DWH Creative Contracting Inc

Excellent Sunday Brunch with two if my favorite Chefs, Larry Keck and Lorn Randall. Burger was off the charts and then Chef Keck brought out my dessert special ☺️ Awesome! Go check him out at Bounty Hunter in Walnut Creek, you won’t be sorry

Keeva wants to meet the Mannerino doggies, why you ask? Because she’s never meet anyone who likes baseball like this dude and she wants to ask the doggies why!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=973qtTOfCLA

Solving Your Seasonal Project Challenges

Well, it's been a while since we've done a post, But we have been busy. If you have a minute to spare, check out our Abrasive Blasting Video

DWH Creative Contracting Dustless Blasting

We all at DWH wish you a Very Merry Christmas and a safe New Years Eve. Life will give us more journeys to travel this coming year, and we’ll always get where we are supposed to be, going it together.

Did You Know:
Human error must be considered in your safety plan
Human error isn’t the sole burden of the employee, because sometimes the employer can be blamed for poor training in the workplace. Wait? What poor training is missed?

How about “Disregarding Safety Training” yes employees need to be trained on understanding the importance of your provided training. It’s not just a course on getting the training class off the list for this year. The employer should provide insights to what types of errors one could make while not paying attention to the severity of the courses you’ve provided.

Other office topics than tripping over phone cords, or keeping your fingers out of the machinery. There should be discussion on Horseplay, Fatigue, Working to Fast and not asking for help. These can be topics of their own.

• Horseplay – can be both physical and verbal to personal injury, mental collapse, equipment damage, offending someone, etc.
• Fatigue – Exhausted employees will often neglect basic safety protocols. Fall asleep at the wrong times, and of course we don’t need someone operating equipment while drowsy. Have them assigned or teamed up with co-workers and share the load.
• Working to fast – Should an employee have an unrealistic deadline or a quota to meet they will often skip over necessary details and provide poor work and compromise the work of others. Safety protocols and productivity chains can all be at risk if the employee isn’t trained on these possibilities.

How to get Human Error under control? Teach them about it……………

Did you Know
Keeping your vehicle clean and organized isn’t just for us control freaks, it’s for safety too.
Yes, normally we are talking about keeping your work site clean and orderly as part of the job, but it’s also just as important for every vehicle being used.
OSHA may consider any motor vehicle as a work environment when a worker is using the vehicle for work-related activities including driving between work locations, transporting materials, running errands, visiting clients and making deliveries. Keeping your vehicle clean, organized and maintained is beneficial to your employees and the company. I believe it’s one of those policies that can be carried over to your personal life with spouse and kids who also drive a vehicle. Why?

• It keeps the driver and passengers safe. Don’t have distractions from stuff on the floorboard
• Driver can focus on the road and not reaching for loose items
• Saves time when space is already available for passengers, materials, tools and equipment.

If a client can notice and see your Superintendents clean and organized Truck, they will feel more comfortable knowing your projects will follow suite. That’s a good company image to have.
Plus, no one should be driving a vehicle that becomes cluttered and full of trash, debris, material or equipment, it can become hazardous to the worker and affect the safety of everyone on the road.
• Store all items away from the main sitting area of the vehicle or make sure they are secure.
• Remove items from under the vehicle seats, especially items that can roll like water bottles.
• Clear folders, tools, beverage containers or any other items from dashboards.
• If a driver become distracted by a spill or item that has fallen in the vehicle, they should pull over and stop in a safe area before they tend to it.
• Clean windows and mirrors often to maintain optimal visibility.
• Avoid piling objects too high, inside or outside of the vehicle, to ensure the driver can always see clearly.
• Secure all loose items.
• Keep all items, including ladders, that are in a truck bed, or on the roof rack, tied down to ensure they do not become dislodged while driving.
• Never place long materials such as pipes, poles or rods through windows or openings into the main cab of a vehicle. Workers could become impaled by these objects and serious injury can occur.
• Materials that extend past the vehicle’s tailgate or rear bumper should be marked and flagged to alert other drivers of the large load you are hauling.
• Ensure lids are closed on any open containers in the bed of your truck to prevent objects flying out and striking other vehicles on the roadway

Be safe and smart, it’s our Job to do so…

Did You Know

Project site material staking and storage needs a plan too?

As a qualified contractor you always refer to your plans when needing to know where the concrete walkways will be poured, or the footings for the new addition will be set. However, when the materials get delivered to the job-site, you’ll point over there for them to be dropped. There should be a plan for that too. Without a plan you could be moving those materials 4 or 5 times before you actually use them or they are unloaded in an unorganized manor, meaning the drywall is stacked on top of the studs, or the siding is stacked on top of the sheeting. You need what’s on the bottom before the things on top.

So, let’s go to our plans and identify where deliveries will be dropped and for what items will be dropped there. Fine a location nearest the area where those items will be used. We don’t need Post Hole Cement and lumber dropped on the front driveway when we are building the fence in the back of the property. Depending on your project there might not be very many options, but it still will require a plan for location and stacking things safely.

Making sure the path of travel is kept clean and clear of debris. Loads are stacked smartly with heavy items on the bottom, placed on level sturdy ground and isn’t top heavy and swaying, use proper lifting techniques and equipment.

Once you’ve identified your materials storage areas, you’ll then need to include the crew with the details, draw the locations on the plans and place the plans where everyone can see them, and finally hold a material’s stacking and storing safety meet.

As you should know, stacking materials can be dangerous if workers don’t have a plan or don’t follow some simple safety guidelines. Falling materials and collapsing loads can crush or pin workers, causing injury or even death. Other things to consider in your plan is:

• Back injuries due to improper lifting techniques
• Struck-by material or walking into unmarked staked materials
• Caught-in or pinch point material handling injuries
• Damage to racking systems and inventory

A great project from start to finish, begins and ends with a Plan.

Did You Know
Risk Tolerance can be used in construction? But I call it No Risk Tolerance!

Normally when you hear someone talking about Risk Tolerance, they are talking about investment risk and how to identify them before making their thoughtful decision.

Cal-OSHA will remind the employers that they have the duty to protect workers from injury and illness on the job by developing and implementing a safety and health program. According to OSHA, an effective safety plan should have these in it.

• Management Leadership and Employee Participation
• Workplace Analysis
• Hazard Prevention and Control
• Safety and Health Training and Education
• Program Education

But I like to add my No Risk Tolerance daily program to the list above. What I mean by this is a review of what we are working around specifically today. 3 crew members may be working under the house today and the other 4 are in the house hanging sheetrock. These are two very different task and will have their own specific Risk involved. So, the crew under the house doesn’t need the same safety talk about lifting more than one sheet of drywall without help, clearing the path of travel for tripping hazards, eye protection for a wayward nail and/or working off a ladder without a spotter. Nor does the drywall crew need to hear what is specific to being under the house, such as evaluating the crawlspace for dangerous snakes or spiders, climbing over debris, how to settling yourself or a crew member who feels a little claustrophobia, communication with a team member not under the house. These tasks have their own Risk and they should be discussed in your daily safety meeting. What specific Risk are we Not going to Tolerate Today?

Keep thinking about safety, chances of avoiding injury gets much better.