Safety, PPE & site rules

• All domestic landscaping work falls under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 for the contractor and their workers. ^[1]
• Domestic projects with two or more contractors are notifiable under CDM 2015 and need a Principal Contractor. ^[2]
• Before any excavation, post holes, trenches, footings, dig-outs, you must locate buried services using the HSE HSG47 'Avoiding danger from underground services' method: drawings, CAT & Genny sweep, then safe digging. This is the legal duty of care under HSWA 1974 and CDM 2015. ^[3][4]
• Cement, resins and solvents are COSHH-controlled substances; assessments and SDS sheets are required. ^[6]

• CAT & Genny, the proper HSG47 sweep. A CAT (Cable Avoidance Tool) on its own only finds LIVE mains (Power mode) and metallic services radiating stray signal (Radio mode). It will not find a plastic gas main, a plastic water main, a dead cable or an empty duct. The Genny (signal generator) fixes that, clip it to a service or set it to Induction mode and it pushes a traceable 33 kHz signal onto buried metalwork the CAT can then find. Always sweep in all three modes (Power, Radio, Genny) over a grid pattern in two directions before breaking ground. ^[3]
• Plan → Locate → Dig safely. (1) Get utility records from LinesearchBeforeUDig, free and covers most asset owners. (2) CAT & Genny the area, mark services on the ground with NJUG Vol. 4 colour codes (red electric, yellow gas, blue water, green comms). (3) Hand-dig trial holes within 500 mm either side of any located service, never a breaker, never a mini-digger bucket. Re-sweep as you go down; signals weaken with depth. ^[3][4]
• Wet cement is alkaline, wear nitrile gloves under work gloves, wash skin contact immediately. Cement burns develop hours later.
• Manual handling limit guidance: men 25 kg from waist, women 16 kg, slabs over those weights need two people or a vacuum lifter.
• Working at height: scaffold or proper tower for anything over 2 m; ladders for short-duration access only.
• Daily kit cost: hiring a CAT4+ and Genny4 pair runs roughly £60–£90/day from HSS, Speedy or a local plant hire. Cheaper than a strike on a 25 mm gas main, which is a HSE-reportable RIDDOR incident plus the gas board's emergency call-out bill.

Landscaping is one of the few trades where the same crew cuts stone, handles wet cement, works at height and digs near live services in a single day. The kit below is the working minimum on a UK domestic site.

• Eye protection: wrap-around safety glasses for general work, a full face shield for disc cutting. Stone chips travel further than people expect and reflect off walls.
• Respiratory protection: an FFP3 mask, not FFP2, whenever silica dust is in the air. Cutting flags, blocks, kerbs and paving all produce respirable crystalline silica, which is the biggest long-term health risk on a landscaping site.
• Water suppression on every cut. A dry-cut disc on sandstone puts out hundreds of times the workplace exposure limit for silica. Wet cutting plus an FFP3 mask is the accepted control.
• Hearing protection: plate compactors, breakers and disc cutters all sit above 100 dB. Ear defenders on the site, not on the van dashboard.
• Gloves: nitrile under rigger gloves for cement work, cut-resistant gloves for handling flags and glass, and a spare dry pair. Wet gloves hold alkali against the skin and make cement burns worse.
• Boots: steel toe and midsole. Nails through a sole from broken pallets are the most common minor injury on a landscaping site.
• First aid: a stocked kit in the van, an eye-wash bottle, and clean water for cement contact. Cement burns are painless at first and get deep before they hurt.

Every one of these turns up on real jobs, and every one of them is avoidable at no cost beyond a few minutes of planning.

• Digging on drawings alone. Utility records are indicative only; services move during road works and get re-laid on new lines. Records tell you what to expect, the CAT and Genny tells you where it is.
• Sweeping in Power mode only. A dead cable, an empty duct and a plastic gas main are all invisible in Power mode. Sweep Power, Radio and Genny, in two directions, every time.
• Using a breaker or a digger bucket within 500 mm of a marked service. Trial-hole by hand, then work down.
• Dry cutting because it is quicker. It is the single worst health decision on site and an HSE enforcement priority.
• Lifting slabs solo. A 900 x 600 x 22 mm porcelain flag is around 30 kg, above the guidance limit for a one-person lift from waist height.
• Leaving open excavations unguarded overnight in a domestic garden. Barrier them, cover them, and tell the householder where they are.

Safety kit is the cheapest line on any landscaping job, and the only one that is cheaper than the thing it prevents.

• CAT4+ and Genny pair, hired: roughly £60 to £90 per day, or £250 to £400 per week from a national hire desk.
• Buying a CAT4+ and Genny outright: roughly £1,500 to £2,500, worth it for anyone digging most weeks.
• Full PPE set per person: roughly £150 to £250 for boots, wrap-around glasses, gloves, ear defenders and hi-vis.
• FFP3 masks and face-fit testing: roughly £3 to £6 per mask and £50 to £80 per person for the fit test.
• On-tool water suppression kit for a disc cutter: roughly £80 to £150, against an HSE fine measured in thousands.
• Herras fencing or pedestrian barriers to guard an open excavation: roughly £5 to £10 per panel per week.
• First aid kit, fire extinguisher and an accident book for the van: around £100 all in.