RAMS for Flooring Contractors: A Practical Guide to Risk Assessments and Method Statements
If you're a flooring contractor working on commercial sites, fit-outs or refurbishments, you'll almost certainly be asked to produce RAMS before you start. RAMS stands for Risk Assessment + Method Statement — two separate documents that together show you've thought through the hazards in your work and have a safe, planned way of doing it.
This guide explains what good RAMS look like for flooring work, what the law actually requires, and what assessors and principal contractors will be looking at.
What the Law Requires
Your legal duty to assess risk comes from Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, which applies to every employer and self-employed person. If you have five or more employees, you must record your significant findings in writing — but in practice, written RAMS are expected on almost every commercial or construction site regardless of company size.
Where your flooring work forms part of a wider construction project — a new-build, major refurbishment or fit-out with a construction phase — CDM 2015 also applies. As a contractor, you have duties to plan, manage and monitor your own work and to cooperate with the principal contractor's site rules.
The Key Hazards in Flooring Work
Flooring covers a wide range of trades and materials — carpet, vinyl, LVT, hardwood, resin, screed and tile — but certain hazards run across most of them.
Manual Handling
Rolls of carpet, large format tiles, bags of adhesive and sheets of ply are heavy and awkward. Manual handling injuries are among the most common in flooring. Your risk assessment should address lifting, carrying and team-handling techniques, and consider mechanical aids (trolleys, suction lifters, panel carriers) before relying on training alone.
Harmful Substances (COSHH)
Many flooring products involve chemical exposure covered by the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH). You must assess:
- Adhesives and primers — many contain solvents or isocyanates (in some two-part systems), which can cause occupational asthma
- Epoxy resins — skin sensitisers; repeated exposure without controls can cause permanent dermatitis
- Silica dust — generated when cutting stone, ceramic or porcelain tiles; associated with silicosis and lung cancer
- Wood dust — hardwood dust is a known carcinogen at elevated exposures
Apply the hierarchy of controls: use water-suppression or local exhaust ventilation (LEV) when cutting rather than relying on a dust mask as the first option. Where PPE is needed, ensure correct respirator selection (FFP3 for silica dust is the minimum; a half-face mask with the appropriate filter for solvent vapours).
Work at Height
Even floor-level work can involve steps, mezzanines or working on raised platforms in retail or warehouse fits. Where any work at height is involved, The Work at Height Regulations 2005 apply. Eliminate the need to work at height first; where unavoidable, use the right equipment (podium steps, tower scaffold) and inspect it before use.
Musculoskeletal Hazards
Kneeling for extended periods — laying carpet grippers, grouting tiles, fitting LVT — is a significant cause of knee injury in flooring operatives. Controls include knee pads, kneeling pads, and task rotation. These should appear in your risk assessment, not just your method statement.
Slips and Trips
Adhesive spillages, off-cuts and underlay create slip and trip hazards for your own team and others on site. Good housekeeping is a genuine control, not a box-ticking exercise — your method statement should describe how waste is managed throughout the day.
What a Good Method Statement Covers
The method statement is the sequential, step-by-step description of how the work will be carried out safely. For flooring contractors, it should typically cover:
- Scope of works — material type, area, substrate preparation required
- Access and delivery — how materials reach the work area; route through an occupied building
- Substrate preparation — grinding, shot-blasting, screeding; dust and noise controls
- Product application — adhesive or resin mixing, application method, ventilation requirements, pot life and drying time
- Cutting and shaping — equipment used, dust suppression, blade/tool inspection
- Waste management — segregation of hazardous waste (solvent-contaminated materials), disposal route
- Reinstatement and handover — protection of finished floor; signage for wet surfaces
Common Mistakes to Avoid
| Mistake | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Generic, copy-paste RAMS | Principal contractors can spot them; they won't reflect your actual site conditions |
| Listing PPE as the first control | The hierarchy requires you to reduce risk at source first |
| Missing COSHH assessments | Adhesive data sheets must be reviewed; a standalone COSHH assessment is often needed |
| No site-specific information | Job address, surface type, access constraints should be in the document |
| Unsigned and undated documents | Unversioned documents are difficult to defend if something goes wrong |
Keeping RAMS Proportionate
Good RAMS don't need to be lengthy — they need to be accurate and specific. A straightforward LVT installation in an empty office is a different risk profile from a resin floor application in a food factory with existing staff present. Your documents should reflect that difference.
Review and update your RAMS whenever the scope changes, the site conditions differ from what was expected, or a near-miss occurs. A RAMS produced at the tender stage and never looked at again offers little real protection to you or your workers.