Safe demolition of external walls

The demolition of brick, block or stone external walls - those walls which separate property and land - could, if carried out incorrectly lead to accidents resulting in personal injury to both staff and members of the public who may be in the vicinity.

Managing the risks

To help you to identify the hazards associated with the demolition of external walls and the appropriate ways of controlling them, use our example Risk Assessment - Safe Demolition of External Walls. It covers the generic hazards associated with this type of activity and suggests control measures to reduce risks to an acceptable level. You should ensure that your document only addresses “significant” hazards, i.e. any that could, and more importantly are likely to, cause an accident or injury.

Make your instructions clear

Don’t include activities in your document that simply don’t need to be there. Work to the principle that if there is any chance of your staff being unaware of the safe way of doing something, then you will need to make it clear in your document. Finally, always ensure that any control measures you identify and follow are decided upon the principle of “so far as is reasonably practicable”.

Note. The list of potential hazards is not exhaustive. However, for your risk assessment to be considered suitable and sufficient in the eyes of the law it must accurately reflect the “significant” hazards in your workplace when demolishing external brick or stone walls.

Note. This risk assessment deals with the generic risks associated with the demolition of external brick, block or stone walls. It does NOT cover walls that are part of premises such as dividing walls or other load bearing walls etc. The demolition of property will require separate risk assessments.