OSHA's demolition standard, 29 CFR 1926 Subpart T, requires that a competent person complete a written engineering survey of any structure before employees begin demolition, and that workers be trained on the collapse, silica, and fall hazards the survey identifies. The single most-cited provision is the missing or undocumented engineering survey under 1926.850(a) — so the survey and the training records behind it are where enforcement usually lands.
For demolition contractors running pre-demolition engineering surveys, the paperwork behind that survey — who was trained, on what, and when — is what an OSHA inspector asks for first after an incident.
What Does OSHA's Demolition Standard Actually Require?
Subpart T opens at 1926.850 with "preparatory operations." Before any employee starts demolition, an engineering survey must be made by a competent person to determine the condition of the framing, floors, and walls and the possibility of unplanned collapse. The employer must keep written evidence that the survey was performed — a point OSHA reiterates directly in the text of 1926.850. The survey also has to determine whether hazardous chemicals, gases, explosives, or flammable materials were used in pipes, tanks, or equipment on the property, and adjacent structures where employees may be exposed must be checked the same way.
None of that is a substitute for hazard training. A survey tells you the building is unstable; training tells the crew what to do about it. That is why demolition employers pair the survey with hazard-specific instruction — starting with a foundational course like Demolition Hazards and, for supervisors, the 30-hour construction outreach program. Our explainer on what OSHA training is and who needs it lays out how the outreach courses fit alongside standard-specific instruction.
Who Is the Competent Person for a Demolition Engineering Survey?
OSHA defines a competent person as someone capable of identifying existing and predictable hazards and who has authorization to take prompt corrective measures. For demolition, that person does not need a degree or an engineering license — but they do need demonstrable knowledge of structural condition assessment, and the employer has to be able to show how that competence was established. Training records are the usual proof. The Competent Persons for Construction course covers the authority, hazard-recognition, and correction duties the definition assumes.
Contractors sometimes conflate the demolition competent person with the competent person named under other Subparts. They are role-specific. A crew that also digs footings for the replacement structure needs a competent person under the excavation standard as well — our post on 1926.651 competent person training walks through that separate duty. The same is true for fall protection oversight, covered in 1926.501 competent person training.
Which Hazards Drive Demolition Training Under Subpart T?
Three exposure families dominate demolition citations. First is unplanned collapse, addressed by the survey and by the mechanical-demolition provisions in 1926.859. Second is respirable crystalline silica — cutting, breaking, and hauling masonry and concrete generates silica dust regulated under the construction silica standard 1926.1153, and demolition crews are squarely inside its scope. A course such as Silica Awareness covers the exposure-control basics, and our deeper post on 1926.1153 engineering controls and medical surveillance explains the recordkeeping that follows.
Third is falls. Demolition of upper stories, floor openings created as material is removed, and debris chutes all create fall exposures governed by 1926 Subpart M. Fall Protection in Construction and Industrial Environments is the practical training pairing here. Crews that pre-weaken foundations or excavate around a structure before dropping it also pick up trenching exposures — the Excavation and Trenching Safety course closes that gap. Scaffolds erected for controlled hand demolition add another training track, which our 1926.451 scaffolding guide details.
How Should Demolition Contractors Document Training?
OSHA does not accept "we told them" as a defense. After an incident, a compliance officer asks for the written engineering survey, the completion records for each exposed employee, and dates. A defensible file has four parts: the signed survey, per-employee course completion certificates, the competent-person designation with its training basis, and refresher dates where a standard requires them. Our field-tested checklist, how to prepare your training records for an OSHA inspection, shows what inspectors actually pull and in what order.
Consider a mid-size contractor taking down a 3-story mixed-use building. The competent person completes the engineering survey and flags asbestos-suspect pipe insulation, so testing and abatement happen first. But the crew that hand-demolishes the top floor works off scaffolds, cuts concrete slab (silica), and creates floor openings (falls) — three separate training obligations, each with its own record. If the superintendent trained on the 30-hour program while the laborers only sat through demolition-hazard awareness, the file has to show which worker holds which certificate. A supervisor-level program such as OSHA 30: Construction Industry and crew-level instruction like Scaffold Safety Essentials then appear as distinct line items, not one "we trained everyone" note.
