What are the OSHA Requirements and Employer Responsibilities for Confined Spaces in Residential Construction?

Enclosed or confined spaces, including manholes, crawl spaces and tanks, are not intended for continuous occupancy and have limited means of entry and exit in an emergency. Workers performing tasks in confined spaces can be exposed to deadly hazards such as poisons, electrocution, explosion and suffocation.

This article provides information on the new rule, compliance assistance documents and other resources OSHA is offering to help employers and workers understand the requirements. OSHA will add new guidance products in response to new questions or developments over the coming months and will update this title. Check back on the website for more updates.

Confined spaces often provide working areas that:(1) are big enough for an employee to enter, (2) have limited entry and exit points, and (3) are not meant for regular use. Such spaces are prone to physical and atmospheric hazards that can be avoided if they are made safe before entry for work.

This page is a starting point for information about these spaces, the dangers they can pose and how to safely work in them.

OSHA has written a construction standard specifically for Confined Spaces (29 CFR 1926 Subpart AA) — that applies to ALL spaces all of the time, if they meet three qualifiers:

• Is big enough for a worker to walk inside;
• Does not have access to, and is not accessible from, more than one side.
• Is not designed for full-time occupancy.

A space that meets the definition of a confined space and contains any one or more of the hazards listed in § 1910146(b) would be classified by this standard as a permit-required confined space. Permit-required confined spaces can pose immediate risk to workers’ lives if not adequately recognized, assessed, tested and controlled.

A permit space is a confined space that has one or more of the following characteristics:

• Is or may be a hazardous location;
• Includes a substance capable of entrapping an entrant;
• Is of such inside configuration that an entrant could be trapped or asphyxiated by inwardly converging walls, or; a floor which slopes downward and tapers to a small cross-section.
• Involves any other known serious safety or health hazard.

How Employers Can Identify When There Are Confined Spaces and/or Permit-required Confined Spaces

Prior to actual work starting on a residential homebuilding project, each employer shall ensure that a competent person has identified all confined spaces in which one or more employees it directs will be working, and has identified each such space as a permit-required confined-space.

The competent person is not required to enter the attic, basement or crawl space during each shift but if he enters it and finds that the space of identical or similar configuration is a permit-required confined space, then there are likely other spaces in the building that may contain a hazard or potential hazard which would require them to be classified as a permit-space.

The competent person may make the preliminary assessment based on experienced observation and knowledge of the area, and an estimate is not required.

For instance, a qualified person performing an inspection of homes under construction that are identical in terms of design and materials used in construction does not need to visually inspect each individual attic separately in order to determine whether it is a permit-required confined space.

The Impact of the Standard on Common Spaces within a Residential Building

Home environments may have confined spaces or permit-required confined spaces during construction or remodeling. But most of the requirements in the standard only come into play in permit-required confined spaces, and many attics, basements and crawl spaces in a residential home — three examples — won’t normally rise to that level.

Attics: In the majority of situations, you would not identify an attic as a confined space because it has free access and egress without limited or restricted entry methods. An attic that is entered through pull down stairs made in the style of stationary stairways which do not have to be climbed hand-over-hand by an employee would not be considered a confined space as long as there are no obstructions for escape.

Attics are not permit-required confined spaces The Agency has determined that attics are not PRCSs either in general industry or construction because they do not typically contain the type of hazards (or potential hazards) which could cause death or serious physical harm to an entrant (i.e., limit exits from the space).

Extreme attic heat does however have a major physical hazard connotation to the extent that the attic could be considered a "permit-required" confined space. OSHA has not specified how hot it must be for permit-required confined spaces requirements to kick in.

Nevertheless, heat that is hot enough to cause heat exhaustion (i.e., dizziness, headaches, heavy sweating, and cramps) may prevent an employee from being able to exit the attic without help from others and would result in a permit space determination for a confined space.

Basements: A basement in a residential home that is constructed so as to be habitable at all times by the homeowner and does not meet the definition of a confined space if it is built and arranged so as designed (e.g., has permanent stairs, walk-out entry/exit, or egress windows have been installed).

Crawl Spaces: Crawl spaces in a residential dwelling will not generally initiate most of the provisions of the Code unless they have some physical hazard such as an exposed live electrical wire.

Final Thoughts

The employer must provide sufficient confined space training for all construction workers, and identify which “confined spaces” pose a potential risk on each of its construction sites.