Incurring unexpected expenses when you're running a construction site can be frustrating, and it can even interfere with the progress of the project if the expenses are quite high. Here are some specific steps that you can take to avoid generating any extra bills in these circumstances.

Encourage key-holders to secure their keys to their work clothes.

One simple thing you can do to achieve this aim is to encourage anyone on your team who has keys to your site's lockable entrance to secure their keys to their work clothes, rather than stowing them in their pockets. They can do this by, for example, attaching their key to a chain on their trouser's belt loop or attaching it to a lanyard that they wear around their neck.

The reason for this is as follows; these people will probably be physically active for most of the day when they are on the site. Some of the strenuous tasks they carry out could easily lead to the contents of their shirt and trouser pockets (including their keys) falling out and getting lost. If for example, a person is pouring concrete, their key could slip out of their pocket and into the wet concrete and might end up getting trapped in the concrete as it dries. Similarly, if a key-holder is driving a large excavator, the vibrations of this machinery, coupled with the building site's bumpy terrain on which they are driving, could easily result in their keys falling out of a pocket and getting lost.

If this happens, it might not be possible to simply give this person a spare key, as there is a chance that the lost key could be picked up by an unscrupulous individual and used to vandalise or steal things from the site when it is closed. Instead, you would have to get a new lock put on the site's entrance and provide all of the key-holders with copies of the keys for this new lock. This could not only disrupt the construction work, but could also be highly expensive. Fortunately, this expense can be avoided simply by ensuring that the key-holders secure their keys to their clothing.

Insist that labourers remove and put away their safety gear before leaving the site.

It is also a good idea to insist that labourers take off their safety gear and put it into a lockable on-site cabin before they go home. The reason for this is as follows; if these people take these expensive items home with them, there is a much higher risk of these goods getting lost or damaged by them or by other members of their household.

When safety gear goes missing or gets damaged, it absolutely has to be replaced in order to enable workers to do their jobs without getting hurt; as such, if your labourers end up losing or breaking their goggles, hard hats or other items, you will have to purchase new safety items for them. This could set you back several hundred dollars. Insisting that workers who use these items take them off and put them somewhere safe on the site prior to going home could spare you this particular expense.