How Are COVID Policies are working on Construction Sites
The past few months have been a confusing and uneasy time for all Americans, even in construction. The spread of COVID-19 illnesses has impacted all parts of our society. As a result we have upgraded our safety procedures, streamline our sale processes and order materials earlier. New policies are impacting our projects and client needs are evolving through this event. We are out in the field working and interacting with clients, vendors, inspectors and subcontractors daily. We know these experience have value. This is part one in a series of posts that address the changes that we’ve seen and implemented.
Our Policies in Action
Uncertainty regarding the future of this virus has affected us all. To respond we have moved to implement stringent policies to keep our clients, subcontractors and employees safe. To do that we have installed bio hazard cleaning zones outside each of our jobs sites and offices. These have a boot washing station, sanitizing spray wipes and disposable masks for any workers who are in need.The next step is our COVID policy manager takes temperatures and records them for our contact tracing program.
Workers granted access to the job site must remain 6 feet away at all times. The tight quarters of residential work makes this difficult. This means that workers who aren’t following the policies will be asked to leave. Fortunately we have an amazing group of subcontractors who have been respectful and vigilant with our new systems. Because of this we have had great feedback from both clients and subcontractors. The end result is all parties feel safer on our job sites than they have elsewhere. For more information on that please check out our COVID policy page: https://fleschnerconstruction.com/covid-19-response/.
With these policies we have had to bake more time into schedules. Subs will have more space to remain within our policy guidelines. Although this extends schedules, it prevents unsafe and crowded conditions with too many workers on a site. This keeps traffic on a job to a minimum. That is harder now as individuals are not able to carpool due to safety concerns. Schedule extensions are affecting not only the work on the job site, but also selections and ordering of materials. In our next post we will look at how scheduling and material orders directly affect homeowners and their projects.
Additional Resources for COVID:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prepare/prevention.html