Growing business safety practices

[Alexis]

Hello,

My business is growing and now I have a team of 7 people. We do mostly residential work - main panel upgrades, recessed lighting etc. I feel like the business is growing fast and I need to implement certain business safety practices to avoid bad situations that may happen.

For example I had really nasty situation when we were doing a panel upgrade and were driving a second ground rod near the water main and managed to drive it straight into it. Couldn't stop water for about hour and a half (the street shut off was jammed). Glad that it was outside the house. Called utility, ran to a store and bought a pump, called a plumber to do an emergency repair. One hole costed me $2100 (plumbers and discount to the client for the trouble). That was the first time something like that happened in about 50 panel upgrades we did so far.

My nightmare is something like damaging sprinklers when we do recessed lights for example. I'm thinking of having some basic plumbing repair kit to seal some water leaks at a minimum. Also teaching my team for any job to locate first water and gas shut offs (even though as I just learned they are not always possible to close without utility company).

I would really appreciate if you could share what preventative measures do you take for your work to avoid similar situations and maybe previous experiences that taught you certain preventative measures that you now use in your workflow.

Thank you!

 

[busman]

Call 811 for the in ground stuff. Otherwise, good Insurance Policy.

 

[retirede]

Call 811 for the in ground stuff. Otherwise, good Insurance Policy.

Not “otherwise”, should be “additionally.”

 

[zbang]

Start with always getting an official locate (I then advise clients to make note of where things are, that's no substitute for you getting another locate but might save them if they put in a new tree.)

Ask the client about the existence of sprinklers or privately-owned buried lines (e.g. to a garage or pool, the septic tank and drain field, etc). Insist that the client mark those lines in your work area or note in writing that there aren't any.

Know the average burial depths in your area (if water and sewer are 4' down, 12" under a driveway isn't likely to be a problem).

Add contract language that the client is responsible for both marking private lines and for damage to unmarked underground lines, regardless of who owns or installed them.

Take pictures of the work area and any marks before starting work.

Have working agreements with plumbers/etc so you can call them in an emergency, but have them bill the client directly.

(I'm sure there must be something else.)