New industrial builds

What this is

A builders clean on an industrial shed usually means the floor, the glazing and the amenities. Above eleven metres the roof steel, the purlins, the bracing, the cable trays, the ductwork and the high-level services get left, because by that point in the programme the trades who could reach them have gone.

This is the crew that covers that half of it, working from licensed elevating work platforms, so it does not depend on somebody else’s scaffold still being up.

The bit that gets missed

A handover clean is construction work, and the dust rules apply to it

Section 289 of the Work Health and Safety Regulation defines construction work to include commissioning. So a pre-commissioning clean is not tidying up after construction work. It is construction work, and the silica rules apply to it in the same way they apply to the cutting that made the dust.

Queensland’s Managing Respirable Crystalline Silica Dust Exposure code of practice, which commenced on 1 May 2023, covers work on materials containing 1 per cent or more crystalline silica, which is most of a concrete-and-block industrial shell. The workplace exposure standard is 0.05 mg/m3 over an 8-hour average.

The regulator is specific about cleaning method, and it is the opposite of how a cheap builders clean is normally done. Dry sweeping and compressed-air blowers are named as hazards in their own right. Dry sweeping should only be used when other options are not reasonably practicable. What is named instead: wet sweeping, low-pressure water, or vacuuming with an M or H-class vacuum.

Worth asking any contractor quoting your handover clean which of those they are planning to use, and what class their vacuum is. It is a fair question and it has a checkable answer.

What is covered

Above the ladder line

Floor-level builders clean, glazing and amenities are not part of this.

How it is done

Fitted to the programme

The work sits between the last trade off the roof and commissioning, and that window moves. It gets scheduled against practical completion and not a fixed date, and the crew can work weekends to hold a handover date.

Access can be from licensed elevating work platforms, with operators ticketed for the platform class the work needs. Dust comes down into anti-static vacuums and is not blown off the structure, which matters more in a new building than people expect. A new extraction system does not need a commissioning-week load of construction dust through it.

We can provide a record of what was cleaned and anything found up there, for the handover file.

Who this is for

The people holding a handover date

Timing

Where the clean sits against the certificate of occupancy

In Queensland, a class 1b to 9 building completed after 1 July 1997 must display a certificate of occupancy before it can be used or occupied. The Queensland Government describes the certificate as recording the building’s class, how it can be used, its ongoing maintenance requirements and its fire safety requirements. It is generally issued by the private building certifier.

For a head contractor, that date is a useful anchor. The roof-steel clean is best programmed ahead of it, while the building is still empty.

Programme meeting

Questions to settle with the project team

• Who is last off the roof, and when? The clean follows that trade.
• What is installed before the clean? Racking, mezzanines and extraction change where a platform can travel.
• What are the slab loading limits? Ask the builder or the engineer for the figure before a platform is booked.
• Who is the principal contractor? Duty holders on the same site must consult, cooperate and coordinate under section 46 of the Work Health and Safety Act.
• What does the handover file need? We can provide a record of what was cleaned and what was found.

Related work

Where a builders clean fits with the rest of the work

Most industrial buildings need more than one of these, and it is usually cheaper to do them on the same visit while the access equipment is already on site.

• At-heights cleaning

• Duct exterior cleaning

• Combustible dust removal