Bricklaying RAMS: a complete guide for UK bricklayers and masonry contractors (2026)

Why bricklayers and masonry contractors need a RAMS

A RAMS is a Risk Assessment and Method Statement combined into one document. For bricklaying and masonry work it is the document that proves you have thought through the job, the materials and the access before the first course goes down.

Bricklaying is one of those trades where the serious risks are easy to underestimate because the work feels familiar and repetitive. But cutting bricks and blocks releases one of the most dangerous substances on any construction site, wet cement burns skin without you feeling it at the time, and a working day of lifting heavy blocks wrecks backs over a career. A main contractor knows all this, which is why they will ask for your RAMS before letting you on site.

If you are a sole-trader bricklayer on small domestic jobs, you are not always legally required to produce a formal written RAMS for every garden wall. But on any commercial site, new build, or project running under a principal contractor and CDM 2015, a written RAMS is expected and almost always mandatory before you can start.

Who asks for a bricklaying RAMS?

The people who will want to see it include main contractors and principal contractors letting you onto their site, housebuilders and developers, housing associations and local authorities, and any project manager coordinating several trades at once. A clear, trade-specific RAMS keeps your team safe and gets you through the approval gate without delay.

The hazards a bricklaying RAMS must cover

A generic RAMS will not pass a competent contractor's check, because it will not mention the hazards that are specific to masonry work. These are the ones that matter.

Silica dust: the biggest hidden killer

Cutting, chasing, grinding or breaking bricks, blocks, concrete and mortar releases respirable crystalline silica - fine dust that you cannot see hanging in the air but that scars the lungs permanently. It causes silicosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer, and it kills far more construction workers over time than any single accident. The HSE's guidance on construction dust and HSG201 set the standard.

This is the single most important section of a bricklaying RAMS, and the one assessors scrutinise hardest. Your document should set out water suppression on cutting (cut wet wherever possible), on-tool extraction where water is not practical, RPE with the correct assigned protection factor and face-fit testing, and where you will cut - away from others and never in an enclosed space without control. Saying "operatives will wear a dust mask" is not enough and signals to an assessor that you have not taken silica seriously.

Cement: burns and dermatitis

Wet cement and mortar are highly alkaline. They cause cement burns that can go right through to the bone without immediate pain, and repeated skin contact causes allergic contact dermatitis that ends careers. Cement is a COSHH substance like any chemical.

Your RAMS should cover waterproof gloves, keeping skin covered, washing facilities on site, removing cement-contaminated clothing promptly, and not kneeling in wet mortar. The HSE's guidance on cement is the reference here.

Manual handling

Blocks can weigh well over 20kg, bricks are lifted thousands of times a day, and bags of cement and sand are heavy and awkward. Manual handling injuries are the slow-burn epidemic of bricklaying, governed by the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992.

Your method statement should cover the controls: mechanical handling and telehandlers for moving packs, lightweight or split blocks where specified, good loading-out so materials are at working height, rotating tasks, and team lifts for anything heavy or awkward. There is a legal weight consideration too - blocks over 20kg in weight bring specific manual handling duties into play.

Hand-arm vibration and noise

Disc cutters, breakers and grinders expose bricklayers to hand-arm vibration, which causes HAVS - permanent nerve and circulation damage in the hands - and to noise levels that damage hearing. These are controlled by the Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005 and the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005.

Your RAMS should set out trigger-time limits on vibrating tools, tool selection and maintenance, hearing protection, and health surveillance where exposure warrants it. This is another area where naming the actual controls, rather than a vague "PPE will be worn", marks out a credible document.

Working at height

Most bricklaying above ground level happens off a scaffold under the Work at Height Regulations 2005. A crucial point for your RAMS: bricklayers usually work off a scaffold but do not erect or alter it. Your document should make clear that scaffold is provided and inspected by others, that you will not modify it, and that you will report any defect or missing guard rail rather than work around it.

Where work is from a tower or other access equipment your team does control, the RAMS covers the inspection and safe-use arrangements for that. Loading out the scaffold safely - not overloading a lift with packs of blocks - also belongs here.

