The Lowveld summer is well and truly on the way and now is the time to start doing all of the preparations needed to ensure that the construction site you are working on this summer is going to be handle the deluge of water that is expected with this new rainy season.
Although the occasional rainy day is not a bad thing, it is those intense downpours that tend to put a damper on everything, by delaying work deadlines and leaving the construction site underwater. If the right preparations are done in time, you can save time and prevent the loss of money. Heavy downpours can cause damage to the actual site and they can also cause damage to the equipment that you have on the site, which in turn means you end up paying extra and having a headache that you could have done without.
Getting to Work
The preparations necessary for bringing some sort of protection to a worksite before the heavy rains hit doesn’t take all that much work, but you do need to make sure that you have a good understanding of your site as well as a good idea about how the water is going to drain. Ideally, you don’t want the water to sit for long periods of time, as this will cause damage or, if the ground is muddy, you could run the risk of the water not drying up quickly and as such the ground will be impossible to work on.
You also need to keep in mind how long you are going to be working on the site. If it is a long term project, you will be in a better position to create the necessary drainage. The longer you are on the site, the better understanding you will have of the land as well, which will certainly come in helpful later on when the rains fall.
When prepping the site, you need to think about shelter. Not all of your equipment can or should sit out in rainy conditions, and at night it will certainly help to be able to pack your equipment away somewhere dry. Luckily, there are plenty of temporary structures that you can setup to give your equipment some shelter.
You should also consider the possibility of strong winds. On a construction site, especially in the Lowveld where the storm winds can get quite intense, there are plenty of things that could be blown over and damaged should you have too much wind. Before the rainy season arrives, you should think about how you are going to secure your worksite so that the winds don’t cause damage that you could have otherwise avoided.
Rain doesn’t have to put a halt to your construction work provided you have a plan and keep an eye on what the weather forecasts suggest. The weather in the Lowveld can change in an instant, so be sure to know what to expect from one day to the next.
If you need plant hire equipment in Nelspruit, or if you just need some advice, you can contact Fast Pulse today.
