Construction site signs for building contractors

A construction site needs a set of signs anyone can understand at a glance, in any language: what protective gear is mandatory, where the hazards are, where the exit and assembly point are, plus the site rules. You make them once, with your company logo, on material that holds up to rain and knocks, and move them from one site to the next.

Last year we wrote about what each color and shape in ISO 7010 means, in our post on safety signs. Here we look at the practical side: what a building contractor puts up on site and how to make it last.

What the rules say, briefly

Safety signage rules come from EU Directive 92/58/EEC, which Romania adopted through a 2006 government decision (HG 971/2006). The directive sets the colors:

Construction sites have one more rule, from Directive 92/57/EEC, adopted in Romania in 2006 (HG 300/2006): when the work runs longer than 30 working days with more than 20 workers on site at once, or exceeds 500 person-days, the prior notice sent to the authorities has to be clearly displayed on site and updated when needed.

The basic set

For a typical site, the set covers four groups:

1. Mandatory gear (blue): hard hat, high-visibility vest, safety boots, goggles, gloves, a harness where people work at height.
2. Hazards (yellow): moving machinery, suspended loads, falls from height, electricity, open trenches.
3. Prohibitions (red): no unauthorized entry, no smoking in certain areas, no walking under the crane.
4. Emergency (green): the exit, the first-aid kit, the assembly point, with an arrow and the distance.

On top of these come the site rules, on a larger sign at the entrance, and the signs specific to your company: working hours, who's in charge, what to do in case of an accident.

Material and placement

The directive requires signboards made of shock- and weather-resistant material suited to the surroundings, with dimensions and colors that make them easy to see and understand. Mount them at a suitable height, in the line of sight. Where natural light is poor, use phosphorescent colors, reflective materials or lighting.

In practice, a sheet of paper taped to a site fence won't survive the first real rainstorm. For signs that stay up for months, pick a rigid board that resists water and UV and can be fixed with screws or cable ties. A4 works on doors and inside site containers; A3 and larger go on fences and at the entrance, where the sign has to be read from a distance.

The crew's languages

ISO 7010 pictograms work without any text, which is exactly why they're the foundation. The text underneath still matters for rules and instructions. If the crew speaks Romanian, English and another language, the sign carries all of them, short, on separate lines, in the same order on every sign.

How we prepare them

Our for businesses page has our site sign set: 30–50 A4 and A3 signs with the official ISO 7010 pictograms, your logo and your crew's languages, print-ready. You send us the list of works and the languages; we print through our partner print shops, or you take the files wherever you like.

The cost depends on the number of signs, how many languages they carry, the format and the board they're printed on.