Falling materials and the work area below

Bricks, blocks and tools dropped from a scaffold are a serious risk to anyone below. Your RAMS should cover toe boards and brick guards, exclusion below the work, and how materials are raised and stored at height so they cannot be knocked off.

Eye injuries and weather

Cutting and chipping throws fragments, so eye protection belongs in the RAMS. Weather matters too: mortar does not cure properly in frost or extreme heat, wet conditions make scaffolds slippery, and high winds make working at height dangerous. A method statement that acknowledges weather holds and protection of new work reads as one written by someone who actually lays brick.

A worked example: RAMS for blockwork and brickwork on a house extension

It helps to see how the hazards turn into an actual method statement. Take a common job: building the blockwork inner skin and brick outer skin of a single-storey extension, working off a scaffold provided by the main contractor. Here is how a sound RAMS would walk through it.

Before work starts

The RAMS records that the scaffold is provided, erected and inspected by others and will not be altered by the bricklaying team, that a cutting station will be set up away from other workers with water suppression, and that face-fit-tested RPE is available for anyone cutting. Materials are confirmed as deliverable to working height by the contractor's telehandler to limit manual handling.

Sequence of work and controls

Set out: mark out the work and check the scaffold for defects and missing guard rails before use, reporting anything wrong rather than working around it. Load out: bring packs of blocks and brick to working height with the telehandler, not by hand, and do not overload a single scaffold lift. Mix or silo: set up the mixer or silo with the controls for the dust it creates. Cut: all cutting done at the dedicated wet-cut station, away from others, with RPE worn - never dry-cutting in the work area. Lay: build the courses, with cement-handling controls in place - waterproof gloves, skin kept covered, no kneeling in wet mortar. Raise materials: keep the scaffold loaded safely and tidy. Protect and clean up: cover new work against weather, fit and maintain brick guards and toe boards so nothing can fall on anyone below, and clear the area.

Why this reads as competent

The assessor sees the silica risk controlled at a real cutting station rather than waved through, the scaffold boundary stated clearly, manual handling designed out with mechanical loading, and falling materials managed. That is the difference between a RAMS for this job and a template with the name changed.

What we have learned watching brickwork go up (from the scaffold side)

Most of what is written above is the standard guidance. This part is not. Complys was built by people who run a scaffolding firm, so we have spent years on site alongside brickwork gangs and have seen where the RAMS and the reality part company. Here are a few things experience teaches that no template will.

The scaffold is not yours to alter. The thing we see most often, and the one that worries us most, is a bricklayer pulling a transom off the scaffold or adjusting it to get the wall flush or reach an awkward course. Only a competent scaffolder may alter a scaffold. If something on the scaffold is genuinely in the way, the rule is simple: tell the site manager and let a scaffolder adjust it. A brickie taking a transom out has just compromised the structure they are standing on, and their RAMS should say in plain terms that the scaffold will not be altered by anyone but a competent scaffolder.

Loading bays have a rated limit, and it is lower than people think. On one job the loading bay had been designed and rated to 2kN. In practice that is about one pallet of bricks and one tub of mix, and no more. We have watched gangs load far past that without a second thought, because a pallet does not look like much until you know the number behind the bay. A bricklaying RAMS that mentions loading out should know the rated limit of the bay it is loading onto and work to it, not eyeball it.

Bricks come off scaffolds when the guards are not there. We have seen a scaffold with no brick guards fitted and bricks stacked above the height of the toe board, and the inevitable happened: a brick got knocked off the edge. Below a working scaffold is exactly where you do not want loose material falling. Brick guards and a properly maintained toe board are not optional extras on brickwork at height, and the area below the work needs to be kept clear. A RAMS that covers work off a scaffold but says nothing about falling materials has missed the most obvious risk on the job.

The chemical in the mix counts as a hazard. We have seen a bricklaying RAMS rejected because a chemical used in the mix had not been assessed in the risk assessment. It is easy to think of cement and a bag of mortar as just materials, but admixtures and additives are COSHH substances, and if they are being used they belong in the assessment with their data sheet. Leaving them out is a common reason a document gets handed back.

