Tag Archives: balance

LADDER SAFETY TIPS FOR PAINTERS (GUEST POST)

Painting or renovating a house requires experience as well as knowledge of some essential safety measures. There is always a risk of getting injured because one is required to work at odd heights or amidst other strange hazards, which is why people call professionals to take up such jobs.

Ladders are one of the basic tools that aid painters to reach ceilings or climb to higher reaches. Professional Auckland painters   do emphasize the importance of ladder safety during the painting process. While painting, there are various areas in a house where the work with ladder requires some basic safety tips.

Safety Tips for Exterior Painting – Always Avoid Distractions

The amount of risk involved in painting without proper safety measures increases massively especially when complicated with exterior house painting. Unlike interior house painting, painters need to maintain a proper balance while working, as the slightest of the mistakes can result in severe injuries. Therefore, painters should avoid distractions like cell phones, iPods or radios away while working.

Moreover, they need to use proper extension ladders to reach distant areas using safety measures. Painters in Auckland are advised to use safety cables connected to a well-built house foundation that ensures to hold you secured if you drop off a ladder.

Safety Tips for Interior Painting – Use Stabilizers for Better Balance

While working inside the house, you need to make sure that you have proper ladders for work. If you use ladders that are shorter or longer than the recommended lengths, risk of losing balance while work increases and can even affect the quality of work. Professionals recommend that you have a set of ladders that can be extended to meet the requirements. You can even use stabilizers so that the ladders have proper balance and the work can be done without any risk of getting injured. 

 Safety Tips for Roof Painting – Use Ladders That Are Strong, Stable and Reliable

Roof painting is certainly the most unsafe areas of work and so professional painters need to take proper safety measures while working. While painting roof tops or corners, usage of ladder extensions becomes really important. In such cases, make sure you use a strong and reliable ladder with a proper foundation.  Because roof painting involves too much risk, roof painters Auckland recommend that you hire professionals who use proper safety techniques and have good working experience.          

General Essential Safety Tips

  • Standing on the top ladder increases the risk of getting injured. It is advisable that you distribute the weight properly while working on a ladder.
  • Keep the ladder away from unstable surfaces like doors, partitions or windows.
  • While using a folding ladder, make sure that you open it to the maximum as it increases the ground contact and helps in maintaining proper balance.
  • Before using a ladder make sure that it has all the nuts tight and is good enough to be used.     
  • Never try working on the same ladder preoccupied by someone else. It increases the risk of getting imbalanced and can result is severe injuries.
  • While working with ladders, always wear shoes that are not slippery and have a heavy sole  which prevents foot fatigue.

Author Bio

Jon Ferris  has vast experience in managing a painters company in Auckland. He possesses knowledge about every nitty-gritty aspect of the job, and the complexities involved in painting the more elaborate projects around the town.

FIVE SAFETY DO’S AND DON’Ts ABOUT SCISSOR LIFTS

“OSHA describes scissor lifts as machines that are “movable scaffolds.”  They can lift large, heavy loads that are well balanced, as well as employees, and are capable of moving them safely to and from high elevations.  There are several different safety requirements that apply to the maintenance and use of scissor lifts, because they are classified as heavy equipment.”  This is an excerpt from an article we published in August of this year.  Thankfully, a reader and friend from the United Kingdom has written an outstanding article that gives us a good perspective regarding safety and scissor lifts.  Please enjoy the following Guest Post:

5 Scissor Lift Safety Do’s and Don’ts

In operating heavy machineries it is important for the operators of these machines to be aware of the safety procedures and guidelines in order to avoid accidents and injuries. Safety should be the primary concern of operators when workers are doing their jobs using heavy machines. The time to finish jobs when following safety procedures will be longer but the risks will be lower and the chance of delay in the operation on account of accidents and injuries will be reduced. Also, the chances of lawsuits will be lower in cases of work related accidents and injuries if safety guidelines are followed strictly.

