builders hats

[SKA]

why are some yellow and some blue? Does the color mean anything? (I'm spying on some builders out of my office window)

[Octavius]

In the UK not really - most sites do not have a colour code, it's only the really large projects like Heathrow T5 that dictate the hard hat colours and most building companies try to get the colour closest to there corporate colours or white with a company logo etc.

Sometimes on larger projects as mentioned, you might see white for supervisors, blue for technical advisors, red for safety, and yellow for visitors � or some such arrangement, but there are � as far as I am aware � no statutory rules governing this.

It is likely that the blue or yellow helmets you are looking at reflect the corporate colours of the main contractor, or any one of the subcontractors.

[saxy_jag]

Some workers, especially builders and other craftsmen who work as sub-contractors, will buy their hard hats themselves and use them from job to job. I guess the colour they wear is just a matter of personal choice.

Now stop eyeing them up, SKA, and get some work done. ;-)

[heathfield]

One of the North Sea drilling companies introduced a scheme on their rigs of green hats for newbies and white hats for experienced hands, all in the interests of safety. This was thought to be a great idea, and the scheme was adopted by other companies. Too late, it was pointed out that it should have been the other way round. The newbies should have been given the white hats to make them more visible to other workers, especially at night.