Cool Room and Commercial Refrigeration Installation SWMS

For refrigeration contractors, builders and shopfitters who erect walk-in cool rooms and freezer rooms from insulated panels and fit the doors, units, drainage and power. It follows the work in order, with the panel fire risk, entrapment controls, falls, dust and the licences that apply to the electrical, plumbing, lifting and refrigeration unit work, and keeps brazing, charging and other refrigerant handling with its own SWMS.

Installing a cool room is construction work. A SWMS is required by law under WHS Regulation s 299 only when the work is high risk construction work, which happens when a reg 291 item applies, and otherwise it works as the written safe work procedure for the job. Tick the fall item if a person could fall more than 2 m, the refrigerant lines item when working on or near refrigerant lines, the energised installations item when working on or near energised parts, and the powered mobile plant item where plant moves in the work area.

New to SWMS? Read What Is A Safe Work Method Statement?

What Is Covered In Our Cool Room and Commercial Refrigeration Installation SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Plan the job and inspect the site” to “Respond to entrapment, fire or serious injury”. The hazards and controls include:

• Falls while fixing ceiling panels and mounting units
• Panels toppling or being dropped during erection
• Being struck by delivery vehicles, forklifts and cranes
• Fire in combustible EPS and PIR panel cores
• A person trapped inside a closed cool room
• Silica dust from drilling and cutting the slab
• Cuts, noise and dust from cutting panels
• Manual handling of long, awkward panels and doors
• Electric shock from wiring and door heater cables
• Contact with overhead power lines during delivery and lifting

High Risk Construction Work

None of the high risk construction work items (WHS Regulation 2011 (Qld) s 291) are pre-ticked, because this job is not high risk construction work by itself. Tick any that apply on your site.

Licences, Training and Competency

• General construction induction training card (white card) for construction work, and site induction
• Installer trained and competent in the panel maker’s erection method, including cam-lock panels, sealing and door fitting
• High risk work licence for the class of any forklift truck, vehicle loading crane (10 metre tonnes or more), hoist or boom-type elevating work platform (11 m or more) used (WHS Regulation Schedule 3)
• Dogging high risk work licence, or a higher rigging class, for anyone who slings a load or directs a crane operator when the load is out of the operator’s view (Schedule 19, dogging work)
• Licensed electrical worker for supply wiring, controls, lighting, door heater cables and alarms (Electrical Safety Act 2002 s 55)
• Licensed plumber or drainer for any plumbing or drainage work, such as connecting the room drain to the building’s drainage (Plumbing and Drainage Act 2018 s 56)
• Refrigerant handling licence that covers the work for anyone who installs, commissions, services or maintains the evaporators, condensing unit or pipework of a system using a CFC, HCFC, HFC or PFC refrigerant, whether or not refrigerant is present (Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Regulations 1995 (Cth) regs 110 and 111); brazing, pressure testing, charging and decommissioning follow the separate Refrigeration and Refrigerant Handling SWMS
• Competent person for scaffold, trestle or platform inspection, and training in the use of the elevating work platform

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): ss 40 and 43 (workplace facilities, exits and emergency plan), ss 52 and 53 (ignition sources, flammable materials)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): chapter 8A (respirable crystalline silica), ss 529B to 529CD
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): ss 306C and 306D (falls in construction work), ss 306K and 306M (ladders)
• Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces Code of Practice 2021
• Hazardous Manual Tasks 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
• Welding Processes Code of Practice 2021 (fire precautions around hot work)
• Managing Noise and Preventing Hearing Loss at Work Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Mobile Crane Code of Practice 2024 (where a vehicle loading crane lifts panels or units)
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021
• First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld): s 55 (electrical work licence)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): overhead power line exclusion zones in schedule 2
• Plumbing and Drainage Act 2018 (Qld): s 56 (licence for plumbing or drainage work)
• Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Regulations 1995 (Cth): regs 110 and 111 (refrigerant handling licence for work on refrigeration and air conditioning equipment)

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (16 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: safety boots; cut-resistant gloves for handling panels, trims and metal edges; safety glasses; P2 respirator when cutting or drilling concrete and when cutting panels without extraction
• Emergency arrangements for: person trapped in the room, fire in or near the panels and fall from the ceiling or platform
• 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. Please make sure you read our Disclaimer before downloading this SWMS.

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