Habitat 101: New York City Site-Safety Requirements on Capital Projects

These certified inspectors are required to maintain site safety and permit logs, and perform inspections of such things as safety netting, sidewalk bridges and scaffold maintenance. Every project must also have a site safety plan approved by the Department of Buildings before work permits will be issued. The plans usually cost from $3,000 to $5,000.

Co-op and condo boards may be able to save money by submitting an appeal to the DOB to have the inspector's onsite presence reduced from eight hours to as little as two per day. Inspectors earn roughly $60 per hour if they work full-time, up to $90 per hour if they work two hours a day.

Customarily, the engineer or property manager will recommend a company that can help a building comply with the site-safety regulations. The condo or co-op board will then hire the company. Ancillary costs — permits, fees, site safety plans and inspectors, scaffolding, sidewalk bridges —  can now equal, and in some cases surpass, the cost of actual construction work. As a result, it's advisable to do as much work at one time as possible.

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