Part of the problem surely is that for small works the contractor has not by himself the means to do properly the work, and sometimes those that have are not in the mood or time-span in their planning to afford others to use them at some reasonable cost. Major local contractors doing street works (here, since about only 5 years ago) have usually all the necessary means to properly shield the trenches and hence people and standing buildings, but this can't be said from those doing building work, for whom letting weighty hardware seems always to be from unavailable through unaffordable to some economically unwanted or -improperly- uncounted nuisance.
So the matter stands, and so building contractors get imaginative -they have the custom- on how avoid such major works. Fortunately dynamic contractors are overcoming such trend by embracing the safety in works, making a point from the start on using means thant ensure the safety of people and workers, and where in the past they would have accepted, say, a foundation made by shields or batches one besides another may well today ask themselves to do some pile, micropile or bentonite trench wall. They find at such instances also at those instances the incentive of a more expensive foundation where to mitigate any reduction of benefits they had to make in the bid process.
But of course safety anytime is paramount and we must help with our professional activity to it become custom. So much for if that makes the building more expensive; we are being pushed (I would say slowly, we can't, it seems, diggest and negotiate at a quicker pace both the stupid new nuisances from some codes and the true real betterments) toward better quality works. This enters the question on how a house or building is a one time shot, and hence even if made of industrial products rarely enough input is given to it the same quality levels that CAN (but not always is) given to industrial products made in the hundreds of thousands or even millions; and what the relative cost should and can be. But, even when our professions are in engagement with the economy of the works, our true task is in enabling the making of the works, i.e., in our task economy is only ancillary to design and construction, for there are others (owners, commissioners, construction planners, cost controllers, financial parties) that of themselves must care with us of things being their worth. So ahead with safety, and if they can't afford, let the thing on the table to see what happens.
