Using an Aluminum Pump Jack to Increase Safety in the Workplace

Making sure that you have the right type of equipment to complete the job is an essential step in any type of workplace repair or household do-it-yourself task. This remains true, whether you are attempting to put down a new layer of paint, clean the exterior of your home, replace your carpets, or perform masonry jobs. Using tools can help ensure that your improvement project is completed in a timely and safe manner.

One of the most essential tools in completing your repair job is the aluminum pump jack. This type of tool works in a manner very similar to a car jack. You are able to use a manual lever, a toothed rod, and a ratchet mechanism. In order to use the device, you will be required to move the lever up the rod, and it will lock after each tooth. Each tool that is used on a scaffold must be advanced at the same rate. After you reach the height that you require, you will double lock the braces. This in turn will provide the type of grip that will prevent the ratchet from sliding and will help lessen the chances of your falling. Continue reading

Scaffold Wind Clips

image of Scaffold Wind ClipsWith winter season approaching us in the north, it is sometimes required that the job site needs to be enclosed and to maintain a heated work area. What many contractors will do is erect scaffolding around the job site and and wrap the structure with reinforced plastic tarps to maintain heat in the work area. To attach the tarps to the scaffold, wind clips are used. When attaching tarps to scaffold special care must be taken to insure that windy conditions with not affect the scaffold. Extra wall ties and counter weights are need to counter act the effects of wrapping the scaffold with plastic. Care must also be taken with the type of heater being used so an open flame does not come into contact with the tarp.

New Knaack 4830-D Jobsite Chest

4830-d Box

4830-D Box

Knaack has developed the first and only jobsite Knaack 4830-D with independent locking drawer.  It has many features which include:

  • * Anti-Slam Lid- Gas strut supported lid to control closing speed
  • * Raised Chest Floor- Easily reach chest bottom without over-reaching
  • * 3 Sided easy grip lid-Continuous ergonomic grip for easy access
  • * Independent Watchman IV locks- Separate locking system for chest and drawer.

Junk Trunk quick access drawer- Quickly access high demand tools.

  • Weight: 254 lbs.
  • 48″ x 30″ x 35″ closed

Knaack has hit a home run with this box.  The draw capacity is rated at 150 lbs.

Solving A Top Floor Renovation Headache

We’ve all been there, renovating an upper level floor, and being faced with the dilemma. Do we have a guy walk all the construction trash down four flights of stairs to the dumpster we rented, or toss it out the window? Well if one of my guys goes up and down stairs all day long, we lose a worker up here! On the other hand, if you are like a lot of contractors, you only have one or two guys on the job to begin with, that’s lost time for doing the job. Tossing stuff out the window could hit someone walking on the street below. Then all of your profit on this job goes into a lawsuit. Continue reading

How To Work Safely At Heights

Having the proper tools is essential to completing jobs on a timely and efficient basis. By understanding the different options that are available, construction company owners and managers can be sure that their employees in the field are fully equipped for the largest or smallest project. Building and renovation jobs often require that employees need to complete their work at heights, and this can present a serious hazard. Today’s construction equipment is designed to address a wide range of issues. Products are often required to be installed in accordance with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) rules and regulations. Continue reading

Safety Pays, but Falls Cost

Here is a copy of an article I found written by Jim Maddux, director of OSHA Directorate of Construction.  Take a few minutes to read it.

Safety Pays, but Falls Cost

OSHA’s Fall Prevention Campaign promotes ‘Planning,’ ‘Providing’ and ‘training’ to reduce the number one cause of death in construction

By Jim Maddux, director, OSHA Directorate of Construction

Falls account for one third of all work-related deaths in the construction industry. In 2010, there were 264 fall fatalities (255 falls to lower level) out of 774 total fatalities in construction. Of those deaths from falls, 90 were from roofs, 68 from ladders and 37 from scaffolds.

Many of the workers who are killed and injured on the job are temporary workers who perform the most dangerous jobs and often have limited English proficiency, and who don’t always get the training and equipment they need to do their jobs safely. As Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels has said, “All workers have the right to go home safe and sound at the end of the day, whether they’ve been on the job one day or 25 years.” Continue reading

OSHA Scaffold Citation

Here is an article I found that may be on interest to you.  Be sure when your employees are working on scaffold that they have had training on the proper use of scaffold.  ! fine like this could be devastating to the profit from the job.

Trade News Release Banner Image

Region 2 News Release: 13-1858-NEW/BOS-13-162
Sept. 24, 2013
Contact: Ted Fitzgerald      Andre J. Bowser
Phone: 617-565-2075      617-565-2074
Email: fitzgerald.edmund@dol.gov      bowser.andre.j@dol.gov

US Labor Department’s OSHA proposes more than $272,000 in fines, cites
four contractors for safety hazards at midtown Manhattan site

NEW YORK – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed $272,720 in fines against four New York contractors for safety hazards identified during the construction of a midtown Manhattan hotel. The March 21 inspection was conducted in response to a complaint about fall hazards at the 325 W. 33rd St. work site.

