Construction site hazards can be extremely dangerous for employees and visitors as well as pedestrians, in some cases. From loud noises to falling debris, each risk of your construction site must be adequately communicated to your employees with construction warning signs. This helps ensure lawful compliance while protecting those on your site from harm. Here, we explain all about warning signs, including what they’re used for, how they can be identified and what regulations you need to be aware of.
What are construction hazard signs used for?
Construction hazard signs are used to draw attention to a particular risk which could affect the health and safety of employees or visitors.
Building site warning signs are essential pieces of equipment for your construction business as they enable your employees to act safely while ensuring you comply with regulations. However small it might seem, any risk you identify but cannot adequately remove through other means must be signposted by clear site warning signs. These are just one area of construction signage.
To learn more, read our guide to the different types of construction site signs.
What do warning signs in construction look like?
Construction warning signs use yellow triangles with black images to depict a hazard. They sometimes also incorporate yellow panels and black writing to provide further information. However, hazard signs are often paired with other types of construction safety signs to offer additional actions that must be taken to maintain safety.
For example, the Warning Construction Site Keep Out sign is especially useful for construction sites in populated areas where pedestrians could wander on site without knowing. This effectively tells people what the hazard or restricted area is, and gives the mandatory action of staying away if they aren’t authorised to enter. Without this warning sign, a pedestrian could walk on site and be injured by a risk they are unaware of, which could leave the site manager liable to legal repercussions, if adequate signage was not provided.
Construction warning signs regulations
The risks of your construction site will vary greatly project to project. This is why the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (1999) insist on a thorough risk assessment being carried out before work begins. It helps ensure all hazards have been identified and that every reasonable effort is made to minimise or reduce the likelihood or severity of each risk.
All findings of the risk assessment must be recorded to provide evidence in the event of an accident or legal inquiries. If a risk is unable to be removed by other means, adequate hazard signs must be provided to inform people of the risks as much as possible. The Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996 (HSR) details the types of hazard signs you might need to use in your construction site and highlights the need for employers to be proactive and take accountability for highlighting the risks on their site.
UK Safety Store exists to make safety simple for your construction business, enabling you to choose appropriate construction safety signs and focus on what you do best. To learn more about construction signage, visit our dedicated resource centre and discover our brief guide to PPE in construction.
Darren Taylor, managing director of UK Safety Store
With over 30 years' experience in the manufacturing and regulations of safety signs, our managing director Darren prides himself on providing the very best services and insights for all UK Safety Store customers.
