When navigating a period of transition, it's easy for external demands to divert your focus. However, ensuring your family's safety becomes challenging if you lack clarity on the potential risks of your current project. The scope and area of your project can determine how dangerous the materials are for both the workers and the residents of your home. Being mindful of construction dangers, a children’s checklist for safety, and tips preparing children for construction will hopefully guide you in the right direction to start. This blog highlights the importance of child safety regarding renovations, remodels, or repairs.

Construction Dangers

Everyone knows there are hazards regarding construction. But most people could not say exactly what is dangerous about it, since the danger often comes within specific details of a project. Projects involving children inherently carry greater risk. This is because children lack the developed cognitive abilities of adults, and even adults are prone to errors and accidents when working on a job site. If children are near the construction area, ensure they maintain a safe distance and understand crucial safety rules, such as avoiding climbing on equipment or materials.

Every adult person on site should be aware of the children as much as they can, with forward notice of their presence. Parents need to closely supervise their children, paying particular attention to potential hazards such as fall areas, obstacles, heavy equipment, and the steady flow of foot traffic in various zones. Additionally, depending on the specifics, it is important to be aware of which materials and resources are most harmful to young minds and bodies. Some examples could include exposed wiring, large piles of lumber, sharp tools, and scaffolding.

Contractors need to exercise extreme caution when handling materials such as asbestos, fiberglass, formaldehyde, lead and other heavy metals, and silica dust. Since children are often naturally curious about new things, any particularly harmful substances must be handled quickly and safely. Enforce a strict “you can look but you can’t touch” policy and ensure viewing is from a safe distance away.
According to PubMed Central, children are at an increased risk for exposure of environmental toxins due to them eating more, breathing more, and touching more. This makes their body weight to contaminants ratio high, requiring more attention to keep them safe from falling ill, or even in extreme cases, death. At Keep Your Child Safe.org, there is a large list explaining almost every kind of chemical and toxin that could affect a child.

Construction Children Checklist

Although there is no fool proof method to ensure everything is safe 100% of the time, MethodHQ has come up with a check list that offers an inclusive list of potential oversights. This kind of list would be used on site by the employees in charge of constructing or remodeling your project.

Their 12 questions are as follows:

1. Is fencing in good condition, no large holes, gaps, etc?
2. Are gates lockable and in good condition?
3. Are warning notices displayed at strategic points?
4. Are ladders removed from excavations?
5. If practicable is the build up of water prevented?
6. Are ladders removed or access to dangerous heights prevented?
7. Are hazardous electrical supplies securely isolated?
8. Is plant and machinery securely immobilized after the end of each shift?
9. Are blades, forks and buckets of equipment grounded?
10. Are materials stacked safely?
11. Are hazardous substances locked away?
12. Are gas supplies isolated or locked away?

BiiLT has come up with a few additional questions for the jobsite whereas children are involved. Other companies may ask similar inquiries when planning for the job. 

Questions like:

1. How long is the job going to take?
2. How noisy is the renovation environment?
3. Is the project during the school year?
4. What parts of the house are the children most likely to play in?
5. Is the project spanning common areas a child would be in?
6. Where would be best to store equipment and other materials when they are not being used? Where would they be stored offsite, if necessary?
7. Does the child have other considerations, such as allergies, or other conditions, that would make them more sensitive to the air quality?

For any parent, it’s important to know your child. Any concerns or topics that you think could endanger your child specifically should be brought to the attention of the crew you’re remodeling with. For example, if your child has asthma, the employees might start cutting materials and assembling the cabinets outside to prevent excessive dust and other inhalants from being inside.

