Extension Cords & GFCI
A damaged cord doesn't look like a killer. It looks like every other cord in the gang box — right up until it's wet, someone's holding a grounded pipe, and it isn't. A free talk from Blue Crane Works in Hamilton, Ontario, with a printable sign-in sheet.
How to run it
Read it through once, then talk it — don't recite it. Five minutes at the start of the shift, crew standing where the work happens. Ontario's Occupational Health and Safety Act requires every employer to provide information, instruction and supervision to protect workers (s. 25(2)(a)). A talk like this, led by a supervisor or someone they trust, is one way to do it, and the sign-in sheet is what proves it happened.
Talk through these points
- Inspect cords before use: cuts, crushed spots, exposed conductors, missing ground pins. Taped-over damage is still damage — cut the end off or bin it.
- GFCI protection on construction sites isn't optional politeness — test the GFCI with its button, not with faith.
- Keep connections dry and out of puddles. Elevate them where the ground is wet.
- Cords are temporary power — not a permanent installation run through doorways and pinch points where they get crushed daily.
- Match the cord to the load. An undersized cord running a big compressor cooks itself from the inside.
- Damaged tools count too: cracked casings, sparking, tingling — tag it out and say so.
Ask the crew
- When did anyone last actually push the test button on the GFCI?
- Which cord in our box is the one everybody knows is sketchy?
- Where are cords getting crushed on this job — doorways, traffic?
The answers are the real talk. If a question lands on a live hazard, write it down and assign it a name and a date.
Paper it
A talk without a record didn't happen, as far as anyone who asks is concerned. Print these free:
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