All provinces and territories · Editable Word template

Demolition safety manual template

A complete written health and safety program for demolition contractors doing residential, commercial, industrial and interior demolition, selective demolition in occupied buildings, concrete breaking, salvage and site clearing, wherever in Canada the job is. It is laid out on the 14 national COR elements and written for the work: the hazardous materials survey and written clearance before anything comes down, the engineering survey and demolition plan, disconnecting and verifying utilities and stored energy, premature collapse, exclusion zones, high reach excavators and attachments, manual demolition, torch cutting coated steel, dust and silica, debris chutes, unexpected hazardous materials and the buildings next door. Section 15 sets out the law of every province and territory, and federal workplaces, side by side, with each jurisdiction’s survey, notice, engineer and written procedure rules and the asbestos rules to meet before demolition starts. It arrives as an editable Word file you make your own.

A look inside

Sample pages from the manual, marked and cut short. Your copy has no watermark.

Cover with room for your logo and company name

Linked table of contents, laid out on the 14 national COR elements plus a section on working across Canada

Section 3: twenty safe work practices written for demolition crews, disconnecting and verifying utilities shown

Section 15: each jurisdiction's survey before demolition, notices, engineer and asbestos rules

Appendix A: all 74 documentation questions of the national COR elements mapped

Print-ready forms: the demolition plan and sequence shown

What’s in the manual

1. Safety and health policy

A signed, dated policy, the written program, and responsibilities for management, supervisors, equipment operators, torch cutters, labourers and spotters, and how we work with owners, engineers and abatement contractors.

2. Hazard assessment, analysis and control

Formal hazard assessments by type of demolition, the 5 × 5 risk matrix, a critical task inventory, and the demolition hazard assessment done before every job.

3. Safe work practices

Twenty practices for demolition: hoarding and the public, surveys and abatement first, the demolition plan, utilities, structural stability, exclusion zones, high reach machines, attachments, manual demolition, strip-out, torch cutting, dust, noise, openings and edges, chutes and bins, mobile equipment, unexpected materials, adjacent buildings, fire and night work.

4. Safe job procedures

Step-by-step procedures for verifying utilities, setting an exclusion zone, taking down a two-storey building with an excavator, bringing down a wall by hand, torch cutting coated steel, stopping work on suspected asbestos, using a debris chute and demolishing beside an occupied building.

5. Company safety rules

Life-saving rules for demolition (nothing comes down before the clearance is signed, utilities verified in writing, nobody inside the exclusion zone, stop work on anything unexpected), and a progressive discipline process applied the same way every time.

6. Personal protective equipment

Respirators for silica, lead and dust with fit testing, cut and puncture protection, hearing protection, and the rest of the basic PPE.

7. Preventative maintenance program

High reach excavators, attachments and quick couplers, cab protection, breakers, torches and cylinders, dust suppression and chutes.

8. Training and communication

Demolition plan briefings, equipment operators, torch cutting and hot work, asbestos awareness, and orientation for every worker and visitor.

9. Inspections

Daily exclusion zone and structure inspections, equipment checked before use, and adjacent buildings monitored.

10. Investigations and reporting

Premature collapses, falling debris, utility contacts, asbestos releases and near misses reported and investigated.

11. Emergency preparedness

A collapse, a worker trapped, a gas or electrical contact, a fire, an asbestos release, and first aid on site.

12. Statistics, records and document control

Surveys and clearances, demolition plans and stage logs, utility verifications, hot work permits and inspections, kept for the longest period any jurisdiction requires.

13. Legislation

OHS law and its demolition rules, the asbestos, designated substances and PCB rules, the applicable CSA demolition code, and the right to refuse.

14. Procurement and contractor management

Abatement contractors, engineers and hygienists, haulers and recyclers, and buying equipment and attachments.

15. Working across Canada

Whose law applies, then every province and territory and federal workplaces side by side: the act and regulation, the regulator, the survey and what must be removed first, notice of demolition, the engineer and the written procedure, the asbestos rules before demolition, and serious incidents to report and how fast.

Appendix A. COR cross-reference

Every one of the 74 documentation questions in the 14 national COR elements, what it looks for in plain words, the section that answers it, and whether the auditor will also want your records.

Appendix B. Forms

37 print-ready forms that match the manual, each with a form code: among them the demolition hazard assessment, demolition plan and sequence, utility disconnection verification, hazardous materials clearance, hot work permit and daily exclusion zone and structure inspection.

Written for the work, not just the province

Demolition goes wrong in a few ways: a floor that gives under its own debris, a gas line nobody cut, asbestos nobody found, a wall that falls the wrong way onto the street or the building next door. This manual is written around them, practice by practice and procedure by procedure.

Nothing comes down until the survey is done and the clearance is signed. Abatement is done first, by you or by others, and the manual says what to do when something unexpected turns up.

One program for every province you work in

Your crews follow the occupational health and safety law of the province or territory where the job is, not where your office is. The manual sets your company’s rules once and gathers what changes at each border into section 15, so a supervisor starting work in a new province looks up what applies there.

It is laid out on the 14 national COR elements, so it suits a COR audit wherever you certify. Each certifying partner uses its own audit tool, so check it against yours; our provincial manuals follow each province’s audit exactly. No template can guarantee a certificate on its own, and we don’t claim to.

Who it is for

Demolition contractors doing residential, commercial, industrial, interior and selective demolition, concrete breaking, salvage and site clearing. Abatement itself is covered by our restoration and renovation manual.

A template is a starting point, not legal or engineering advice: a qualified person must adapt it to your work and the provinces you work in before you issue it.

Lifetime updates

When the law changes, we publish a new edition and email everyone who bought the template. Every update is free, for as long as we publish it.

Version 1.0 October 29, 2026
- First edition, written for demolition contractors and laid out on the 14 national elements of the harmonized COR audit.
- Section 15 sets out the law and the survey, notice, engineer, written procedure and asbestos rules for demolition of every province and territory and federal workplaces, checked against the legislation in force on 29 October 2026.