Colleges have been using aerial lifts for reasons other than their intended purpose. The most frequent use of scissor lifts is the filming of football practices to get an aerial view of college teams. This practice has been deemed unsafe because the person holding the camera might be blown over by a sudden gust of wind and there are no safety regulations and guidelines being followed to prevent that sort of thing.

A twenty year old has died because of the failure of university officials to set safety guidelines when using scissor lifts. Investigations were made by the university where the unfortunate incident happened and they found out after a few months after the incident that the policies of the university regarding the safety procedures and safeguards in using scissor lifts were not adequate to prevent accidents like the one that happened.  After that, other colleges have looked into their own policies when using machines such as these.  For the purpose of preventing accidents from happening when using scissor lifts here are 5 guidelines to follow.

1.       Use it for raised platform working, but don’t overload

Scissor lifts are just like any machine, they can perform the jobs needed from them but they also have a limit. Scissor lifts are primarily used for raising up things or people so they can do their tasks from an elevated platform. The weight of the things to be raised is a priority in safety because as the platform is raised, the base on which it is anchored becomes unstable as it goes higher. Once the platform becomes unstable outside forces like winds or a shake in the base will greatly affect the raised platform which can lead to accidents.

2.       Use it to transfer materials, but don’t rush

When transferring materials to high places it is always recommended to be sure and steady. As the adage goes “haste makes waste.” Caution should always be practiced when using heavy machinery and when dealing with machines that extend many feet above the ground.

3.       Use lanyards but follow the Ghostbusters’s rule (don’t cross the streams)

Lanyards are used as a safety option when operating machinery. It is attached to a worker’s wrist and in case the worker becomes incapacitated when operating the machine, the fall will enable the lanyard to pull the “kill switch” which is also attached to the lanyard and stop the machine from operating. However, another precaution should also be in place in order for the lanyards to be effective as a safety measure. Workers must make sure that their lanyards are not intertwined or are not crossing the streams as the safety precaution of lanyards will be compromised.

4.       Stay inside the guard rails, don’t over extend or stand on the rails

Persons who are tasked to be on the platform should always bear in mind that the guard rails are there for a reason. It is for their own protection to keep their bodies in the guard rail all the time. There are some circumstances and sometimes they cannot be avoided, that require a worker to reach out over the platform to perform a task. But one should be vigilant to not lean over or reach out too much to a point of over extending one’s self beyond the guardrails. Standing on the rails should also be avoided. The safety hazards of such act are innumerable and are subjected to every kind of outside forces that will cause a person to lose balance and fall. If there is an urgent need to go higher to perform a task it is better to raise up the platform itself rather than stand on the guard rails.

5.       Move the platform for different areas but not while the platform is extended.

When moving heavy machineries or any mechanical device for that matter, it is best to be cautious when transporting them from one place to another. The platform of the scissor lift should be brought back to its original place in the machine before moving the whole thing, just like when one would move a car or an oven, it is best to close the doors first so it won’t bump into other things while in transit. The same safety concept should be adopted when moving the platform of a scissor lift. In order to avoid accidents and injuries the extended platform should be lowered first before moving from one place to another.

In any job requiring the use of machines, especially heavy machinery it is very important to follow the safety guidelines while operating them. Operators should be strict in enforcing these guidelines to ensure a safe working environment for people using heavy machineries like scissor lifts. An unfortunate accident already happened because of the lack of safety standards in the use of scissor lifts outside of construction sites, like in colleges. The safety guidelines should be addressed by colleges when their students are using machineries like scissor lifts. There are standard safety guidelines to be followed strictly in order to avoid accidents when using scissor lifts.

We thank Allan Twillert, a Marketing Consultant that writes for Horizon Limited Platforms, a construction machine rental solution company in the United Kingdom.  For more information on Allan’s company, go to info@horizonplatformsco.uk.  It is an honor for us to hear from our friends in other countries who , like us, are very concerned about the safety of workers and students.