Residential Building WHS Manual

This is the Residential Building edition of the WHS Manual, written for Queensland builders and trades who build, extend, renovate, restump, raise or demolish houses. It is the same management system as the general WHS Manual with the hazards, licences, laws and store documents rewritten for house building, so you only need one of the two. Fill in your business details, adopt it and keep it current with the document control and review rules built into it. The cover page is ready for your business name and logo. Part A is the management system, in 23 numbered chapters. Part B holds the full text of 82 policies and procedures (41 that apply to every business and 41 for residential building work), each on its own pages in the same editable file, so you can edit, issue and sign off each one without buying it separately.

Need the SWMS for your work? Browse building and carpentry SWMS, or add policies, forms and registers with the Residential Building WHS Management System.

What Is Included In Our Residential Building WHS Manual?

• WHS policy statement with an approval sign-off
• Legal framework, duties, roles and responsibilities for builders, supervisors, trades and workers
• Consultation, health and safety representatives and communication
• Risk management, high risk construction work and SWMS for house building
• Induction, training, licences and competency, and managing trades, contractors, labour hire workers and visitors
• Plant, equipment and electrical safety, hazardous chemicals, asbestos, silica and lead in houses
• Residential hazards: roof and edge falls, ladders and scaffolds, excavation, formwork, framing, cranes, power lines and demolition
• Psychosocial health, fatigue, fitness for work and wellbeing
• Incident management and notification, emergency management and first aid, injury management and return to work
• Site facilities, environmental management, inspections, monitoring, audit and review
• Document control, with a table of record-keeping periods each cited to the law
• Definitions, a table of forms, registers and SWMS for house building, and the legislation and codes that apply
• Part B: the full text of 82 policies and procedures, from risk, hazard and incident management to manual handling, hazardous substances, emergencies and return to work, plus 41 for residential building work

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld): the meaning of reasonably practicable (s 18), our primary duty of care (s 19), duties of persons who manage or control a workplace (s 20), codes of practice (s 26A), duties of officers (s 27), duties of workers and others (ss 28 and 29), notifiable incidents (ss 35 to 39), consultation (ss 46 to 49), health and safety representatives (pt 5), the right to cease unsafe work (ss 84 to 86) and no levy on workers (s 273)
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld): serious electrical incidents and dangerous electrical events (ss 11 and 12), codes of practice (ss 44 and 45) and electrical work licences (s 55)
• Environmental Protection Act 1994 (Qld): the general environmental duty (s 319) and building work noise (s 440R)
• Plumbing and Drainage Act 2018 (Qld): plumbing and drainage work needs a licence (s 56)
• Petroleum and Gas (Production and Safety) Act 2004 (Qld): gas work licences (ss 726 and 727)
• Queensland Building and Construction Commission Act 1991 (Qld), which licenses builders and trades, and the Building Act 1975 (Qld), which governs building approvals and certifier inspections
• Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld): claims, rehabilitation and return to work
• Heavy Vehicle National Law Act 2012 (Qld), which applies the Heavy Vehicle National Law (Queensland), for heavy vehicle deliveries and the chain of responsibility
• Explosives Act 1999 (Qld), for cartridge-powered tools
• Waste Reduction and Recycling Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): managing risks (ss 32 to 38), facilities, first aid, emergency plans and PPE (ss 40 to 47), noise (ss 56 to 59), manual tasks (s 60), confined spaces (ss 62 to 77), falls (ss 78 to 80), high risk work licences (ss 81 to 85 and sch 3), plant (chapter 5 and sch 5), construction work (chapter 6, including falls in housing construction work ss 306C to 306Q, excavation ss 304 to 306, demolition ss 142 to 144, and protection of the public ss 315B to 315M), hazardous chemicals (chapter 7), asbestos (chapter 8), crystalline silica (chapter 8A) and the dictionary (sch 19)
• Work Health and Safety (Codes of Practice) Notice 2022 (Qld): the list of approved codes of practice
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): overhead and underground electric lines (ss 10 to 15 and sch 2), safety switches (s 139), construction work (s 140), energised electrical work (ss 195 to 204), rescue and resuscitation training (s 211) and notifying serious electrical incidents (s 292)
• Plumbing and Drainage Regulation 2019 (Qld)
• Building Regulation 2021 (Qld)
• Petroleum and Gas (Safety) Regulation 2018 (Qld): gas cylinders carried in vehicles (ss 141 to 144)
• Explosives Regulation 2017 (Qld): power device cartridges (s 146)
• Transport Operations (Road Use Management – Accreditation and Other Provisions) Regulation 2015 (Qld): traffic controllers (ss 51, 54 and 55)
• Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Regulation 2025 (Qld)
• 31 Queensland approved codes of practice, named in full in the manual

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word manual (537 pages), A4 portrait, with a cover page ready for your business name and logo, a contents list, Part A (23 numbered chapters) and Part B (82 policies and procedures)
• Business details and document control typed once and filled in on every page, plus a space for your logo
• A WHS policy statement with an approval sign-off
• Roles, procedures, a risk matrix, record-keeping periods, definitions and references
• Part B: the full text of 82 policies and procedures, each starting on a new page
• Links by name to the matching SWMS, forms and registers in our range

Review it and adjust it to suit your business, your sites and the way your team works, and talk it through with your workers. If you have any trouble downloading this template, you can contact us at any time. Please make sure you read our Disclaimer before downloading.