Toolbox Talk
Form and scrap lumber with nails sticking up is called out by name in the OSHA housekeeping rule — because it's one of the most common ways people get hurt on a construction site. Step on a nail and it goes straight through a boot sole. Fall onto exposed rebar and it can impale you.
The fix is cheap and fast: deal with the nails and sharp ends at the source, as you create them.
OSHA 1926.25(a): 'form and scrap lumber with protruding nails, and all other debris, shall be kept cleared from work areas, passageways, and stairs.' The walking-surfaces rule 1910.22(a)(3) adds that surfaces must be kept free of hazards such as sharp or protruding objects.
So this isn't a housekeeping nicety — a board lying nail-up in a walkway is a named OSHA violation and a puncture waiting to happen.
The time to handle a nail is the moment you strip the form, not later when the board is buried in a pile:
Nails aren't the only sharp thing that gets you. Exposed rebar, form stakes, and anchor bolts can impale a worker who trips or falls onto them. OSHA 1926.701(b) requires that all protruding reinforcing steel, onto and into which employees could fall, be guarded to eliminate the hazard of impalement — rebar caps or troughs, or bending the ends over.
Treat any protruding sharp end the same way: cap it, cover it, remove it, or bend it. Don't walk past it and assume the next person will see it.
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