What Contractors Do To Mitigate the Risks of Falling

It’s important to clean out your gutters at least twice a year: in the springtime and in late fall when leaves are falling, you want to get those cleaned out so the water doesn’t get down to your basement and cause foundation issues. As contractors and as professionals, we’ve done it before on many different levels. Here are some tips that you should follow if you do it yourself:

If you get on the roof, make sure you are harnessed in and anchored down. You can use a chimney to install an anchor, so if you slip off and fall, or if it’s a steep pitch, it’s going to catch you and you’re not going to do any damage to yourself. Hopefully, there’s limited damage to your home. Professionals know how to walk roofs and they do it pretty much every day.
You always want two men to man a ladder. You want one guy going up, doing the gutter cleaning, and one guy holding the ladder. Always have AT LEAST two guys when you’re cleaning gutters.
Sometimes, the surface is uneven and you want to know how to make the claws even out. You want to avoid those uneven surfaces. Contractors know how to do that. They know the ways to set a ladder up. That’s another part of the training for new and current employees.
If you have a deck at the back of your house, sometimes that deck builds up algae and molds. Wet wood is slippery. Avoid putting the ladder up on the deck especially if you only have one person, because the chances of the ladder sliding right out and of you falling on your face is very high.

Always ask contractors about what they plan on doing to avoid getting hurt. Ask if they have Workers’ Compensation.

If you do decide to do it yourself, make sure you have a friend, your wife or husband, or someone to help you out to avoid being injured.