BRRRRRR!!!!!!!

[kevin wooldridge]

I am not sure that cars or vans are excluded i.e a well equipped camper van could have everything that a small site hut has. The main point is that if a risk assessment identifies extreme cold as a potential risk to health and safety, suitable remedial action is required. I would imagine that an unheated hut (or car) wouldn't be satisfactory. Also a car is rarely an adequate substitute for a lavatory (although no doubt someone has a 'tale' to tell!!).

[the invisible man]

It's also going todepend on the nature of the contract. Clearly it is not reasonable to expect a heated hut and toilets on a one person one day watching brief or similar.

We owe the dead nothing but the truth.

[charlie farnsbarnes]

quote:I presume that curators can specify adequate hutting as a standard thing

Surely you can't expect the curator to specify every detail of every aspect on every site that takes place in their area. Contracting units surely have to take responsibility for [u]something</u>. You can't just say, 'The reason we haven't got a proper site hut is because it wasn't specified by the curator'. What next, 'We've got to excavate the site using our bare hands, beacuse the curator didn't say in his / her brief that we should use tools'.

[the invisible man]

A standard blanket (not the sort for keeping warm!) spec clause would cover it easily enough. You'd only have to write it once - say something like - welfare facilities including toilets, drinking hot and cold water and adequate heated accommodation of Xm2 to be provided for any work requiring X people for more than Y days - that sort of thing. It goes in standard Bills and Specs for construction projects - landline phones and faxes are usually required too....

In a commercial world you have to assume that nobody will do anything unless they have to.

We owe the dead nothing but the truth.

[BAJR Host]

Does that mean I can take out the section about what colour pants to wear??

Another day another WSI?

[destroyer]

well i dunno about u lot but im generally quite happy in the van. heater on in winter, aircon for those summer teabreaks. plus it has a radio and a handy drivers cup holder.

However I often wish we could have the full works but, on many sites, it is a catch 22 situation. Half the time i'm in the middle of a big empty field and the developers wont turn up, and put in basic infrastructure ie access, running water, phone line, until after we've done the work (based in our vans), given them the all clear and buggered off. Recently i've had sites where we cant even get a portaloo in because the hire companies send vehicles which they say cannot get over the various geographical features of the british countryside onto the site.

The other half the time, when we work alongside the developers and do have access to the full range of facilities none of us bloody use em anyway.

[I F Lostmetrowel]

Just a quick thought. All the bit about keeping warm ddn't include feet. I think I have got the keeping the old torso bit sorted but working in the freezing cold field in steel toe capped and mid-soled boots, my feet are often the first- and often fatal- casualties that dnt thaw out till next spring . If any one has ideas on this i would love to know. WOrst for me was doing some TST work on the east anglia foreshore in January. Site hut/warm area involved legging it to the local church which was open and with heating on

Here there and everywhere, but still no trowel

[Alfie]

I remember a particularily frozen january dig when the unit director sent an engineer on a 120 mile round trip to take the heater out of the site hut because "it might encourage the diggers to sit in the hut"
Top tip: dont be tempted by fleecy lined ex army tank drivers overalls unless you are under 4ft 8.

[BAJR Host]

Ah.... the tank suit!! I am 6'2" and that would explain why the damn things were a little... er snug!

on cold feet.... I would wear 3 layers.... now no laughing!

layer one... heavy tights (ere... I said no laughing!)
layer two... thin socks
layer three.. thick socks.

toasy toasty in the site hut.... take off your boots and put your feet on newspaper... as long as you have a heater on! keeps you fresh and healthy... stinks though!

Another day another WSI?

[achingknees]

1 Cardboard is a wonderful insulation (when dry). Market traders and the homeless testify.
2 Don't leave yer boots in the hut overnight.
3 Build a brazier.
4 Keep yer mid-riff covered! (tsk...you young uns)
5 Work like an eskimo (or substitute PC word) - measured, methodical digging that keeps you warm, but not overheated.
6 Fingerless gloves with mitten covers.
7 Now the brazier has stopped smoking, toast your tea cakes.
8 Frozen ground? Sod the project manager - it's an act of god.