Safety Tips on How to Avoid Trenching Mistakes

11 January 2017

When it comes to construction operations, it is excavation and trenching work that are some of the most dangerous jobs, not only because creating these requires heavy machinery, but also maintaining and traversing over and around them is hazardous. Ultimately, human safety around excavation and trenching is paramount, and everyone on a construction site needs to be aware of any man-made hole, depression, trench, or cavity in the earth, for obvious reasons – so no one falls into them.

There are many dangers involved in trenching and excavation work. Unfortunately, occurrences of personal injury on construction sites because of people falling into man-made trenches, or while working in them, is not uncommon. This is exactly why safety is so important, and anyone needing to excavate a trench or hole in the ground should know the dangers and hazards involved, so as to avoid any mistakes.

Safety Tips on How to Avoid Dangers of Trenching and Excavation

What is a trench? It is a narrow hole that is deeper than it is wide, but not any wider that 4.5 meters, according to various government agencies that monitor construction safety standards. The dangers of trenches and open holes not only pose hazards to humans, but also to mobile equipment such as mini diggers. Trench collapses are not uncommon, especially when operating excavation equipment and safety procedure are neglected, it can cause serious injuries or even fatalities.

That being said, there are basic safety tips on how to avoid dangers of trenching and excavating, especially if one has plans to hire a mini digger.

Proper preparation – this includes clearing the area where excavation will take place and erecting barriers to prevent anyone from falling inside the trench. It is recommended to hire a professional when excavating trenches four feet or deeper, to prevent making any mistakes that can cause cave-ins, damage to equipment, or worse – personal injury.

There are mini diggers for hire that let you operate the equipment yourself, however, this is not advised, mainly because by hiring a professional operator, along with a mini digger, costly mistakes can be avoided. While DIY construction projects are popular, people often bite off more than they can chew, and mistakes are made that cost money, time, and unexpected problems.

When you need to excavate a trench, hiring a mini excavator just makes sense because it is faster, safer, and more affordable than people think, especially when compared to manual labour.

For more details about mini excavators for hire, please contact Melbourne Mini Diggers today, all of our equipment comes with professional operators to make sure that your job is done right.