Health & Safety
The same standard we apply to a dovetailed drawer, applied to how our people work.
Made safely, or not at all
Bespoke joinery is made with machines, timber, dust and finishes that demand respect. We treat health and safety the way we treat the work itself: planned properly, done carefully, and recorded so it can be checked. For our clients, architects and main contractors, that means a workshop and site team whose competence is documented — not assumed.
In the workshop
Our Mickfield workshop runs on written risk assessments and safe working practices for every machine and process, built on HSE guidance including L114 and the woodworking information sheets.
- Machinery — guarded, braked and inspected, with only trained, authorised operators on high-risk machines such as the spindle moulder.
- Wood dust — LEV extraction at every machine, with FFP3 respiratory protection and face-fit testing for dusty work.
- Finishing — spraying under controlled, extracted conditions with air-fed breathing apparatus, COSHH assessments for every product, and a DSEAR assessment for flammables.
- People — noise protection, hand-arm vibration management, occupational health surveillance and trained first aiders.
On site
Fitting joinery in a finished house or on a live construction site brings its own risks, and our fitters work to the same discipline as the workshop.
- Project-specific RAMS — risk assessments and method statements issued to the site team and main contractor before work starts.
- Safe kit — 110V or battery tools, PAT-inspected equipment with weekly checks, and the right access equipment for working at height.
- Site behaviour — toolbox talks covering manual handling, silica dust, hidden services, housekeeping and vehicle safety.
- Insurance — employers’ and public liability cover in force year-round; confirmation available to contractors on request.
Our own digital H&S management system
In 2026 we built something few joinery workshops of any size have: a bespoke health and safety platform, developed in-house. Every member of the team signs in and sees exactly what applies to their role — and every confirmation is recorded in a tamper-evident audit trail.
- Role-based issuing — a machinist, a polisher and a fitter each receive the documents and training for their actual work, automatically.
- Toolbox talks & training — written from HSE guidance, signed off individually, re-issued when refreshers fall due — including for subcontractor crews.
- Live compliance — weekly equipment checks, incident and RIDDOR reporting, and a dashboard showing the current position at any moment.
- Open books — an HSE inspector, auditor or main contractor can be given secure, read-only access to our live compliance record on any working day.
Independently audited — Guardian Support
Good systems still benefit from outside scrutiny. Our health and safety arrangements are supported and audited by Guardian Support, our retained H&S consultancy. They review our policy annually, audit our documentation and workshop practice, and advise on regulatory change — so our standards are not just self-declared, they are independently checked.
For architects & main contractors
If you are appointing us to a project, our compliance file is ready when you are. Available on request:
- Health & Safety Policy (current year, reviewed annually)
- Employers’ & public liability insurance — TWIMC confirmation
- Operative training and competency matrix
- Project-specific RAMS and method statements
- Read-only access to our live compliance dashboard, for the duration of a project