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Chapter 5 · Lesson 2 of 4Topic: Health and safety

Health and safety information at handover

The people who maintain, alter and eventually demolish a building need to know the risks that were left in it. Tie that information to the elements in the model and the asset register, not to a binder nobody opens.

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Tomhealth and safety advisor
Even if you do this every day, watch for this: Specific, short, located. 'Asbestos may be present' is useless; 'no asbestos; lead paint on steel in plant room 00.12' is useful.

When the contractor leaves, the risks they managed don't all leave with them. Some stay in the building: a heavy fan to replace on a roof, a confined tank, a fragile rooflight, a material that needs care when drilled. In the UK the client keeps this in the health and safety file. Most countries have something similar. What matters is that the person doing the work finds it.

Story · The binder in the cupboard
How it goes wrong

At handover, the contractor delivers a 400-page health and safety file as a PDF and a binder. Four years later, a maintenance contractor replaces a fan in a roof unit. Nobody opens the binder. The fan is heavier than expected and there's no lifting point; the job is done by hand.

How it goes right

The residual risks are recorded against the assets: the roof unit's record says "fan section 180 kg: use the davit at the north side, permit for roof access". When the maintenance contractor opens the work order in the CAFM, the note is on it.

What goes in, and where

Asset information, from requirement to handover
  1. 1Asset requirementsWhat operations needs
  2. 2LOD / LOIN attributesPer element and stage
  3. 3Data in the modelsFilled as design develops
  4. 4COBie exportSpreadsheet or IFC
  5. 5COBie checkBefore it is submitted
InformationExampleAttach it to
Residual risks"Fan section 180 kg, lift with davit"The asset (AHU 2)
Hazardous materials"Lead paint on steel, plant room 00.12"The space and elements
Access and removal"Chiller out through louvre panel L3"The asset and the route
Fragile or special areas"Rooflights not load-bearing"The roof elements
Basics

Asset information (tags, manufacturers, serial numbers) is collected from installers and checked at milestones. Health and safety information can travel the same way: as properties or linked documents on the assets and spaces, checked with the rest.

Tomhealth and safety advisor
Your turn. Give it about 10 min and work it out on your own before you open the model answer: that is where it sticks.
Exercise: Write the safety notes for the clinic plant 10 min

The BIMpedia Clinic has two pumps in a ground-floor plant room, fan coil units above ceilings in every room, and two air handling units on the roof. Write one short, specific note for each kind of equipment, and say what it's attached to.

Key takeaways

  • The health and safety file holds what future workers need to know: residual risks, hazardous materials, how to access and remove things safely.
  • Information linked to elements and assets is found when someone works on them; a separate PDF usually isn't.
  • Keep it short and specific: the risk, where it is, and what to do.
  • Agree early who provides each part and check it at every milestone, like any other asset information.

Your notes

Related tool

Build an asset register from an IFC and check it on the model: data quality in colour, a data sheet per asset, rooms and systems, a first maintenance plan and tag labels.

Open Asset Register Builder →

Check yourself

3 questions · 2 right to complete
  1. 1. A technician will replace a pump in a basement plant room in five years. What should the information tell them?
  2. 2. Where is health and safety information most likely to be used?
  3. 3. When should the health and safety information be checked?
0 of 3 answered
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