RAMS template for carpenters and joiners
Carpenter and joiner RAMS should describe delivery, setting out, machining, assembly, fixing and finishing for site or workshop work. Contact with saws and routers, nail-gun discharge, wood dust, noise, vibration, manual handling and unstable incomplete structures are typical risks. PUWER 1998 requires tools and machinery to be suitable, guarded, maintained and used by trained people; COSHH duties apply to wood dust. Use effective local extraction at source and clean with a suitable industrial vacuum rather than dry sweeping. Specify guards, push sticks, supports and isolation for adjustments, and keep the cutting zone separate from passers-by. Follow the designer’s bracing sequence for frames, protect openings and coordinate lifting of long or sheet materials before they arrive.
- ✓Typical carpenter and joiner tasks: First-fix carpentry, Use of portable power tools, Manual handling of materials, Drilling into walls, floors or ceilings
- ✓Sequence of works, plant, permits and PPE
- ✓Editable Word and print-ready PDF
In short
A RAMS (risk assessment and method statement) is a combined document that identifies the hazards of a specific job, the controls that reduce the risk, and the step-by-step safe method of work. UK law requires a suitable and sufficient risk assessment; main contractors usually require a RAMS before you start on site.
What it must include
- ✓Scope of works, site address, dates and who is involved
- ✓Hazards, who could be harmed and how
- ✓Control measures and the risk rating before and after
- ✓Sequence of works from preparation to completion
- ✓Plant, tools, permits and PPE
- ✓Competence, supervision and emergency arrangements
- ✓Briefing and sign-off by the people doing the work
You stay the duty holder: review the document for your site before work starts. SitePaper is a drafting tool, not a consultancy.