Nolan Radke, Author at Construction Dispute Resolution

Job Safety – New Directives

Experts In Alternative Dispute Resolution - Construction Dispute Resolution

Two recent safety directives specific to residential construction projects in Washington State affect contractors and homeowners and are critical to safety on jobsites.

OSHA

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration states that fatalities from falls are the number one cause of workplace death in construction. Over 15 years ago OSHA determined that workers who are six feet or more above lower levels are at risk for serious injury or death if they should fall. They mandated that to protect these workers employers must provide fall protection and appropriate equipment for the job, including ladders, scaffolds and safety gear. In 1998 OSHA issued standard STD 03-00-001, its Interim Fall Protection Compliance Guidelines for Residential Construction, which permitted employers engaged in certain residential construction projects to use specified alternative methods for fall protection, such as slide guards or safety monitor systems rather than conventional fall protection such as guardrails, safety nets or personal fall arrest systems. Now this standard for fall protection is under review, with a deadline of March 15, 2013 to revise it. When adopted, the new standard (STD 03-11-002) will likely establish that workers engaged in residential construction six feet or more above lower levels must be protected by conventional fall protection with guardrails, safety nets, personal fall arrest systems or similar methods found within the guidelines. Some alternative methods will be allowed if demonstrated and approved.

To follow this pending fall safety revision and subsequent training information go to http://www.osha.gov. Washington State’s regulations can be found on Washington’s Labor and Industries website at http://www.lni.wa.gov/safety/topics/atoz/topic.asp?KWID=108.

DOSH

The Division of Occupational Safety and Health in the State of Washington (DOSH) has revised the Washington Regional Directive (WRD) 1.19, titled Homeowners as General Contractors. This Directive dated July 3, 2012 affects homeowners who “are acting as the general contractor…in building their own homes”.

Attic Ventilation

When it comes to ventilating your home’s attic, the right amount of air flow and air volume can make a significant difference to the comfort and durability of your home. There are four primary reasons to ventilate, two of which relate to the comfort of your home and all of which can affect its durability. The four reasons for ventilating are:

Reduction of summer time heat in attics: Proper ventilation will improve flow of the sun-heated air and direct it out and away from the attic space, reducing heat that radiates into living areas. For flat roof designs, it is critical to cross ventilate through perimeter vents and unobstructed air movement channels within the roof’s joist cavity. For steep sloped roofs, ventilation is typically achieved through eave and ridge vents with at least 50 percent of the ventilation capacity located high on the roof’s ridge. Your local Building Department and current Building Code will provide specifics regarding Code compliant installations.
Reduction of winter time moist air and condensation in attics: Attic moisture as vapor can condense to water droplets when coming into contact with a cooler surface, and then can drip onto attic insulation, gypsum board ceilings and wood framing causing them to stain or deteriorate. Proper attic ventilation can help to eliminate moisture and discharge stagnant attic air, reducing the potential for condensation.
Ice Dams: An ice dam is a buildup of ice at the edge of a roof, which prevents melting snow water from freely draining off the roof. Roof temperature imbalances cause the dam to form as melting snow flows down the roof but freezes again at the point where the roof is below 32°F. The ice builds up over time as more water collects at the roof edge and freezes again. Then the water above that has not yet reached freezing backs up behind the ice dam.

Construction Inspections

Commercial contractors have long understood the need and requirement to accept responsibility for quality control of the construction work, both their own work as well as their subcontractors’ work. This entails proper staffing and expertise to perform the necessary ongoing inspection of the work. Municipal inspectors, whether they are city, county or state, also play an important role in the inspection process, however their inspections are mandated by the building permit and are very limited in scope and nature. It is not the role of the municipal inspector to oversee compliance with the contract terms, project plans or specifications.

There are contractors, and more commonly residential contractors, that rely completely on the municipal inspector for their project quality control. Their adage is: as long as the project passes inspection it’s acceptable and meets the necessary standards. This is a fallacy and completely disregards the contractor’s responsibility. The municipal inspector may be on the site only a half dozen or more times over the course of the construction project to perform code mandated inspections.

Table Saw Initiative

After years of allowing the power tool industry to police itself through voluntary standards, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is calling on toolmakers to strengthen safety standards. These actions come as table saw manufacturers face an increasing number of product safety lawsuits throughout the country. One of those lawsuits resulted in a jury awarding $1.5 million to a man who had sawed his fingers on a Ryobi brand table saw. In that lawsuit the plaintiffs charged that the manufacturer had known about a safety technology called SawStop, but had not integrated it (or something similar) to its products. No less than 50 similar lawsuits are pending nationwide, putting manufacturers on the defensive. Every day 10 people lose fingers in table saw amputations and the chairman of the CPSC would like to know why more isn’t being done to prevent such accidents.

Most table saw operators who injured themselves removed the blade guard for operational convenience, according to a CPSC study conducted from 2007 to 2008 that looked at 66,900 “blade contact injuries.” For that reason, CPSC is considering requiring that table saws come with a safety brake like the one offered on SawStop contractor and cabinet table saws, according to NPR. Within three-thousands of a second of contacting human skin, the brake fires and the blade drops down into the table, preventing injury.