No matter how good you are at your job, you can’t control the weather. But, with proper planning and the right tools, you can avoid the most common issues caused by bad weather.
How bad weather affects construction
Whether it’s severe thunderstorms, snow, or extreme heat, weather can severely impact your project deadline and profitability. Here are a few ways bad weather can affect your project:
Delays - In severe weather conditions, work on construction sites has to halt altogether. This can significantly impact your scheduled completion date.
Damage to equipment and jobsite - Bad weather can cause physical damage to the jobsite. Hail and strong winds are especially hard on equipment and vulnerable unfinished construction projects.
Injury and illness - It’s easy for workers to get hurt in bad weather, or even killed. Falling trees, limbs, or hail can lead to severe injuries, and extreme heat can lead to heat exhaustion or even heatstroke.
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How to prepare for bad weather
Allow for inclement weather in your project estimates
It’s important to give yourself some wiggle room in your budget and estimated completion dates. It’s better to under promise and over deliver than it is to over promise and under deliver.
By giving yourself more time to complete a project, you’ll be more prepared for things like severe weather that can cause significant delays to your project. You can even review weather data from past projects to estimate what you can expect in the future.
Prioritize short-term forecasts over long-term forecasts
While NOAA and the Farmer’s Almanac can provide helpful information about what conditions could possibly be like in the coming months, they’re not going to be fully accurate. Even the most skilled meteorologist can’t predict the weather that far out.
Ten or seven-day forecasts will be much more accurate. It’s best to rely on these for immediate planning of the work week.
Schedule weather-related safety talks
Safety talks, also known as tailgate talks or toolbox talks are a great way to keep crews informed about the hazards they’ll face on the jobsite. You can even give talks related to specific weather-related hazards like heat stress, heat stroke, lightning, the wind chill index, and winter weather.
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Use construction software to document weather conditions
A quality construction project management will provide the ability to record weather conditions. It might be hard to remember to add this data point to every report, though, which is why Raken automatically captures and records it for your digital daily reports.
In the report itself, workers are able to elaborate on how the conditions affected the work and what measures were taken.
Keep projects on time and under budget
With Raken, you can always be prepared no matter what Mother Nature throws your way. In fact, you’ll be prepared for all sorts of unexpected twists and turns with detailed safety dashboards, production insights, and incident reporting.
We’re your all-in-one tool for the field. Try it out for yourself to see the difference we can make in your workflows.