And yet, as horrific to contemplate as this, hopefully rare, scenario is, it does act as a stark warning to all those in the trade. With the phrase ‘one-stop shop’ increasingly quoted in conversations about best business practice, and so more and more printers tempted to branch out into installing the wide-format work they print, it acts as a sobering reminder of just how much responsibility comes with dealing with such huge pieces of print.

And this particular instance constitutes something of a watershed moment for signage legislation, reports David Catanach, director of the British Signs and Graphics Association (BSGA). While in the past the law has operated in a fairly reactive way, only tending to intervene when a sign, wrap or hoarding has caused damage or injury, a spate of incidents has kick-started a crackdown of spot checks and more frequently imposed, and higher, fines. 

“In the past, if a sign blew down and didn’t do any damage, people would say ‘well, no one’s going to have to pay a big fine, so that’s okay’. I found that a bit strange: that if a sign fell down, it had to hit someone before the authorities would get involved,” says Catanach.

Now, apparently, the authorities agree: “What’s happened is the authorities are saying ‘we expect people to follow the rules, so we’re going to start getting tough’,” continues Catanach.

A key development is a greater push from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) on spot checks as signs are being installed. Hefty invoices for the health and safety officer’s time have been imposed in numerous cases where the install procedure has been found wanting.

“That’s exactly what happened to a couple of firms in Portsmouth,” reports Catanach. “They were on a high street, and someone came along from HSE and said ‘you can’t do that. I’m telling you to cease work, and by the way here’s my invoice’.”

Andy Wilson, managing director of wide-format print and install house PressOn, can certainly confirm that install health and safety requirements seem to be, if not ever proliferating, certainly ever more strictly enforced. 

“What’s demanded of you is constantly changing – constantly,” he says. “We’ve got to have stickers to warn cyclists coming up the left-hand side of our vehicles, we’ve got to have fire extinguishers, amber lights, reversing alarms. Handbrake alarms are a good example. We’d been on one site for a couple of months and it wasn’t a requirement, but the other day it suddenly was.”

Papers, please

Crucially, what these now more frequent spot checks will inevitably be investigating, is not just physical evidence the installer is carrying the job out safely, but that they have the correct documentation too. 

Sebastian Stanley, director of The Bigger Printing Company, emphasises the importance of, now more than ever, being able to prove you’ve thought carefully about making a sign safe both while it’s being installed, and for the duration of its life. 

“We run a risk assessment and method statement before each job, before we go on site,” he says. “That involves us assessing the site and documenting it and producing a clear method of how we’re going to install, and how we’re mitigating against risks to the general public once the sign’s up. That documentation is kept on our server, and we give a copy to the client.” 

“Having possession of the relevant documents is not a recent requirement but it’s much more stringently enforced now,” agrees Wilson. “Your fitter can’t just turn up with a job and brief. The insurance documents need to be there, he needs to have his training certificate to say he has his construction skills certificate to go on site or his PASMA certificate to show he can operate a cherry picker. It’s important he has his risk assessment and method statement with him.”

Of course stricter enforcement of health and safety legislation in this area can only ever be a good thing if it avoids incidents such as that in Camden. Not many print-come-installation houses would dispute the need for extensive best practice requirements and document trails when the stakes can be so very high.

And this emerging climate of stricter enforcement and greater emphasis on documentation could well be a good thing in making wide-format printers tempted to branch into installation think twice, say those experienced here.

“It’s very easy to think ‘I’ve got a fella down in finishing who knows how to work a saw and a drill, we’ll send him out with one of our delivery vans. I can pay those blokes £100 a day, there’s a £100 profit margin in that if I go fit it myself,’” says Wilson, explaining that in fact even seemingly uninvolved installs, interior retail signage for example, should be approached as serious undertakings.

“The install is the most risky element of the job,” agrees Tim Andrews, managing director at signage contractor and wide-format printer Hollywood Monster. “We started as a construction and installation business and then went into print, which is very telling: it’s easier to get into print, not everyone can do the installation.”

Which is not to say wide-format printers should veto the idea of getting into installation entirely. In both Wilson and Stanley’s experiences, time-poor customers are increasingly keen for their printers to become handy one-stop shops for both print and installation.

“We started doing installs eight years ago because people were asking for it so much,” says Wilson. “A lot of the work we have on our books now we have because we’re able to offer the install too. It’s about the little design agencies working for a client who has got 20 little bakeries. It’s about the petrol station that’s got a franchise of coffee shops and they want some signage up.”

Hired help

One way of satisfying this demand even if executing installs in-house is beyond your means, is subcontracting, points out Stanley. His company has two installers who will erect up to 50sqm of vinyl up to 4-5m high. But the rest is outsourced. 

Printers subcontracting will still need to be aware of install and post-install health and safety legislation, and the ever-evolving nature of this, though. “You need to make sure that you do your homework and ensure that you’ve got proof that the subcontractors have got the qualifications to use the machines that are being hired,” says Stanley. 

“And you need to make sure your liability insurance covers them,” he adds. “If one of our subcontractors had an accident and wasn’t insured, there could potentially be a massive claim. You would expect the claimant to come after the company responsible for the installation which would be us as we’d be the ones actually invoicing for the project.” 

“Several years ago when we changed insurers, I was surprised by how much more information we needed to give on our subcontractors. Previously our insurers were more interested in us than who we were subcontracting to.”

And in fact even printers set dead against getting involved in installs in any way, may need to keep just one eye on the legislation surrounding this. An example of a crackdown that will affect printers, is a new ruling on CE marking for fabricated steel and aluminium, reports the BSGA’s Catanach. 

“On 1 July, there’s a harmonised European standard coming in making CE marking mandatory for these materials, where it’s load-bearing and safety critical, for a monolith type stand, for example,” he says. “Printers won’t need to get the adjudication for the parts they’re using, but they need to be buying from someone who is doing that.”

Printers should be aware, explains Catanach, that where a sign has not proved fit for purpose, it won’t be just the installation that is open to scrutiny, but also the fabrication. 

“Where a sign blows down, for example, what the health and safety people do is just throw a net and gather everybody up. It might seem a bit of a blunt instrument, but it ends up pretty precise because it gets down to the people responsible for the sign. So the designer, the fabricator and the installer could all be hauled in.”

No matter who you are then – wide-format printer or print-come-install house – the importance of keeping abreast of changing signage legislation and changing approaches to enforcing this, shouldn’t be forgotten. For printers, a full realisation of the extensive checks and documenting involved may well act as a helpful reminder of just how involved this area is, highlighting that it may be best left to others.

For those making a nice margin from installs, keeping abreast of what’s expected will, most importantly, ensure they’re keeping the general public safe. But it will also ensure, by highlighting best practice and the need to document this, that they’re avoiding potentially hefty fines too.