Health and Safety is at it again!

[XmisterIS]

I have just ordered a tonne of paving slabs from Wickes. It turns out that I will have to carry them down my perfectly good driveway to my back garden myself.

I found this out when I asked the woman on the phone if the driver could give me a call before he arrives so I can move my car off my perfectly good driveway so that he can reverse the flatbed down the aforementioned perfectly good driveway and lift the slabs directly into the back yard.

"Oh no", she said, "He can't do that. He can deliver them onto your driveway, but he can't go down it".

"Why in the name of all things holy not? It's a perfectly good driveway!"

Then, she muttered the most unpopular, unnecessary phrase in the entire English language ...

"Health and safety, I'm afraid! (I think I detected a certain glee in her voice) We're not allowed to drive onto your property".

"But, I ... you ... health and fuc... What???!!"

"I'm sorry, but it's a health and safety risk."

Now has the world gone utterly mad or what?!!!

 

[perplexed]

The only thing may be the weight issue.

What's your drive made of? The waggon could be, what 16 tonnes, and may duff up your block paving. We had a lorry deliver some stuff to work, and a drain cover and part of the drain itself collapsed. The waggon took some getting out.

 

[XmisterIS]

My drive has had a skip full of soil on it, not a problem! I explained that to the woman and asked her if we could do the intelligent thing and leave it up to the driver's discretion, but no, it's a "health and safety directive", which means, "don't think, just do what the company tells you".

 

[dellzeqq]

this is b****cks. Wickes will not deliver beyond the back edge of pavement. They're famous for it. Read their T&Cs. It has nothing to do with Health and Safety. It's how they make their money. Go to a decent builders' merchants.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I'm afraid she has a point. A skipful of soil weighs perhaps four tonnes, at the most. A six wheel lorry loaded up with builders' materials could weigh up to 32 tonnes, with axle weights of around ten tonnes. Even a four wheeler weighs up to 18 tonnes. Additionally, if the driver is getting the slabs off with a HIAB lorry mounted crane, s/he'll have to put down the stabilizing legs, which will put a good bit of weight onto a very small point.
I used to do home deliveries of this stuff, and we had one lorry (not mine) go through someone's driveway. The homeowner's attitude changed very quickly from "yeah, it'll be fine driver" with much rolling of eyes about elfnsafety, to talking about legal action and the costs of a new driveway.

 

[Zoiders]

Even if you go to a builders merchant you are still going to get a hi-hab wagon that drops the slabs off and they will be in a pack or wrapped to a a pallet, it's not a small flat bed truck.

It's a big wagon holiding up to almost 8 tons at times and drivers from a merchants will do their best to get in close and crane the pack/pallet on to your drive or garden, what they won't always do is reverse a wagon that is quite possibly loaded with other stuff as well down a drive that they don't know the engineering of, they could crush a hidden soil pipe or break a manhole cover very easily, especialy cheaper domestic inspection covers that are not rated for commercial vehicles, they also don't want to have to shell out for broken block pave. A skip may sit perfectly well on your drive but then it's got a very large footprint to spread the weight over a wider area and it's only a few tons at most.

Wickes are of course universaly useless and selfish when it comes to drops (worked for them, utter shower) but it's not always "elf and safety gawn mad" when it comes to big wagons and the pavement engineering of your drive.

 

[asterix]

Early this year I had 90 slabs delivered to the roadside - no way I'd let a lorry onto my nice driveway!

It doesn't take long tp shift them unless your driveway is really really long! The bit that takes longest is moving them onto the barrow and off again.

Got 'em from Jewsons - a bargain.

 

[Zoiders]

The OP should count himself lucky it's not 500x500x50 council issue slabs he is having delivered or even the 750x500x50 monsters.

Ooooh me back...

 

[Archie_tect]

There's a neat slab lifter you can hire these days to take to weight off your back... besides shouldn't pick up anything above 25kg anyway, not just because that's the maximum but for the perfectly sensible reason that it will damage your joints [at some point!].

 

[Zoiders]

There's a neat slab lifter you can hire these days to take to weight off your back... besides shouldn't pick up anything above 25kg anyway, not just because that's the maximum but for the perfectly sensible reason that it will damage your joints [at some point!].

They say no one man lifts over 25kg but who really has the time to fook about with that if you do it for living?

I know one lad known as "the animal" who can dead lift two council slabs as a one-er just gripping the edges of both in his hands...he is a freak of nature though.

 

[Archie_tect]

They say no one man lifts over 25kg but who really has the time to fook about with that if you do it for living?

I have a legal obligation to identify and clearly highlight everything which makes people aware of their limitations otherwise when they do themselves an injury and report an injury at work the Health and Saftey Executive come back down the line to ask why we, as designers, haven't protected people on site from the dangers of lifting heavy objects. Had one where we only just avoided prosecution when a man injured his back while helping 3 other men carry a timber stair. The fact that he'd returned to work on the Monday morning and within minutes walked off site to report a work related back injury- after a week-end extreme mountain biking when he'd [allegedly] had a serious impact landing which apparently had nothing whatsoever to do with his injury and didn't form part of his report to the HSE.

 

[Zoiders]

I have a legal obligation to identify and clearly highlight everything which makes people aware of their limitations otherwise when they do themselves an injury and report an injury at work the Health and Saftey Executive come back down the line to ask why we, as designers, haven't protected people on site from the dangers of lifting heavy objects. Had one where we only just avoided prosecution when a man injured his back while helping 3 other men carry a timber stair. The fact that he'd returned to work on the Monday morning and within minutes walked off site to report a work related back injury- after a week-end extreme mountain biking when he'd [allegedly] had a serious impact landing which apparently had nothing whatsoever to do with his injury and didn't form part of his report to the HSE.

Every bugger knows the 25kg rule, your legal obligation or not. The real liabilty is if you are employing people who haven't been made aware - which they should be if they have the required CSCS card to be on site.

The guy injured on the three man lift was just taking the mickey and got rumbled, it's not the same as negligence on your part.

 

[Archie_tect]

Every bugger knows the 25kg rule, your legal obligation or not. The real liabilty is if you are employing people who haven't been made aware - which they should be if they have the required CSCS card to be on site.

[True- especially when dodgy site foremen employ unregistered people who don't speak English and/or can't read.]

Mind XM, when you do get the slabs delivered, get the slab lifter so that you can set them exactly where you want on the patio- makes life a whole lot easier. If Wickes haven't got them Lord Tool Hire or a local tool-hire shop will have one.

 

[Zoiders]

True- especially when sites employ people who don't speak English or can't read.

You have employed labourers from Stoke then?

 

[Archie_tect]

You have employed labourers from Stoke then?

I couldn't possibly comment...