry out a task successfully and safely.
What PPE is Used in Basement Waterproofing?
Basement waterproofing requires PPE that protects against chemical hazards (primers, resins), dust (surface prep), moisture, and confined-space risks. Essential gear includes face-fitted respiratory protection, wraparound safety goggles, waterproof overalls and gloves, steel-toe-safety boots, and knee pads.
What are the Dangers of Working in Restricted Spaces?
Working in restricted or confined spaces is highly dangerous due to limited entry and exit, poor ventilation, and the potential for invisible, life-threatening hazards like toxic fumes, oxygen depletion, and engulfment. The confined nature of the space makes immediate escape and emergency rescue difficult.
