Construction industry endorsement scheme TrustMark has revealed that so-called ‘bunglards’ are more costly to British householders than burglars – meaning that edge protection, man anchors and other best-practice approaches to carrying out work could have a direct economic impact not only on construction firms, but on their customers too.
According to the organisation, in the past 12 months around 18 million British homeowners have employed a tradesman, from plumbers to roofers, yet 17% have subsequently had to have some of the work redone to a higher standard, averaging £600 in costs each time.
This puts the total cost of incompetent work on households at £1.9 billion, which TrustMark say is as much as five times the amount claimed against home insurance policies for domestic burglaries each year.
With such large sums of money involved, it is clear that issues like edge protection are not only about health and safety; they can also have a direct impact on the bottom-line earnings of construction firms, as well as affecting the finances of the households upon which work is carried out.