Two ways to stay safe during a renovation project

14 February 2018
 Categories: Construction & Contractors, Blog

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Renovation work often requires the use of hazardous building materials and powerful equipment. As such, if you will be carrying out renovation work in the near future, it's important to ensure that both you and your  team members stay safe throughout the course of the project. Here are two ways to do this.

Ventilate the areas in which you will be working

Home renovations often involve tearing down plastering, pulling out old cabinetry, as well as sawing and sanding pieces of timber. All of these activities will result in dust being flung into the air.

Inhaling a large amount of dust can cause both short and long-term health problems; it can, for example, cause lung irritation, which can lead to coughing fits and breathlessness and can also eventually lead to serious respiratory problems, such as silicosis.

The fumes released by the paint and paint-thinning solvents that are frequently used during a renovation project can be equally hazardous. Inhaling them in large quantities can cause headaches, nausea, disorientation and eye irritation.

As such, it is extremely important to ensure that you only paint and perform dust-producing work in well-ventilated areas. Make sure that the windows in the rooms in which you are carrying out these tasks are wide open.

Additionally, you might want to consider renting a commercial-grade, portable exhaust fan and placing it near the window, so that the fumes and dust will be drawn away from the room and pushed outside.

Wear safety gear

Wearing the right type of safety gear during a renovation project can drastically reduce a person's chances of being seriously injured.

A pair of thick, high-grip gloves, for example, can prevent a sharp power tool, such as a drill, from slipping out of a person's hands and falling on their feet. This, in turn, can prevent them from sustaining deep foot wounds.

The thickness of the gloves can also minimise the severity of any lacerations they sustain if they use the tool incorrectly (for example, if they accidentally cut themselves with an electric saw)

Likewise, wearing a hard hat can enable a person to avoid sustaining major concussions, head wounds and skull fractures, if someone who is working directly above them accidentally drops a heavy piece of equipment onto their head.  

Protective eyewear can also be useful during a renovation project, as it can keep irritants and hazardous materials (such as sawdust, shards of glass and solvents) from being flung into the wearer's eyes.