Everything Your Site Needs

Manhole and chamber lifting

Lifting a cover is one of the more dangerous routine jobs on a site, and it goes wrong in two ways.

The cover itself is heavy and awkward. Levering it with a screwdriver or a bar means fingers under a mass of cast iron, and a slipped bar drops it. A proper lifting key set engages the cover correctly so it comes up under control, and a universal kit covers the range of patterns you actually meet rather than the one you expected.

The second risk is what is left behind. An open chamber is an unguarded hole in a surface people walk on, and it must be guarded the moment the cover is off, not when somebody gets round to it. The utility barrier kits here exist for that: a self contained set that goes round an open chamber in seconds, with a gate so the person working can get in and out without dismantling it.

Chambers can also hold gases and be oxygen deficient. Entry is confined space work with its own procedures, and looking in is not the same as going in.

Brooms, and the bristle matters

A stiff bristle broom digs into a rough surface and shifts wet, heavy and compacted material: mud, grit, spoil, a road surface after cutting. A soft bristle broom moves fine dust and light debris on a smooth floor without flicking it into the air.

Using the wrong one is why sweeping takes twice as long. A soft broom on grit skates over it, and a stiff broom on fine dust launches it.

A 24" head with a proper handle is the site standard. Damping dust down before sweeping is worth doing anywhere the dust could contain silica, because a dry sweep puts the whole lot back into the air people are breathing.

Impact protection railings

Low level impact protection systems guard walls, plant, racking and pedestrian routes from forklifts and site traffic at the height where the damage actually happens.

Modular lateral rails let a run be built to the space rather than bought in a fixed length, and corners and ends finish it properly. These earn their cost the first time something hits them instead of hitting a door frame.

Drainage and pipework tools

A chamfer tool puts a clean bevel on the cut end of a PVC drain or soil pipe, which is what lets the pipe enter a socket seal without rolling or tearing it. A square cut pipe pushed into a seal is the reason a joint weeps later.

It takes seconds and it is the difference between a joint that is right first time and one that gets dug up.

Stocking a site kit

The tools on this page are the ones nobody specifies and everybody needs.

Work through what a job actually requires: something to open a chamber, something to guard it, something to sweep up afterwards, and the small tools that finish the work properly. The items that stop a job are rarely the expensive ones.

For barriers, see site barriers. For marking out, see marking out equipment.