Question:
Someone told me one that different trades on a jobsite ave different colored
hard hats. Is this true? If so what do the different colors mean?
Answer:
That varies with the company, region, even different jobs for
the same company are sometimes different. For Brown and Root,
gold was upper management, blue was carpenter, white was
labor, green was pipe department, black was iron worker, red
was electrician, yellow was scaffold builder, etc. Of course
this was back in the early 70s.
Kellogg construction had different color schedules than B&R,
and some B&R jobs had no colors, everyone wore white. HB
Zachary had color schedules based on color and stripes.
Everyone in the pipe dept. was green. A journeyman pipefitter
just had a green hardhat. Helpers had green with a 2" dot on
each side. Formen had green with a stripe from front to back.
General foreman had 2 stripes front to back.
There is no general rule that will help you to understand all
companies and all jobsites. The rules are job specific. And
sometimes there are no rules.
Around here many companies have one color everyone wears.
But I have been on big jobs that used...............
White for supervision
Yellow for carpenters
Green for pipefitters
Red for ironworkers
Orange for labors
Blue for electricians
I have no idea what the colors mean.
I am currently working with a project management company on a construction
project. (I'm actually am employed by the architect.) Anyhow this company
got really tired of buying new hardhats for guests and workers that forgot
theirs only to have the hats end up in someone's trunk. So some bright
person ordered pink hardhats. Now nobody would dare steal the hard hats.
Plus there is the added advantage of instantly spotting the guests on the
site.....an making sure that they are not were they should not be.