The largest penalties of $249,920 are proposed for Flintlock Construction Services LLC, the Mamaroneck-based general contractor for the construction of the 23-story hotel. Flintlock was cited for seven violations of OSHA’s fall protection and scaffolding standards that involved workers exposed to potentially fatal falls of up to 26 feet while they were on scaffolding.

“These employees were one trip, slip or misstep away from a deadly or disabling fall. Falls are the leading cause of death among workers in construction,” said Kay Gee, OSHA’s area director for Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. “There is no excuse for an employer’s failure to supply and ensure the use of legally required safeguards that can prevent injuries and save lives. The sizable fines proposed reflect both the severity of these hazards and that Flintlock was aware of, and failed to correct, the hazards.”

Specifically, Flintlock failed to provide and ensure the use of fall protection, such as guardrails or personal fall- arrest systems, for workers on the scaffold; the scaffold lacked a safe means of access, causing workers to climb its cross-bracing to reach their work platforms; the work platforms were not fully planked; and the scaffold was not tied off to restrain it from tipping. These conditions resulted in the issuance of four willful citations, with $233,200 in fines to Flintlock.

OSHA also issued three serious citations, with $16,720 in fines, to Flintlock for additional hazards. These include failing to provide training on the hazards associated with erecting scaffolds; failing to have a competent person determine the feasibility of providing fall protection for workers erecting and dismantling the scaffolding; a scaffold walkway that was too narrow; and inadequate anchorage for the fall protection system.

V&P Altitude Corp., a Brooklyn-based siding contractor, was issued five serious citations, with $13,200 in fines, for lack of fall protection; no safe access to the scaffolding; not fully planking the scaffold platforms; failing to tie off the scaffolding; and not locking mobile scaffold wheels and casters.

SMK Associates, an Astoria-based masonry contractor, was issued three serious citations, with $7,600 in fines, for electrical hazards and failing to provide eye and face protection. Maspeth Steel Fabricators Inc., a Maspeth-based steel framing contractor, was issued one serious citation, with a $2,000 fine, for failing to provide training on the hazards of working on scaffolds.

The citations can be viewed at http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/FlintlockCitations.pdf*,http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/SMKCitations.pdf*, http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/VPCitations.pdf* andhttp://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/MaspethCitations.pdf*.

A willful violation is one committed with intentional, knowing, or voluntary disregard for the law’s requirements, or with plain indifference to worker safety and health. A serious violation occurs when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known.

Due to the nature and severity of violations committed by Flintlock Construction Services LLC, the general contractor has been placed in OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program, which mandates targeted follow-up inspections to ensure compliance with the law. OSHA’s SVEP focuses on recalcitrant employers that endanger workers by committing willful, repeat or failure-to-abate violations. Under the program, OSHA may inspect any of the employer’s facilities if it has reasonable grounds to believe there are similar violations.

Each employer has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and proposed penalties to comply, meet with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

OSHA has created a Stop Falls Web page at http://www.osha.gov/stopfalls, which has detailed information in English and Spanish on fall protection hazards and safeguards. The page offers fact sheets, posters and videos that vividly illustrate various fall hazards and appropriate preventive measures.

To ask questions, obtain compliance assistance, file a complaint or report workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA’s toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency’s Manhattan Area Office at 212-620-3200.

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to ensure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.

Construction Rises to the Top Spot in Labor Statistics’ Deadliest Industries List

number and rate of occupational injuries, by industry sectorFatal work injuries in the private construction sector increased 5 percent to 775 in 2012, while total hours worked in the industry increased just one percent.

The 2012 increase in fatal occupational injuries follows five consecutive years of declining fatalities in construction. Fatal construction injuries are down 37 percent since 2006.

The reversal in construction’s worker-fatality trend is stark in light of the fact that the 2012 fatal-work-injury count for all U.S. employers is down 6.6 percent to the second-lowest total since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics first started conducting the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 1992

The rate of fatal work injury for all U.S. workers in 2012 was 3.2 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers, down from a rate of 3.5 per 100,000 in 2011. There were 9.5 U.S. construction-worker deaths in 2012 per 100,000 full-time workers.

Construction Pump Jack Braces

Construction Pump Jack Braces

Support Brace

There are two types of braces for aluminum pump jack scaffolding: The rigid brace and the folding brace. In the rigid brace, the piece resting against the roof does not swivel, allowing it to provide unmoving support. In the folding brace, there are two separate supports, each of which can swivel. This allows it to provide support against two planes with differing angles. There are advantages to both, and generally we recommend that you own both styles. Each scaffold will usually need both types, as described below. Continue reading