Something has been gnawing at me for several months, I'm interested in what others think. In the past 5 months or so I've had several different contractors doing work around the house. New flooring, door replacement, and the shop that's being built as I type. There were also quite a few instances of my headache with contractors at the last house....and I couldn't decide whether to remind  them about safety. Actually, I could decide; I did nothing. But here's the dilemma, some of these guys are so unsafe with their work habits I kept the phone in hand to dial 911. the worst i saw was the laminate flooring guy doing free hand cuts on a bench top table saw, even "rip" cuts were done freehand, the fence was taken off the saw and lay in the grass next to where he was working. No eye protection, no nothing. Same with the door installer, though he wasn't using a table saw. The Amish crew building my shop have nothing in way of PPE, and they are walking around on the roof making cuts with small chain saws, using pneumatic nailers, miter saws, circ saws and whatever. The leader of the Amish crew was talking to me about table saws, and showed me the scars on both thumbs where he ran them into the  saw blade. The thumbs were not severed off (apparently), just badly cut. The concrete crew had no problem gassing up their power trowel while they were smoking, and the list goes on and on. Like I said, I'm just waiting to dial 911...what would you do? Calling them out on safe practices would almost certainly be unwelcome (to them) and I suspect to potentially lead to legal woes.

Edited November 20, 20178 yr by Ron Dudelston
tags added

step 1...

get it on film...

and narrate it...

In some states, the home/business owner can be liable for injuries sustained by those you've hired...contractor or not. Your insurance agent could advise.

Fred, like the others stated, find out by local law or state, if you are indeed liable for any injuries sustained by them during construction on your property. Out here in California, our contractors are expected to carry insurance for liability and injury.

 

So if you hired contractors, they should be covered, and they will present their proof of insurance on the spot when asked. If you hired handymen, who are unlicensed and un-insured, the least you could do is type up something, anything, for them to sign stating you are not liable for their injuries, at least you'll have that, don't know how good it is in the courtroom, but at least it's better than nothing.

 

All the above being said, welcome to the world of tradesmen!!!!!! Wrong and dangerous, it's how we work. I've been in the trades since I was in high school, worked for framing companies till I joined the military, after the military went back to the trades, and from the trades I came into surveying. And I am still exposed to the practices most would consider dangerous. From pegging back the blade guard on a Skil Saw to taping the trigger of a nailer in the compressed state to discharge nails on pressure, and much more, it's the way of "getting things done fast and efficient" and those who provide the services do get hurt sometimes, and chalk it up to "getting the job done". "Getting the job done", It's a great attitude to have, but at the cost of safety, and I am not saying it's right, but, it's reality. There is a reason why those guys got that structure of yours up so fast, and it wasn't following every single safety measure in the OSHA book I can assure you.

Did they have fall protection when up on the roof, were they tied off to a dead-man if they were within 6 feet of an edge that is higher than 10' off the ground? Are they wearing hard hats? There is so much more than exposed blades, I am sure they are not conforming too. I think the list is probably a mile long if you got an OSHA rep to walk on your site, you'd probably close the project down if you only knew all the violations!

 

Being a supervisor myself on my crew, I am responsible for the safety of my men, and I am anal about it, for our situation our danger is traffic and road issues related. We set our proper traffic control before surveying in the road, and we watch where we are at all  times in respect of power poles, overhead lines, and ground transformers, and traffic, we work within a couple feet of free way traffic at times, and there really is no way to do it safely, there is an inherent risk an many occupations no matter the safety precautions we take, and in my industry, our biggest danger, is vehicle traffic, and the idiots behind the wheel. And on construction sites, our biggest danger are the heavy equipment operators. A few years back we lost a man, he was backed over by a water truck, and crushed. Every truck on site needs to have a back up beeper, and when you have a dozen trucks and heavy equipment backing up, rolling hard, and pushing dirt around, they all start sounding the same, and our ears just get dull to the sound of the beepers, and our guy got too comfortable on site, and was crushed.

 

Safety, yep, it's there for us to use, we need to be safe in all we do, but when you have a money and profit driven industry where time is money, and in the trades it's all about time and money, your going to skip best practices in safety while chasing that almighty dollar. Again, I do not skip on safety, fortunately I work for a huge entity where money is abundant and we are actually encouraged to spare no expense on safety, but, lack of safety protocols in the trades is rampant.

 

And your right, they would not like it if you whipped out your safety card, but then again, it's your property, and you need to look out for number one, you, when it comes to lawsuits. 

Sorry, you originally asked "What would you do?".

I would ask to see their liability insurance, and call my contractors board and ask them what my liability is if any.

Several years ago we were visiting friends at their cabin in the woods.  I watched as my buddy was cutting up a fallen tree with his chainsaw.  I do not remember now how exactly he was using it - except in a very unsafe manner.  The first time he shut the saw off I went up to him and told him that it really bothered me to watch him operating it in such a manner.  He is still my buddy, but we have never been invited back to the cabin...

I have a lot of time working with chainsaws, cutting firewood, fenceposts, and saw timber.  I could not just stand by and watch him operate like he was.  He was a city boy and I know had never had a saw in his hands before buying the cabin.

Cal

The best way is to just talk it out with them.Sooner or later they will eventually face the consequences of not being safe while at work. You could have a talk with them early in the morning before they begin work.