Shop Safety Inspections

by Carol Keyes, CSP and Janet L. Keyes, CIH 

When you repair a vehicle, you know you need to give your customer a vehicle that’s safe to drive.

As the November 2025 AASPMN News article, “What Lies Beneath: The Terrors of Not Performing Safety Inspections,” (see grecopublishing.com/aasp1125coverstory) pointed out, missing safety hazards during the repair process could have severe consequences. 

What about safety hazards in your shop? Are you giving your employees a workplace that’s safe?

We often overlook the things we see each day. They haven’t caused harm so far – so maybe they never will. But some have the potential to cause severe injuries, even kill. Just like you can’t predict when one of your customers will need a functioning airbag, you can’t predict when your employees will need a safety device to save them. How do you make sure those work? The same way you ensure your customers’ safety – do routine inspections. 

What should you look for? 

Vehicle Lifts

A 37-year-old Illinois mechanic died two days before this past Thanksgiving, when a car fell off a lift and crushed him. Did he not position the car correctly? He was an experienced mechanic. Did the lift fail? We don’t know. But chances are good that this small shop never knew to inspect their lifts. 

Check your lifts each month. Are the anchor bolts secure? Look for any evidence of fluid leaks. Do the controls work correctly? Make sure there is room to work around the lift – no trip hazards, good housekeeping. Check that the floor around the posts is in good condition. Most critical: make sure the lift stays up when raised, that the mechanical safety locks engage, and that it raises and lowers smoothly and evenly. 

Get a qualified outside company to give your lifts a detailed inspection each year. They can make sure the cables and chains are correctly adjusted, the anchor bolts are torqued correctly, and the columns are plumb. They can also handle needed preventive maintenance, such as lubricating chains. 

Are you preventing fires? 

What could cause a fire in your shop? Flammable liquids and aerosol cans. Welding and torch use. Damaged or overloaded electrical wiring. 

Each month, verify that you’re taking these fire prevention measures. 

Make sure drums of flammable liquids such as brake cleaner and lacquer thinner are grounded. Do that for hazardous waste from those too. Are they kept tightly closed? Don’t forget about grounding gasoline caddies if you need to transfer gasoline.

Where are you storing your flammable liquids and aerosol cans? If you don’t have a mixing room designed for flammable material storage, consider getting flammable cabinets. Limit how many aerosol cans you have. Store these and other flammable materials where a welding spark won’t hit them and where they won’t heat up.

Check your welding and cutting gases. Are they securely stored with safety caps in place? If they have gauges attached, was the pressure bled off? Where are you storing spare oxygen cylinders? They need to be at least 20 feet from acetylene, oils, or anything else that burns easily. 

Look at electrical cords. If you find electrical tape on a cord, chances are good that it’s covering up damage. It isn’t a repair because it doesn’t have the same insulating ability as the original jacket. Are any plugs missing grounding pins? Pulling away from the cord jacket? Damaged cords can shock or start fires. Remove or repair them.

Trace extension cords that disappear from view. Extension cords are not meant for permanent use because they are easily damaged. That’s especially a problem when cords go up through ceilings or through walls. If you find those, remove them. 

Look for power strips plugged into power strips. One power strip, plugged into a wall outlet, works well for battery chargers and computers. But daisy-chaining them or using them for things that heat up and draw a lot of power can overload them. You may need to get an electrician to put in new outlets, but that’s a lot cheaper than repairing fire damage.

Are you ready for a fire?

Your fire extinguishers need to be fully charged, easy to find and easy to reach. Are they? If your employees can get to the fire when it’s very small, there’s a good chance they can put it out before it becomes a disaster.

If a fire does occur, people need to be able to escape quickly. Would your exits be easy to find in a smoke-filled shop? Check that illuminated exit signs and emergency lights work – their batteries don’t last forever. Make sure all exit doors are unlocked from the inside and provide safe passage away from the building. 

If you have a spray booth, look at the sprinklers. Sprinkler heads gummed up by paint overspray don’t work. You should be using very light paper or cellophane to protect them. Don’t use masking paper, as that won’t burn off fast enough.

Are you ready for other emergencies?

When did you last run your eyewash? Do you have an eyewash? You should. Technically, eyewashes are only mandatory if employees use corrosive chemicals. Practically, they can limit the eye damage incurred if any chemical or particle gets into an eye. But they are only useful if they work and employees can get to them quickly. If you have a plumbed one, run it every week. Gravity fed? Make sure you use a preservative and change the solution before it has expired. Check it each week to verify it is current, filled and accessible.

Take a look at your first aid kit, too. Some items, such as saline and triple antibiotic ointment, expire. You don’t want to be responsible for an eye infection caused by expired saline. And you don’t want to find out what’s missing only when you need that item.

Keep people from falling

Is it easy to walk through your shop? Slips and falls usually don’t kill people, unless it’s from a height. But they can cause injuries ranging from minor sprains to traumatic brain injuries. How are your floors? Spalling or damaged concrete, holes and bumps can make people trip and fall. So can cords and hoses strewn everywhere. Putting things away reduces tripping hazards. It also reduces damage to those cords and hoses. And it saves time, because people don’t have to hunt for things or spend time untangling.

Are your floors slippery? Wet? Do you need to look at anti-slip coatings, or just good squeegees?

Falls from ladders are usually caused by how people use ladders – standing on the top, reaching too far to one side or another, losing their balance. But ladders can fail. Are yours in good condition? Can they support enough weight? Shops often have household stepstools, rated for only 200 pounds. Most adult men will exceed that, once clothing and tools are added. Each ladder should have a sticker giving its load limit. Check for those.

This isn’t a comprehensive list of what to check in your shop. Electrical panels need to be kept clear and have no unguarded openings. Ventilation systems need to be working correctly. Think doing all this takes a lot of time? Initially, perhaps. Do it often, and you’ll learn to look for problems whenever you walk through your shop. Then those monthly inspections will become a breeze.

Just as safety inspections on vehicles you repair will keep your customers safe, monthly safety inspections in your shop help keep your employees safe. 

For more information, contact Carol Keyes at carkey@chess-safety.com or (651) 481-9787.

Want more? Check out the January 2026 issue of AASP-MN News!