01 / Construction
Construction site security
A gate officer while crews work, and coverage once they’ve gone home.
View detailsGuide
A construction site security checklist for Redwood City.
Downtown mixed-use or a bayfront build, the risk is the same once the crews go home. A practical rundown.
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Start with the fence.
The fewer ways in, the better. Keep gates to a minimum, lock any you’re not using and position the main one where an officer or a camera can keep an eye on it.
Walk the fence regularly. Sections get moved and gaps appear, especially after big deliveries.
Sign everyone in.
A gate officer signing in subcontractors and deliveries through the day gives you a dependable account of who came and went. It also quietly discourages anyone who has no reason to be there.
File the sign-in sheet with your daily reports, because if something goes missing you’ll want it.
Keep valuables out of reach.
Copper, cable, tools, fixtures and fuel are what tend to go missing. Lock small items away, plan deliveries close to when they’ll be installed and park valuable equipment where it can be seen from the gate or by a camera.
Good lighting on the staging area goes a long way for very little cost.
Don’t leave nights and weekends to chance.
That’s when most losses happen. A night guard suits the high-value phases, patrol at varied times suits quieter weeks and cameras watched live can cover every corner, calling in patrol when needed.
Most projects use a combination that changes as the work progresses, month to month, ending at handover.
Hot work and fire systems.
Hot work such as welding or torch cutting, or a sprinkler or alarm system that’s offline, is the usual reason a project is told to post a fire watch. The Redwood City Fire Department or your fire protection contractor will say when it applies, and we supply the officer and keep the timed record on site.
Services
Services this guide covers
02 / Fire watch
Fire watch
An officer walking the building continuously while fire protection is down.
View detailsA nightly lockup routine
Before the last crew leaves, someone should walk the same short loop every evening: lock the gates, the storage containers and the job trailer, park equipment where the gate or a camera can see it, switch on the staging lights and photograph anything left outside. A few minutes at the end of the day saves a lot of guessing the next morning.
Give the overnight officer or the patrol driver a copy of that loop so they check the same points on their rounds. How coverage itself should change from groundwork to handover is set out on our construction site security page.
Sharing the record with the project team
On a busy project, the general contractor, the owner’s rep and several subs all want to know what happened overnight. Daily shift reports by email give everyone the same account: who signed in at the gate, what the officer found on each round and photos of anything damaged or moved.
File those reports alongside your daily log. When a question comes up about a delivery that never showed or a fence panel knocked flat, the timed record answers it.
Neighbors and the street
Redwood City projects downtown often sit right beside occupied homes, shops and restaurants. A gate officer watches the entrance during deliveries and gives neighbors a person to talk to about noise or a blocked driveway, passing concerns along to the superintendent. It’s a small courtesy that keeps the block on your side while the building goes up.
A few useful answers
Common questions
How early in a project is security worth bringing in?
As soon as materials or equipment are on site. Even a quiet lot with a trailer and one excavator is worth patrol visits at varied times.
Can coverage step up while expensive materials are stored on site?
Yes. Add a night guard for the weeks when wire, fixtures or appliances are waiting to go in, then return to patrol.
Who receives the daily report?
Anyone you name, often the superintendent, project manager and owner’s rep.