Safety is not only to be considered with the big pieces of equipment like your pressure washing machine or with the chemicals you use, but with everything else too.
Having to work off the ground is the second highest cause of server injury behind miss use of a pressure washer in this industry. It can be from improper use of a ladder, not wearing a safety harness on a roof, wearing incorrect foot wear or glasses. Reasons for not using or following safety guidelines can be big or small but even small ones can be a big mistake.
Take not wearing safety glasses, goggles or a face shield when using a pressure washer. Sure it can be a pain especially if you already wear glasses for daily vision but just one miss directed spray of water or chemical causing permanent blindness is not something to play with.
Ladders are the number one cause, according to OSHA, over all occupational hazard injuries in all industries. Here is a link to their flash card on ladder safety that you can print out on heavy stock paper, cut out and laminate. http://www.osha.gov/OshDoc/data_Hurricane_Facts/portable_ladder_qc.pdf. You can also pay companies to supply you with these kinds of materials. Here is the same info on a single page form to place in your MSDS or safety book. http://www.osha.gov/Publications/portable_ladder_qc.html. OSHA's site http://www.osha.gov/ should be bookmarked on your computer for quick reference for all safety information.
There are also many good ladder safety videos on Utube and other sites that you can access and use in your safety instruction plan if you do not have the funds to go buy them. Here is just one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD0U6Df3ReA&feature=fvw. To find more just do a search inside Utube or other search engine for 'ladder safety'.
There is also added equipment that can improve ladder safety, things such as painter arm braces as they are sometimes called, or ladder stabilizers or ladder braces. These items attach to the ladder near the top that extend out and then will brace against a surface to help stabilize or diminish the side to side movement of a ladder. There are also ones that extend and curve out form the back of a ladder to rest on the roof surface to provide stability without increasing the width of the ladder. Here is a site that has some really neat ladder attachments. http://stores.homestead.com/LadderMaxLLC/StoreFront.bok They also have ladder levelers. Here is another site as well http://www.globalwholesalersinc.com/quick_connect.htm with ladder products.
Next once on the roof you need to be wearing a harness and have the proper anchoring to arrest a fall. You need to purchase a well fitting harness, ropes, anchors, clasps and hooks that are made for roof work. Here is one site I did not include yet in the other safety equipment blog http://www.discountsafetygear.com/. They have a wide range of items. Most of the time you will not be able to attach and remove to reuse roof anchors but you do not want to spend all your profit on the more expensive perment mount anchors. Most guys I have talked to suggest buying the inexpensive temporary or labeled 'reusable' anchors and plan not to remove them when you leave. Since removing anchors once attached can cause damage to the roof or take time and costs more money for you to try and patch the holes you have made to avoid causing future damage for the homeowner. Plus they will already be in place for work at this same location in the future.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Pressure Washer Safety and more
Your pressure washer is one of your best tools to do your jobs but it is also one of the most dangerous if proper safety measures are not followed when operating it.
Thousands of people are injured every year by improper use of a pressure washer and not all are by amateurs, hundreds of even so called professionals have accidents. As demonstrated here in this article and why accident attorneys shop for workers comp claimants. http://www.bignews.biz/?id=816222&keys=accident-claims-jet-wash
Most professionals use the higher powered gas machines many of which are also hot water machines. Both of these factors can cause good things such as reduced time spent doing a job, reduced amount of chemicals needed and so on. But more power and hotter water can also increase bad things as well such as the potential for increased accidents and damage to property.
First make sure your equipment is always in good working order, do not let little problems like loose connections or worn fittings turn into major trouble. Second; Wear your safety gear! Heavy shoes or boots, long sleeve shirts and long pants, safety glasses, goggles or face shields, gloves and any other item indicated on the MSDS when using chemicals. We have had too many customers that have had to call us or hospitals just because simple measures were not taken. Had a customer on his day off go check on one of his job sites. He did not bother to change clothes, walked up on a worker using the washer and he was back sprayed with caustic chemical that burned him without him knowing it until an hour or so later once the damage had already been done. He now has permanent white scare spots on this arms and legs.
Third know your equipment, how to operate it, and how to maintain it. Cleaner Times magazine has a great series for companies that have a machine shop and do their own work on their pressure washers. Go to their website and check out the archived articles to find lots of great information. http://cleanertimes.com/. Cleaner Times also have great articles on safety and covering all aspects of your business.