Reminders for Parents

• Most children are just curious
  • A great number of children are interested in the transformation of their home. For better or worse, children are little sponges that want to use all of their senses to know more about the world around them. This is a big reason why jobsites and parents need to be extra careful when little ones are around, to prevent them from getting hurt from anything they shouldn’t be interacting with.
• Change can be overwhelming to young minds
  • Adapting to a drastic change in what was once familiar can be a challenge for both children and adults. It’s important to communicate the changes on a level that your child can understand, no matter how silly it may seem. Additionally, children are likely to want to lean on you for emotional support during this time. Help them process this change and explain the benefits to them; whether that’s explaining they get more room to play or it’s to make the kitchen look pretty, letting them know what’s going on can greatly help them. 
• Safety first and what that looks like
  • It is crucial to make every effort to prevent potential harm to children by shielding them from the many dangers inherent in construction, despite the countless ways children can get hurt. Noise, dust, and more can cause harm with unseen consequences in the future. It’s imperative that anywhere a child can be in the construction site is child-proofed, even if a responsible adult is watching. Additionally, any age of child should be carefully observed and prevented from being in the construction areas when possible.
• Your child is likely to surprise you throughout this process
  • Children do and say the silliest things that will somehow make perfect logical sense within their developing brains. Common sense is not the same for kids and adults. Even different adults have struggles with ideas of common sense, so children should be under more scrutiny. Do not let them follow through with something that they might regret.

Tips for Educating Children about Construction Safety

Educating your child can prevent them from finding out about construction safety before it is too late. Plus, children pick up more than one might think, even if they do not understand what they are hearing. Learning construction safety should result in four key outcomes: the ability to recognize dangers, understand warning signs and signals of potential risks, know the proper response procedures for injuries or emergencies, and understand how to behave appropriately when on or near a job site. Here’s some ideas to implement that kind of education for your child.

1. Explain to your child what risks are. You can do this in many different ways but it’s best if you tell it in a way that resonates with your child. Whether that’s giving examples, showing pictures of risks, or weaving a story to make them understand, making them understand can be helpful to allow them to be safe even if the jobsite was not secured. Certain risks should be communicated as absolute non-negotiables.
2. Make flash cards of signage or symbols that are used for your project. Sometimes a visual representation can be helpful for children learning about what it means. Breaking things down to their simplest terms can be useful for the mental connections for a child’s understanding. Do not hesitate to test them on their knowledge as it could prevent accidents.
3. Call for help. No matter how safe a job could be, accidents might happen. Whether someone was scratched or had a fatal emergency, make sure your child knows to find you or an adult. If no one is around, make sure they know 911. To help them remember this you can use this helpful little saying. “Adults first, 911 for the worst.” Explain to them what “the worst” could potentially be and encourage your child to be safe through this process.
4. “Mimic Me.” Children are known to have a lot of energy and bounce around every which way. It’s crucial that your child has an awareness of what is going on around them in a worksite, even if they are feeling happy and hyper. Usually, kids aren’t the best at remembering rules for behaving, but if you make a game of it, they’re more likely to be excited to participate. Pretend to walk in slow motion and look around carefully with exaggerated movements. Feel free to call out any dangers you spot or say, “all clear.”

Conclusion

Children’s safety is of the utmost importance during a home remodeling project. Keeping your children safe is best achieved by remaining alert and aware yourself, and by teaching them how to develop those same skills. Making sure that your child is prepared in every way for this project can alleviate tensions as well as support them during this time of transition.Parents need to be prepared to teach their children about child safety, understand the questions to ask about the work environment, and recognize the specific dangers children may encounter in the construction industry. Thank you so much for reading! For more information about construction, please follow our last blog post!

Resources:

• Keeping Kids Safe During Home Renovations - HealthyChildren.org
• Construction Safety Procedure to Keep Children Away from Hazards
• Understanding Exposures in Children’s Environments | US EPA
• Childhood Ingestions of Environmental Toxins: What Are the Risks? - PMC
• Ideas for Educating Kids About Safety Warnings and Risks
• Child Safety Activities for Kids
• Can I Live in My House During Construction? - Engineer Fix
• Common Hazardous Materials on Construction Sites and Precautions to Take | Equipment Trader Blog
• Home Safety: Tips for Families With Young Children - HealthyChildren.org
• Chemicals & Toxins - Keep Your Child Safe.org