The honest summary from the scaffold side: most brickwork RAMS get the bricklaying right and the scaffold wrong. Treat the scaffold as something you work from but do not touch, know the loading limit of the bay, keep material from falling, and assess what is actually in the mix. Get those right and you are ahead of most of what we see on site.

A pre-work checklist for bricklaying RAMS

Before you submit a bricklaying RAMS, or before the team starts on site, run through a short check. A RAMS that can answer yes to these is one that will pass and, more importantly, keep people safe.

• Cutting controlled - is there a dedicated cutting station with water suppression or on-tool extraction, set away from others, rather than dry-cutting in the work area?
• RPE specified - is face-fit-tested respiratory protection named for cutting tasks, not just "a dust mask"?
• Cement and skin - are waterproof gloves, skin cover, washing facilities and not kneeling in wet mortar all covered?
• Scaffold boundary clear - does the RAMS state the scaffold is provided and inspected by others and will not be altered by the bricklaying team?
• Defect reporting - is there a pre-use check of the scaffold and a clear instruction to report defects rather than work around them?
• Manual handling - is mechanical loading-out to working height specified, with team lifts and split loads for heavy items?
• Falling materials - are toe boards and brick guards covered, with the area below the work protected?
• Vibration and noise - are trigger-time limits and hearing protection set out for cutting tools?
• Weather - is protection of new mortar and a weather hold for unsafe conditions addressed?

Common reasons a bricklaying RAMS gets rejected

Knowing why documents get sent back is the fastest way to write one that does not. These are the failings an assessor sees most often on bricklaying RAMS.

Silica is waved through. The most common and most serious failing - "operatives will wear a dust mask" with no cutting station, no water suppression and no face-fit testing. An assessor who takes silica seriously will reject this on sight.

It is obviously generic. A template that does not name the actual work - facing brick, blockwork, a retaining wall - the materials or the real access is a frequent rejection.

The scaffold is muddled. Claiming the bricklaying team will erect or alter scaffold, or saying nothing about who provides and inspects it, signals confusion about the trade boundary.

Manual handling is ignored. No mention of how heavy blocks and packs are moved, given the trade's well-known back and shoulder toll, reads as a gap.

Falling materials are not addressed. A RAMS for work at height off a scaffold that says nothing about brick guards, toe boards or protecting the area below misses an obvious and serious risk.

How to write a bricklaying RAMS that passes

A RAMS that gets approved first time shares a few features whatever the trade.

Make it specific to the job

The fastest way to get a RAMS rejected is to submit something obviously generic. Name the site, the actual work - whether it is facing brick, blockwork, a retaining wall or a chimney - the real access arrangements, and the specific materials and cutting involved. An assessor can tell within seconds whether the document describes this job or is a template with the name changed.

Follow the sequence of work

The method statement should walk through the job in order: setting out and loading out materials, mixing or silo arrangements, laying sequence, cutting arrangements and where they happen, raising materials, and protecting and cleaning up. Each stage links to the hazards it creates and the controls that manage them.

Rate the risks honestly

The risk assessment side rates each hazard by likelihood and severity, then again after your controls are in place. This residual-risk approach follows HSE's risk assessment guidance and is what a competent assessor expects to see, with silica and manual handling rated seriously rather than waved through.

Keep it readable

The people who need to follow a RAMS are the bricklayers and labourers on site, not just the assessor. Plain language, a clear sequence and a short list of real controls beat pages of boilerplate nobody reads.

Doing it the fast way

Writing a full bricklaying RAMS by hand for every job is exactly the paperwork that eats evenings. That is the problem Complys was built to solve: answer a few questions about the job and the trade, and it generates a complete, bricklaying-specific risk assessment and method statement you can edit, download and share. The hazards above - silica, cement, manual handling, vibration, working at height - come built into the templates, so you start from a document that already knows the trade rather than a blank page.

If you want the wider picture first, our guide to what a RAMS is and how to write one covers the fundamentals, and the difference between a RAMS and a risk assessment clears up the most common confusion. You can also see every trade we cover on the RAMS builder hub.

However you produce it, the goal is the same: a RAMS that keeps your team safe, gets you onto site without delay, and stands up when a contractor checks it.