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This free confined space entry checklist is for entry supervisors, maintenance planners, EHS leads and contractors who plan and authorise work inside tanks, vessels, pits, sumps, wet wells, silos and vaults. One run is one entry into one space under one entry permit. It starts by asking whether the work can be done from outside, then covers the risk assessment and the acceptable entry conditions, the permit, training, equipment and rescue arrangements, isolation, cleaning and ventilation, atmospheric testing in the right order and the entry supervisor’s authorisation. During the entry the attendant logs who is inside and the atmosphere is monitored; afterwards the permit is cancelled and the entry reviewed. Choose US OSHA 29 CFR 1910.146 or the UK Confined Spaces Regulations 1997 and the matching legal steps appear. A stop, evacuate and re-assess phase appears if a reading goes outside the limits, and contractor steps appear when contractors take part.
A confined space is not just a small room. A tank, a pit, a sump, a vault or a wet well can hold air that kills in seconds, a liquid that can flood in, or machinery that can start up. OSHA’s general industry standard and Great Britain’s Confined Spaces Regulations 1997 define these spaces differently, but both expect the same discipline: know the hazards, isolate the space, test the air, keep someone outside, have a rescue ready and control the entry with a permit. This checklist runs that discipline for one entry, from asking whether entry is needed to cancelling the permit.
It works beside two other safety routines. The lockout/tagout checklist isolates each energy source, a step this checklist calls up in Phase 4. The site’s emergency action plan covers fires and evacuations for the whole workplace; a confined space needs its own rescue plan for the space being entered, ready before anyone goes in.
Applies to: general industry. It does not apply to agriculture, construction or shipyard employment, which have their own rules.
Trigger: a confined space with a hazardous atmosphere, a material that can engulf, a shape that can trap, or another serious hazard.
Requires: a written permit space program, a permit signed by the entry supervisor, an attendant outside, trained entrants and an evaluated rescue service.
Applies to: work in England, Wales and Scotland, except normal shipboard work by a sea-going ship’s crew, places below ground in a mine and diving projects.
Trigger: an enclosed space with a reasonably foreseeable specified risk: fire or explosion, loss of consciousness, asphyxiation, drowning, or entrapment by a free-flowing solid.
Requires: no entry when the work can reasonably be done another way, a safe system of work, and rescue arrangements prepared before entry.
Before: the hazards and limits, the permit, the people, the equipment, the rescue plan and every isolation.
On the day: the tests in order, the entry supervisor’s signature, who went in and out, and the readings throughout.
After: the cancelled permit, any problems met and the changes to make before the next entry.
Eight phases take one entry from planning to review. Choose US OSHA or the UK Regulations on the first task and the matching legal steps appear; contractor steps appear when contractors take part. Phase 7 appears only if a reading goes outside the acceptable entry conditions, and nothing after the entry supervisor’s authorisation can be completed until it is given.
One run is one entry into one space under one permit. Set the planned entry date first, because every due date counts from it, and choose the rules that apply so the matching legal steps appear.
The assessment decides every precaution the permit lists. Decide here what will be tested for and what the limits are; the tests themselves come on the day.
Rescue arrangements must be ready before anyone enters. HSE notes that the people killed in confined spaces include those who try to rescue others without proper training and equipment.
Make the space safe before it is tested for entry. The tests in Phase 5 confirm that these measures worked.
Test from outside the space, in this order, with a calibrated instrument. Entry begins only when the entry supervisor signs the permit, and the checklist halts at that step until they do.
The attendant stays outside for the whole entry and takes on nothing that distracts from watching the entrants. If a reading goes outside the limits, record it on the monitoring task and Phase 7 appears.
Applies only when a reading went outside the acceptable entry conditions or a monitor alarmed. Nobody goes back in until the cause is found and fixed.
Close the permit properly: the next entry into this space depends on what this one recorded. The contractor debrief appears only when contractors took part.
Both rulebooks test in the same order: oxygen first, then flammable gases and vapours, then toxic gases and vapours. OSHA writes the order into the standard at 1910.146(d)(5)(iii), and HSE’s Approved Code of Practice, L101, gives the same sequence. The US figures below are the standard’s own definitions of a hazardous atmosphere. The Confined Spaces Regulations 1997 set no figures, so in Great Britain the risk assessment sets the limits for each space.
| Order | Test for | Why in this order (OSHA Appendix B) | OSHA: a hazardous atmosphere includes | Great Britain (HSE L101) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oxygen | Most combustible gas meters are oxygen dependent and will not give reliable readings in an oxygen-deficient atmosphere | Oxygen below 19.5 percent or above 23.5 percent | Normal air is 20.9% oxygen. Investigate any difference from normal; below 16% can lead to unconsciousness and death. Never add oxygen to sweeten the air. |
| 2 | Flammable gases and vapours | The threat of fire or explosion is, in most cases, more immediate and more life-threatening than toxic exposure | Flammable gas, vapor or mist in excess of 10 percent of its lower flammable limit (LFL); combustible dust at or above its LFL | Use monitors suited to flammable atmospheres and calibrated for the gases the risk assessment identified. |
| 3 | Toxic gases and vapours | Tested last, where the assessment says they may be present | Any substance above its dose or permissible exposure limit in 29 CFR 1910 subpart G or Z. Appendix E suggests sewer alarms at hydrogen sulfide 10 ppm and carbon monoxide 35 ppm (8-hour time-weighted averages) | Test for each toxic gas, vapour or dust the risk assessment identified. Some flammable substances are toxic too. |
Testing well. Appendix B to 1910.146, which is non-mandatory, says to read each value for at least the instrument’s minimum response time and, when descending into an atmosphere that may be stratified, to test about 4 feet (1.22 m) ahead in the direction of travel and to each side. L101 adds that the air can often be tested from outside through a long probe, allowing time for the sample to displace the air in the tube, and that representative parts of the space should be tested to find pockets of poor air.
