Documents are AI-assisted drafts and must be checked and approved by a competent person before use. Not legal or professional advice. Read the disclaimer
Bricklaying RAMS should talk about the weight of the blocks and the dust from the cutter before they talk about anything else. Those are the injuries that accumulate, alongside a wall that is left unpropped overnight.
This sample is for new walls, making good, and small extensions where the gang is laying from a scaffold someone else has provided, or from a trestle at low height. It tells the gang not to alter the scaffold, and not to dry-cut concrete blocks as the default.
When to use it. New brick or blockwork, garden walls where the public can pass, openings, and making good after structural work. High walls and retaining walls need a design the draft cannot invent.
From the bricklaying base inside RamsBox. It is not a RAMS for a real address until you add the site.
Manual handling of blocks, bricks and lintels. Who might be harmed: Operatives doing the task
- Specify lighter units or mechanical help where the design allows. Do not treat 20 kg+ blocks as a one-hand lift all day.
- Lintels are a two-person or mechanical lift, bedded straight, not 'walked' up a ladder.
- Check drawings, lintel schedule, and setting-out before the first course.
- Confirm the scaffold is tagged and in date. Do not start if it is incomplete.
- Brief the gang on dust, lifting, and the public side.
Who might be harmed: Operatives doing the task
Initial 12 (High) · residual 4 (Low)
Who might be harmed: Operatives doing the task
Initial 12 (High) · residual 6 (Medium)
Who might be harmed: Operatives, other people on site, and anyone nearby
Initial 10 (High) · residual 5 (Medium)
Who might be harmed: Operatives doing the task
Initial 15 (High) · residual 5 (Medium)
Who might be harmed: Operatives doing the task
Initial 9 (Medium) · residual 4 (Low)
Who might be harmed: Members of the public next to the work
Initial 8 (Medium) · residual 3 (Low)
Only the UK sources kept for this trade. This is not legal advice, and RamsBox is not affiliated with HSE.
DRAFT - needs competent person review. A competent person still has to check the draft against the site.
No. Lintels, wall ties, restraint and any retaining structure come from the drawing or the manufacturer's detail. The method says to follow that design and to stop if it is missing.
Only with water suppression or on-tool extraction, eye and hearing protection, and a respirator if the COSHH assessment says so. Dry cutting dense concrete in a courtyard is not the base method.
The scaffold contractor's competent person, before first use and at least every seven days. Bricklayers do not remove ties to 'get a perp in'.
Bricklaying on a construction site is construction work under CDM 2015. Dust from cutting is covered by COSHH, and the current EH40 limit for respirable crystalline silica is the figure the assessment has to respect. A RAMS is the site document that puts those duties into this plot or this elevation.
The foreman who will set the gang out. They know the cut station, the hoist and whether the scaffold was designed for the block weight. A competent person checks it before the first course, not after the first pallet is open.
The assessment scores dust, handling, collapse and falls. The method says where the cutter sits, that water is on before the first cut, how packs are opened, and the order of tying as the wall rises. PPE at the end of the list does not control silica on its own.
Treat RPE as the last resort. Water suppression or on-tool extraction comes first, then housekeeping so the slurry is not left to dry and get walked through the plot. The mask type has to match the remaining exposure, and the wearer has to be face-fit where the mask requires it.