Floor Sawing Noise and Vibration Under BS 5228

Floor sawing makes a steady, continuous noise and puts very little vibration into the structure around it, which is why it is chosen over breaking on sensitive sites. It is still loud at the saw, and it is still construction noise in the eyes of the law. Two sets of rules apply. BS 5228 is the code of practice councils use to judge noise and vibration reaching the neighbours, backed by notices and prior consents under the Control of Pollution Act 1974. The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 and the Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005 protect the people running the saw.

Both have to be planned before the first cut, not answered after a complaint. This article sets out what BS 5228 is, how a council uses it, where floor sawing sits against the limits, and what a method statement or a consent application should say. Shepherd and Sons cut on highways, airfields, ports and occupied sites across Kent, London and the South East, including night work near homes.

BS 5228 is the British Standard code of practice for noise and vibration control on construction and open sites, in two parts. BS 5228-1 covers noise and BS 5228-2 covers vibration, both in their 2009 editions as amended in 2014. Both set out the legal background, recommend liaison between developers, site operators and local authorities, and give guidance on measuring and assessing what reaches the surroundings.

In England both parts carry statutory weight. The Control of Noise (Code of Practice for Construction and Open Sites) (England) Order 2015 approves them, as amended in 2014, for the purpose of giving guidance on appropriate methods for minimising noise from construction sites. That approval is what lets a council hold a contractor to the code.

Under section 60 of the Control of Pollution Act 1974 a local authority can serve a notice on construction work, including road works and breaking up roads, setting the plant that may or may not be used, the hours of work and the level of noise allowed. In doing so it must have regard to the approved code of practice, to the need for the best practicable means of minimising noise, and to protecting people in the surrounding area.

Section 61 is the way to agree it in advance. Whoever intends to do the work can apply to the council for prior consent, giving particulars of the works, the method and the steps proposed to minimise noise. The council has 28 days to decide, and must grant consent if the information is sufficient and the works as described would not have attracted a section 60 notice, though it can attach conditions. Working within a consent is a defence against a section 60 offence. It is not, by itself, a defence to statutory nuisance proceedings brought by a neighbour under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, so the consent is a floor, not a licence.

For a programme of night work near homes, a section 61 consent is worth considering. It fixes the hours and the controls before the job starts, rather than leaving them to whoever complains first.

The character of the noise matters as much as the level. A diamond blade running through concrete makes a continuous noise, while a breaker makes repeated impacts. The difference between cutting and breaking goes through the rest of the comparison.

Vibration is where sawing pulls furthest ahead. A saw cut transmits far less energy into the surrounding slab and structure than a breaker hammering at it, which can be the difference between work in an occupied building being permitted or not. Where even that is too much, wire sawing and stitch drilling put less again into the structure, at a higher cost and a slower rate.

Highway and airfield floor sawing has to fit a closure of the road or runway, and closures are often at night. On the M20 between junctions 8 and 9 the window was 10pm to 3.30am, twenty nights running. Night working is exactly what section 60 notices and section 61 consents deal in, so the hours and the controls belong in the plan before the possession is booked.

The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 set a lower exposure action value of 80 dB(A), where an employer must assess the risk and provide information and training, an upper action value of 85 dB(A), where hearing protection and hearing protection zones become compulsory, and an exposure limit of 87 dB(A) that must not be exceeded even allowing for the protection worn. Where a floor saw takes its operator past those values, which the saw's declared noise figure will show, hearing protection, health surveillance and rotation follow.

Vibration has its own limits. HSE's brief guide to hand-arm vibration gives a daily exposure action value of 2.5 m/s² and a daily limit of 5 m/s². It lists pedestrian controlled floor saws and hand-held saws for concrete among the equipment whose users will often be exposed above the action value, alongside powered hammers for demolition and road breaking. So a floor saw is not vibration free for the person holding the handles, even though it is gentle on the building. Trigger time, the condition of the saw and the blade, and rotating operators all count.

The machine itself has a safety standard. BS EN 13862 covers pedestrian controlled floor sawing machines for wet and dry cutting of concrete, asphalt and similar materials, and the current edition was published in 2021. Manufacturers declare the noise and vibration of each saw in its operator's manual, and those declared figures, for the actual saw on your job, are what an exposure assessment and a consent application should start from.

Diesel floor saws give the power for deep cuts through heavy pavements on highways, airfields and port yards. Inside a building an electric saw takes engine exhaust out of the room altogether, and the generator or supply that feeds it can usually be placed away from the work and from neighbours. Where the plant goes on a site is one of the simplest noise controls there is, and one of the first things a council will ask about.

Whether it is a method statement for a main contractor or a section 61 application to a council, the same information carries it.

• The hours, including when the noisiest operations happen within them.
• The plant, with each machine's declared noise and vibration from its manual, and where generators and support plant will stand.
• The method, and why it was chosen over a louder or more percussive one.
• Screening and distance, because distance from the nearest homes is a control in its own right.
• Liaison, meaning who the neighbours and the council contact, and how they hear about night work before it starts, which BS 5228 recommends throughout.
• Monitoring, where the council or the client asks for noise or vibration readings at the boundary or in a sensitive building.
• Operator controls, covering hearing protection, trigger time limits and rotation under the noise and vibration regulations.

On the Stansted terminal extension the floor sawing for channels, pits and trenches ran inside a live airfield, with traffic management and road sweeping teams alongside and strict noise and dust control measures in place. The controls were part of the job from the first cut, which is where they belong.

Noise and vibration are rarely the only things a neighbour or a site manager is watching. A dry cut throws respirable crystalline silica into the air, and wet cutting is how floor sawing keeps it down. What floor sawing is covers the wet and dry methods, and the slurry that wet cutting leaves has to be collected rather than washed into a drain.

If you have floor sawing to programme near homes, in an occupied building or on a highway at night, tell us the location, the hours you need and how close the nearest neighbours or sensitive rooms are. We will say what the plant and method should be, and what a consent application or method statement needs to cover. Shepherd and Sons hold CHAS Elite, SafeContractor and Constructionline, and work from Little Westerhill Farm in Linton, near Maidstone, across highways, airfields and public sector sites. Ring 07768 662153 or contact us with the details.