Testing does not stop at the entry. OSHA requires testing or monitoring as necessary to confirm acceptable conditions are maintained throughout the entry, and continuous monitoring where the space cannot be isolated, such as a sewer. L101 says the atmosphere should be continuously monitored when forced ventilation is used and where the work could change it. A reading outside the limits means everyone gets out. Federal OSHA covers most private-sector employers; in a state with an OSHA-approved State Plan, the state’s rules apply and must be at least as effective, and some State Plans cover state and local government workers, such as municipal utilities.
The entry supervisor is named on the first task, and the authorisation is assigned to them alone. Until they record a decision the checklist halts, so the entry log and the monitoring readings cannot be completed. The record shows the permit was approved before entry began.
Choose OSHA 29 CFR 1910.146 or the Confined Spaces Regulations 1997 on the first task and the matching steps and limits appear. Contractor briefings appear only when contractors take part, and the stop and re-assess phase only if a reading goes outside the limits. Adapt it to your own permit in the template designer.
Tables hold the isolation points, the entry team, the in-and-out log and the monitoring readings, beside the signed and cancelled permit. The entry supervisor sees the log update as the attendant fills it in, and the Reports Grid shows every open entry across your sites.
CheckFlow does not test the air, and it is not a gas monitor or an electronic permit-to-work system. It runs the steps around your own permit and procedure, so every entry follows them in the same order with a record of who did what. See how CheckFlow’s manufacturing checklist software handles maintenance and safety routines on the shop floor.
This template controls one entry into one space. Isolate each energy source with the Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) Procedure Checklist, assess the wider workplace with the Health & Safety Risk Assessment Checklist, inspect the plant with the Safety Inspection Process for a Manufacturing Facility and plan for site-wide emergencies with the Emergency Action Plan Checklist.
Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) Procedure Checklist
Permit to Work Checklist
Health & Safety Risk Assessment Checklist
Emergency Action Plan Checklist
Safety Inspection Process for a Manufacturing Facility
Describe the process in a sentence and the AI checklist generator drafts the phases and tasks for you.
Under OSHA’s 29 CFR 1910.146, a confined space is large enough to enter bodily and do work, has limited or restricted means of entry or exit, and is not designed for continuous occupancy: tanks, vessels, silos, hoppers, vaults and pits are examples. It is a permit-required confined space if it contains or could contain a hazardous atmosphere, contains a material that could engulf an entrant, has inwardly converging walls or a downward-sloping, tapering floor that could trap an entrant, or contains any other recognised serious safety or health hazard.
1910.146(f) lists fifteen items: the space, the purpose of entry, the date and authorised duration, the entrants, the attendants and the entry supervisor by name, the hazards, the isolation and control measures, the acceptable entry conditions, the test results with the testers’ initials and times, the rescue services and how to summon them, the communication procedures, the equipment provided, any other information needed for safety, and other permits such as hot work. The entry supervisor signs it before entry, it is posted at the entry point, and cancelled permits are kept for at least a year.
HSE’s guidance says the assessment will usually consider the task, the working environment, the materials and tools, the suitability of the people doing the work and the arrangements for emergency rescue. For the space itself, look at its previous contents, residues, contamination from nearby plant or the ground, the oxygen level and its layout, then at the hazards the work adds, such as cleaning chemicals, hot work and heat. In Great Britain it must be made by a competent person, and employers with five or more employees record the significant findings.
Oxygen first, then flammable gases and vapours, then toxic gases and vapours. OSHA sets that order in 1910.146(d)(5)(iii), and HSE’s Approved Code of Practice gives the same one. Oxygen comes first because most combustible gas meters depend on oxygen and do not read reliably when it is low. Flammables come next because fire or explosion is usually the more immediate threat. Test from outside the space with a probe at different depths, use a calibrated instrument, and keep monitoring throughout the entry.
The attendant stays outside the space for the whole entry until relieved by another attendant. Under 1910.146(i) they keep an accurate count of who is inside, stay in contact with the entrants, watch for signs of exposure inside and dangers outside, order an evacuation when something is wrong, summon rescue, warn off unauthorised people and perform non-entry rescues, and take on no duty that could distract them. The UK Regulations do not use the term, but HSE asks whether someone outside is needed to keep watch, raise the alarm and take charge of the rescue.
HSE summarises three key duties: avoid entry to confined spaces, for example by doing the work from outside; if entry is unavoidable, follow a safe system of work; and put adequate emergency arrangements in place before the work starts. A confined space is any place where its enclosed nature gives rise to a reasonably foreseeable specified risk, such as fire, explosion, loss of consciousness, asphyxiation or drowning. HSE’s Approved Code of Practice, L101, explains how to comply, including when a permit-to-work is needed.
No. HSE’s Approved Code of Practice says you should not rely on the public emergency services, and that relying on them alone will not satisfy the Regulations. Under OSHA, the employer must evaluate and select a rescue service that can reach the space in time and is equipped and proficient for it, and Appendix F says posting its number or planning to call 911 is not enough. Plan the rescue for the space being entered, rig the retrieval equipment, and stop anyone attempting an unplanned rescue, since ill-conceived rescue attempts are a major cause of death in these incidents.
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