The construction of a PEB project involves much more than the on-site assembly. It involves various activities starting from designing to taking precautions while doing maintenance of the pre-engineered steel building.  

In my previous blog, I discussed how Durga Steel provides a 20 years guarantee certificate to your PEB. But we often come across a common problem i.e difficulties in the maintenance of the pre-engineered steel building. 

If you are building a PEB structure or about to commence the maintenance work in your steel building, you are in the right place! In this blog, I will be talking about all the safety precautions that we at Adi Durga Steel practice and you should take while doing the maintenance work in your pre-engineered steel building. 

The most important Safety Practice to be followed on-site during the maintenance of a pre-engineered steel building is - Always work under the supervision of a person-in-charge. 

You should never do any kind of maintenance work on the roof or at a height without a person present who is looking after the safety of the workers. Maximum safety measures should be followed during maintenance work and always under the supervision of the person-in-charge of maintenance. 

To make it easier for you to read, I'm going to divide this into two segments - 

A) Maintenance of the Roof 

B) Maintenance of the Overhead Cranes. 

Let's first look into the safety factors that should be followed while working on the roof of a PEB. 

A) Maximum safety practices should be practised during maintenance at the roof. Some of these are - 

1. Use of PPE - 

PPE or Personal Protective Equipment is shielding clothes, goggles, helmets or other types of equipment designed to safeguard the wearer's body from infection or injury. These include injuries caused by different types of physical, chemical, electrical, heat, or other factors. 

PPE or Personal Protective Equipment should be used by everyone working on the site at all times while working at a height, like on the roof of a PEB. 

2. Work with competent labours - 

Working on the roof requires special skills and alertness. Extreme caution should be practised while working on the roof. 

Only competent and experienced workers should be used for regular maintenance works, especially on the roof of a PEB. 

3. Reach of the Access Ladders - 

Access ladders are used to reach at various heights during the assembling or maintenance of a pre-engineered steel building. The height of these access ladders should reach at least one meter above the step-off point. This is to make sure that the worker using the access ladder can reach his objective securely and has no chance of falling off. 

4. Access ladders should be secured to the building - 

Access ladders should have a rigid base tied completely with the PEB. This is to confirm that at any point of time when the worker is climbing the roof, he or the access ladder would not fall off.  Also, the workers or staff should use a harness while climbing to the roof with the help of the access ladder. 

5. Access to the Skylights on a PEB - 

Skylights are a part of the accessories installed in a pre-engineered steel building for aesthetic values and for allowing natural light to enter the building. The base frame of these skylights is not sturdy enough to bear direct weight. So workers should not step on skylights or any such relatively fragile accessory while doing the maintenance in the pre-engineered steel building. 

6. Never walk on the roof - 

To avoid leakage in the roof, loosening of the screws and bending of the sheets, staff in charge of maintenance work should take care of some points like - 

• While walking on the roof, you should step in the valleys of the panel and not on the ribs. 

• Whenever possible, you should walk directly on the screw line and the purlin line. 

• You should protect the areas of the roof subject to frequent access by building temporary or permanent walkways for the maintenance staff or the residents of the PEB to walk in. 

B) Maintenance of the Overhead Cranes in a PEB - 

In addition to following the above-mentioned points, some additional safety protocols should be followed while doing the maintenance work of the Overhead Cranes which are inside a PEB. 

1. Runways for Crane - 

Cranes are used to lift and assemble parts in a PEB. These cranes can be of various height and weight depending upon the height or load to be put in the PEB. So runways should be made for crane access so that locomotion of the crane can be smooth and would not cause damage to the floor of the PEB. 

2. Immobilize the crane before the commencement of work - 

After completing a day's work and before the commencement of work on-site each day, you should make sure that the crane is powered off completely and has no sort of movement or electronic glitch, like a loose switch or electrocuting surface. 

You should immobilize the crane perfectly before the commencement of work each day to ensure that no accidents are caused on the site of the PEB construction. 

3. 7 feet of Clear Height - 

The clear height of a PEB is the distance between the finished floor level to the foot of the knee-joint. Height clearance of the runway to shed of the PEB should be at least 7 feet for a person to walk and work with ease. 

4. Always use Safety Belts - 

Many fatal accidents happen regularly due to falls from heights at construction sites. At Adi Durga Steel we make sure to use safety belts even while working on the runway to protect our workers from falling from crane height. 

These are a few points that we follow at Adi Durga Steel and I would recommend you to do the same while doing the maintenance in your pre-engineered steel building. 

Adi Durga Steel is one of the leading steel manufacturers in Eastern India. We have worked on about 250+ projects and have been in the steel industry for the last 30 years and been associated with PEB constructions from the last 10 years. With the help of our experience and advanced technology, we make sure to deliver safe, secure, efficient and affordable constructions.