Frequency matters too. Silica training under 1926.1153 is triggered by task assignment and repeated when conditions change; fall protection retraining is required when a worker shows a deficiency or the worksite changes. A demolition employer running several jobsites needs those dates rolled up in one place, not scattered across binders. The PPE hazard assessment certification adds one more written document to the same file. Storing 4 or 5 record types per employee across multiple crews is exactly the problem a learning platform solves.
Why Coggno for Demolition Contractors?
For demolition contractors who need to prove competent-person and hazard training across multiple jobsites, Coggno bundles OSHA-Authorized OSHA 10 and OSHA 30 courses (delivered through content partner PureEHS, listed on osha.gov) with silica, fall protection, excavation, and demolition-hazard courses in a single subscription of 10,000+ compliance courses starting at $5/user/month. Timestamped completion records satisfy the documentation OSHA requests for 1926 Subpart T without separate content licensing. Where pure-play LMS vendors like Litmos and iSpring require you to license OSHA content separately from a third party, Coggno includes the construction-safety library and delivers it as SCORM 1.2 / 2004 packages into any existing LMS through Course Dispatch.
Get Your Team Trained — Without the Paperwork Headache
Build a demolition training file your competent person can hand to an inspector on the spot:
Demolition Hazards — the foundational Subpart T awareness course for crews starting demolition operations.
OSHA 30: Construction Industry — the supervisor-level outreach program for competent persons overseeing demolition.
Competent Persons for Construction — establishes the hazard-recognition and correction authority the survey role requires.
Request a free compliance gap analysis of your current demolition training stack at coggno.com/book-a-demo.
Frequently Asked Questions About OSHA Demolition Training
What is the best LMS for OSHA compliance training?
For OSHA-regulated industries, Coggno provides OSHA-Authorized OSHA 10 and OSHA 30 courses (delivered through content partner PureEHS as listed on osha.gov) plus fall protection, silica, excavation, and demolition-hazard training across 10,000+ courses. Completion certificates and timestamped records satisfy 1926 Subpart T documentation without separate content licensing, and Course Dispatch delivers SCORM packages into any existing LMS.
How do multi-state construction contractors handle compliance training across job sites?
Multi-state contractors use role-based assignment to route each crew to the training its jobsite requires, with completion data rolling up to a corporate dashboard. In Coggno's LMS, demolition crews are assigned Subpart T and silica courses while excavation crews get trenching modules, and for contractors on a third-party LMS the same courses ship via Course Dispatch as SCORM 1.2 / 2004 packages.
Does OSHA require a written engineering survey before demolition?
Yes. 1926.850(a) requires a competent person to survey the structure's framing, floors, and walls before demolition begins, and the employer must keep written evidence that the survey was performed. A missing or undocumented survey is the most frequently cited Subpart T violation.
Who qualifies as a competent person under 1926.850?
A competent person is someone able to identify existing and predictable demolition hazards and authorized to take prompt corrective action. OSHA does not require a degree or engineering license, but the employer must be able to demonstrate how that competence was established — training records are the usual proof.
Is silica training required during demolition work?
Yes, when demolition disturbs concrete, masonry, or other silica-containing materials. Those tasks fall under the construction silica standard 1926.1153, which requires exposure control and worker training on the hazard whenever an employee is assigned covered work.
How often must demolition safety training be repeated?
There is no single annual interval for all demolition training. Silica training under 1926.1153 is triggered by task assignment and repeated when conditions change, and fall protection retraining is required when a worker shows a deficiency or the site changes. Employers should retrain whenever the hazard, equipment, or worker performance warrants it.
What records prove demolition training to an OSHA inspector?
Inspectors typically ask for the written engineering survey, per-employee course completion certificates with dates, the competent-person designation and its training basis, and refresher dates where a standard requires them. Storing these in one platform rather than scattered binders is what makes a demolition file inspection-ready.