Craft a safe space for your woodworking business

According to the U.S. Government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), woodworking businesses employ nearly a quarter-million people in the U.S. As with most industrial spaces, there are some pretty stringent regulations governing the safety of these businesses’ workers. Below is an overview of safety considerations. You can find our downloadable loss control bulletin with more details on woodshop safety on the website.

Divide the space

First, think about your shop floor as two shop floors, not one. The first space is for woodworking and is where most of the machines will be located. The second is for painting and finishing and should have an inner storage area for materials. These areas should be separated from each other by a two-hour fire-rated door (the door between the areas must stand up to a fire’s intense heat for at least two hours). Unless local codes are more restrictive, the minimum fire rating for all your facility’s walls, floors, and ceilings should be one-hour fire-rated construction.

Control the atmosphere

Take into account the fumes produced in refinishing and painting, but also make provisions for one of woodworking’s most copious byproducts: sawdust.

Use personal protective equipment. Many products commonly used in woodworking, including paint thinners, finishes, refinishers, varnishes, sealants, and epoxies, can pose a threat to woodworkers’ eyes, skin, lung tissues, and mucus membranes if used improperly — particularly those applied by spraying. Make sure you have enough properly rated coverall suits, vapor masks, and eye protection to shield all the workers assigned to the paint booth and finishing room, and make sure workers are trained in the equipment’s use.
Ventilate. Your painting/finishing room needs to be adequately ventilated with a dedicated exhaust system to mitigate the buildup of toxic vapors.
Collect the dust. Sawdust — especially the fine-grained variety produced by high-speed wood-milling machines — is also a danger to woodworkers’ eyes and lungs, so it’s important to invest in a dust-collecting system.

Reduce fire risk

Nearly everything in a woodworking shop is highly flammable. With so much potential fuel available, if a fire were to start, the results could be catastrophic. You can help prevent fires from happening.

Have your facility inspected. Be sure you’ve complied with all existing regulations governing fire-retardant systems such as sprinklers, hoses, fire-rated doors, etc.
Make sure your wiring is done right. It should be installed, inspected, and maintained by a licensed electrician. If solvent or paint vapors are allowed to build up in the room where they’re stored, a spark from a faulty fixture or outlet can touch off an explosion
Handle chemicals and paints according to code. It’s not enough to have separate storage shelving for volatiles; an industrial-size woodworking operation needs to have a whole room dedicated to their storage and use, well away from other areas of the shop. Store flammable liquids in UL-listed cabinets rated for that purpose, with contents clearly labeled and warning signs posted.
Deal with waste products immediately and properly. That doesn’t mean dumping used paintbrushes, rags, and empty — or nearly empty — paint cans into a trash barrel and forgetting them. Oily or solvent-soaked rags give off heat as they dry, and if they’re piled up, this heat can become concentrated, leading to combustion.
Don’t let dust collect. Good dust-collection systems are an easy and relatively inexpensive must-have for your shop. Not only is sawdust a potential fire hazard, it’s a slipping hazard, too.
Turn down the static. Static electricity can turn sawdust into an explosive. Where equipment is subject to the accumulation of static electric charge, you need to dissipate it. You can do this through permanent bonding and grounding of production equipment, using grounded metal combs to provide discharge paths. You should also vacuum the interior of your machines regularly to avoid sawdust buildup.
Heat your shop safely. Any heaters in your shop should be UL-listed and installed according to manufacturers’ instructions. Avoid any heating appliances that have open flames.
Be prepared. Have a sufficient number of wall-mounted fire extinguishers, including a 10-pound ABC portable fire extinguisher for each 1000 square feet of the building. All portable fire extinguishers should be visible and easily accessible, and the maximum travel distance to reach a fire extinguisher should not exceed 30 feet.

The information included here was obtained from sources believed to be reliable, however Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Company, SI, and its employees make no guarantee of results and assume no liability in connection with any training, materials, suggestions, or information provided. It is the user’s responsibility to confirm compliance with any applicable local, state, or federal regulations. Information obtained from or via Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Company, SI, should not be used as the basis for legal advice and should be confirmed with alternative sources.

Sources: bls.gov; cambridgema.gov; nfpa.org

1/2025