You spent your working life on building sites. Concrete saws, pneumatic drills, grinders, breakers, the constant background hum of plant. By the end of every Friday your ears were ringing, but it always faded by Monday morning so you never thought much of it. The site induction barely mentioned hearing protection. The foreman sometimes handed out earplugs, sometimes did not. You got on with the job.

Now you struggle to follow conversations at family meals. Your partner says the television is too loud. You miss the doorbell. The ringing in your ears that used to fade has not faded for years.

You are not alone. The Health and Safety Executive estimates that around 15,000 people in Great Britain have hearing problems caused or made worse by their job each year, and that more than 2 million UK workers are still being exposed to unacceptable levels of noise at work today (HSE, Noise-induced hearing loss in Great Britain, 2022/23 to 2024/25). Construction has long been one of the highest-risk industries for noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), and the damage often does not become obvious until many years after the work has finished.

How loud is a typical UK construction site?

Loud enough to cause permanent hearing damage in a fraction of a working day if no protection is worn. The Health and Safety Executive’s own guidance lists construction power tools as among the most damaging sources of occupational noise, including concrete breakers, hammer drills, grinders, disc cutters, chipping hammers, scabblers, needle guns, and cartridge-operated tools (HSE, Construction physical ill health risks: Noise, updated 2025).

Typical noise levels for common construction equipment:

The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 set the upper exposure action value at 85 dB(A) averaged across a working day. Most of the tools above breach that threshold within minutes, not hours. HSE’s practical rule of thumb is that if workers must raise their voices to be understood at two metres apart, or use noisy power tools for more than around 30 minutes a day, formal noise control is required (HSE, Construction noise FAQ, updated 2025).

What does the law actually require on a construction site?

Two regulatory frameworks apply together. The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 set out specific employer duties on noise. The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM 2015) require those duties to be planned for, coordinated and monitored across every phase of a construction project.

Under the 2005 Regulations, your employer was required to:

• Assess noise levels in your work (Regulation 5)
• Eliminate or reduce noise at source where reasonably practicable: quieter tools, alternative methods, screening (Regulation 6)
• Provide suitable hearing protection where exposure could not be reduced below 85 dB(A) (Regulation 7)
• Ensure protection was actually worn and properly maintained (Regulation 8)
• Provide regular hearing tests for workers exposed above the upper action value (Regulation 9)
• Train and inform workers about noise risks (Regulation 10)

HSE guidance is explicit that hearing protection is a last line of defence, not a substitute for reducing noise at source. Where the principal contractor or your direct employer relied on PPE alone instead of engineering controls, work rotation or quieter equipment, that is often the point at which the duty is breached.

CDM 2015 sits on top of this. Principal contractors are responsible for planning, managing, monitoring and coordinating health and safety across the construction phase, including the noise risks set out in the Construction Phase Plan. Where multiple subcontractors operate noisy plant in close proximity to each other on the same site, that coordination duty matters. A scaffolder, joiner or labourer can be exposed to a different trade’s tools without ever using the tool themselves.

Why are construction hearing loss claims so common?

A combination of factors. Construction noise comes from many sources at once and changes minute to minute. Workers move between tasks and locations across a single shift. Subcontractor crews come and go. Many older workers were never given audiometry. Hearing protection was historically inconsistent, particularly before the 2005 Regulations tightened.

Long-term exposure to that environment causes the same cumulative damage as long-term exposure to factory or printroom noise. Hair cells in the inner ear are destroyed by sustained loud sound and do not regenerate. The damage is permanent, but it builds up gradually. Many construction workers do not realise their hearing has been affected until well into retirement, when the difficulty becomes obvious in family conversation.

When does the law fail to protect construction workers?

The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 and CDM 2015 set the standards. In practice, common failures we see in construction hearing loss claims include:

• No noise risk assessment at all, or one that ignored realistic on-site conditions
• Hearing protection issued, but never enforced or properly fitted
• Workers expected to provide their own protection, or to use protection unsuited to the noise level
• No coordination between trades on shared sites, so workers were exposed to other crews’ tools without warning
• No hearing surveillance, even where workers were clearly above the upper action value
• No record of the exposure or the protection provided, making it impossible for workers to verify what they were given

Each of these is a foreseeable point at which the legal duty was breached. Where a breach can be shown, and you have measurable hearing damage, you may have grounds for a hearing loss claim.

How does the date of knowledge rule work for construction workers?

Personal injury claims in England and Wales must usually be brought within three years. For industrial disease, including noise-induced hearing loss, the three-year period starts at your “date of knowledge” under sections 11 and 14 of the Limitation Act 1980, not the date of exposure.

For most former construction workers, the date of knowledge is:

• The first GP or audiology appointment that confirmed significant hearing loss, or
• The first time a clinician told you the loss was likely linked to your work history

Even if the work itself was carried out in the 1980s, 1990s or early 2000s, your claim can still be in time today if your knowledge of the link is recent. Many former tradespeople only realise the connection after a routine NHS hearing test or a conversation with a GP about ringing in the ears.

WE Solicitors’ experience with construction claims

WE Solicitors has handled industrial disease and hearing loss claims for over 24 years from our offices in the North West, with clients across England. Our work includes long-serving construction workers and tradespeople, scaffolders, plant operators and labourers who developed measurable hearing loss after years of exposure on UK building sites.

Every case is handled on a No Win, No Fee basis. There is nothing to pay up front and nothing to pay if the claim does not succeed.

Frequently asked questions

I worked as a self-employed subcontractor. Can I still claim?
Possibly, yes. Your status as self-employed does not necessarily exclude you. What matters is whether the principal contractor or main employer at the time owed you a duty in respect of the noise environment, and whether that duty was breached. WE Solicitors will work through your site history and engagement type to assess this.

I worked on dozens of sites for different firms. Where would a claim even start?
Hearing loss is cumulative. A claim does not require you to identify a single shift or a single employer as the cause. Your solicitor builds a work history that captures your exposure across all relevant sites and traces the responsible employers and their liability insurers. This is routine in construction NIHL claims.

Some of those firms have gone out of business. Does that end the claim?
Usually not. Claims are made against the employer’s liability insurer at the time you worked there, not the company itself. Insurers stay liable even after a company has dissolved. WE Solicitors routinely traces historic insurers, including for firms that closed years or even decades ago.

Will my old colleagues need to give evidence?
In most cases, no. The claim is supported by medical evidence (a current audiogram and a medico-legal expert report) plus your own work history. Witness evidence from former colleagues is occasionally helpful but rarely essential.

How do I find out if I have a claim?
Call 0800 294 3065 for a free, no obligation conversation, or use our online contact form. We will go through your work history and current symptoms and tell you honestly whether a claim is likely to be worth pursuing.

Sources: Health and Safety Executive, Noise-induced hearing loss in Great Britain, statistics for 2022/23 to 2024/25 · Health and Safety Executive, Construction physical ill health risks: Noise (updated 2025) · Health and Safety Executive, Construction noise FAQ (updated 2025) · Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/1643) · Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/51) · Judicial College Guidelines for the Assessment of General Damages in Personal Injury Cases, 17th edition, April 2024 · Limitation Act 1980, sections 11 and 14.