Keep a log book on all of your equipment. When and where purchased, where the instruction information is located if not with the log, the cost of and when and where repairs and maintenance was preformed on the equipment. This information can help you with calculating job expenses, handling insurance claims and at tax time figuring deductions. If you have to keep smaller logs with separate pieces of equipment or in separate vehicles or locations fine but make sure you routinely bring at least copies of all of them to be in one location. The best thing would be to scan the pages into a computer file and then burn a disk of the data that is stored in a fire safe or safe deposit box. This is true for all your important business documents. I had a customer just after I started working here that had a fire burn down her house with all her records inside. Her shed with her rig was saved but nothing else from all her years of work. It took her weeks just to contact all her customers because she had to look up every number, remember every name, every vendor. It took her almost two years to get her business back to where it was and to sort out the insurance and tax mess that the fire caused.
Here is another site if you are not familiar with them you should be The Power Washer Advisor. They have great information no matter what equipment you use. Here is their safety info area http://www.the-power-washer-advisor.com/pressure-washer-safety.html. They also have a great blog area where I have learned a lot so I know you can too. I feel it is much easier to direct you to the places that have good information instead of trying to reinvent the wheel or try to pass it off as my knowledge. I know there is plenty in the business I do not know and that is why I am constantly searching and reading up on things about the industry. If there is something you want to find out about and do not have the time to look give us a call. I will be happy to find information and make it available to everyone. Because if you want to know about it I am sure someone else does too.
More in our next installment
Thousands of people are injured every year by improper use of a pressure washer and not all are by amateurs, hundreds of even so called professionals have accidents. As demonstrated here in this article and why accident attorneys shop for workers comp claimants. http://www.bignews.biz/?id=816222&keys=accident-claims-jet-wash
Most professionals use the higher powered gas machines many of which are also hot water machines. Both of these factors can cause good things such as reduced time spent doing a job, reduced amount of chemicals needed and so on. But more power and hotter water can also increase bad things as well such as the potential for increased accidents and damage to property.
First make sure your equipment is always in good working order, do not let little problems like loose connections or worn fittings turn into major trouble. Second; Wear your safety gear! Heavy shoes or boots, long sleeve shirts and long pants, safety glasses, goggles or face shields, gloves and any other item indicated on the MSDS when using chemicals. We have had too many customers that have had to call us or hospitals just because simple measures were not taken. Had a customer on his day off go check on one of his job sites. He did not bother to change clothes, walked up on a worker using the washer and he was back sprayed with caustic chemical that burned him without him knowing it until an hour or so later once the damage had already been done. He now has permanent white scare spots on this arms and legs.
Third know your equipment, how to operate it, and how to maintain it. Cleaner Times magazine has a great series for companies that have a machine shop and do their own work on their pressure washers. Go to their website and check out the archived articles to find lots of great information. http://cleanertimes.com/. Cleaner Times also have great articles on safety and covering all aspects of your business.
Keep a log book on all of your equipment. When and where purchased, where the instruction information is located if not with the log, the cost of and when and where repairs and maintenance was preformed on the equipment. This information can help you with calculating job expenses, handling insurance claims and at tax time figuring deductions. If you have to keep smaller logs with separate pieces of equipment or in separate vehicles or locations fine but make sure you routinely bring at least copies of all of them to be in one location. The best thing would be to scan the pages into a computer file and then burn a disk of the data that is stored in a fire safe or safe deposit box. This is true for all your important business documents. I had a customer just after I started working here that had a fire burn down her house with all her records inside. Her shed with her rig was saved but nothing else from all her years of work. It took her weeks just to contact all her customers because she had to look up every number, remember every name, every vendor. It took her almost two years to get her business back to where it was and to sort out the insurance and tax mess that the fire caused.
Here is another site if you are not familiar with them you should be The Power Washer Advisor. They have great information no matter what equipment you use. Here is their safety info area http://www.the-power-washer-advisor.com/pressure-washer-safety.html. They also have a great blog area where I have learned a lot so I know you can too. I feel it is much easier to direct you to the places that have good information instead of trying to reinvent the wheel or try to pass it off as my knowledge. I know there is plenty in the business I do not know and that is why I am constantly searching and reading up on things about the industry. If there is something you want to find out about and do not have the time to look give us a call. I will be happy to find information and make it available to everyone. Because if you want to know about it I am sure someone else does too.
More in our next installment
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