Brick Cleaning SWMS

For brick cleaners and building cleaners who wash down new brickwork with hydrochloric acid or other brick-cleaning products. It covers protecting surroundings, safe mixing and labelling, application, removing mortar with power tools, rinsing and runoff, and the access equipment used to reach the work.

A SWMS is legally required under the WHS Regulation (s 299) only when the work is high risk construction work, such as work with a fall risk of more than 2 metres or power-tool removal of mortar that creates silica dust (tick the contaminated atmosphere item, s 291(l)); otherwise this document works as a written safe work procedure or task risk assessment.

New to SWMS? Read What is a safe work method statement?

What is covered in our brick cleaning SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Set up the work area and protect surroundings” to “Clean up, pack up and load the vehicle”. The hazards and controls include:

• Acid splashes burning skin and eyes
• Acid fumes and mist
• Mixing acid with bleach or other chemicals
• Falls from ladders, scaffold and elevating work platforms
• Silica dust from grinding mortar
• Noise from grinders and pressure washers
• High-pressure water jet injuries
• Acid runoff into drains and neighbouring property
• Contact with overhead power lines
• Electric shock from wet leads and tools
• Heat illness and sunburn
• Strains from scrubbing and overhead reaching

High risk construction work

These high risk construction work items (WHS Regulation 2011 (Qld) s 291) are already ticked because they are part of this work. Tick any others that apply to your job:

• Involves a risk of a person falling more than 2m

Licences, training and competency

• General construction induction training card (white card) for construction work
• Site induction
• High risk work licence for the scaffolding class that matches the scaffold (basic, intermediate or advanced) for anyone erecting, altering or dismantling a scaffold from which a person or object could fall more than 4 m
• High risk work licence for the boom-type elevating work platform class where the boom length is 11 m or more
• Training in the safe mixing, use and storage of the cleaning product, including how to read its SDS and label
• Crystalline silica training for workers doing power tool work on brick or mortar that the written silica assessment finds high risk
• Respirator fit test and training for workers who wear tight-fitting respirators
• Verification of competency for the pressure washer and power tools used

Legislation and codes of practice referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Labelling of Workplace Hazardous Chemicals Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces Code of Practice 2021
• Scaffolding Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Managing respirable crystalline silica dust exposure in construction and manufacturing of construction elements Code of Practice 2022
• Managing Noise and Preventing Hearing Loss at Work Code of Practice 2021
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice 2021
• First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): overhead power line exclusion zones and electrical equipment on construction sites
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2020 – Working near overhead and underground electric lines (distances come from the 2026 Regulation)

What you get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (17 pages), laid out on A4 landscape pages. Type your business, client and job details once and they fill in on every page, with a space for your logo
• 11 job steps for this work, each with its hazards, controls, initial and residual risk scores and the person responsible
• PPE listed for this job: chemical-resistant gloves suited to the acid, as stated on the SDS; splash-proof goggles and a face shield when mixing, applying or rinsing
• Emergency arrangements for: acid on skin or in eyes, acid spill and fall or a worker suspended in a harness
• Plus the parts every Work Safety QLD SWMS shares, from the s 291 checklist to the worker sign-on sheet (see the layout in our free SWMS template)

Adjust it for your site, plant and crew, and talk it through with your workers before work starts.

Checked against the Queensland laws and codes of practice listed above. Last reviewed October 2026.