When it comes to cleaning gutters, safety should ALWAYS be of the highest priority. There are many things that can go wrong at any given point in time, if the wrong safety practices are in use and if the wrong equipment is brought to a job site. Knowing the best and safest roof safety equipment used in gutter cleaning, is how we ensure the safety of our gutter technicians AND the safety of our clients. Read on to find out a little more about the types of safety equipment we use to clean gutters and why it’s so important.
What types of gutter cleaning safety equipment are used?
These are just a few of the different types of safety equipment we use for gutter cleaning in Melbourne…
T-Bar Anchor Tetha
A T-Bar is a temporary anchor that easily attaches to the roof and provides a safe place for a rope to be attached. A T-Bar is used to help provide support when cleaning the opposite side of the roof to the side the T-Bar is attached to. The rope is attached from harness to T-Bar and the technician makes their way carefully to the opposite gutter. If they fall from the opposite side of the roof, the T-Bar and rope system is in place to catch them, and they should avoid injury from hitting the ground.
Thick gloves
When we clean gutters, we use thick gloves to protect our hands from any danger lurking in or around the gutter. Dangers that may pose a threat to our hands are hidden animals like spiders, sharp debris like sticks and thorny vines, as well as any sharp or rusted roofing.
Roof trusses
Roof trusses are the more solid parts of roof frames, and they are such a godsend to gutter cleaners like us! They’re already built into the roof, so they provide a very sturdy point for us to attach our safety ropes to. This poses no threat to the structural integrity of the home as the trusses are strong and able to hold a large amount of weight. With our ropes attached to these built-in anchor points, the risk of being injured from a fall on any side of the building is greatly reduced.
Sturdy ladders
One thing every gutter cleaner needs is a super sturdy ladder (or ladders depending on how many different roofing heights they plan to be cleaning). Without this, even just getting onto the roof itself poses a huge safety risk. As well as investing in high-quality ladders that follow Australian Ladder Safety Standards, it also pays to learn as much as we can about ladder safety skills. Things like where the ladder is set up, how it’s set up and how tall it is compared to the roof, all need to be considered before trusting it to be safe.
Climbing helmets
Climbing helmets should always be used, not just by the people climbing the ladders, but by anybody working underneath on the ground as well. There are 3 main ways in which a helmet will protect a wearer:
- A helmet can help protect the wearer if they fall from a height.
- A helmet can help protect the wearer from falling debris.
- A helmet can help protect the wearer from overhead objects as they climb upwards.
In other words, helmets will help protect you if you fall, if something falls on you, or if you are in danger of bumping your head on an object above you like an antenna.
All three of these scenarios are possible when cleaning gutters in Melbourne, or anywhere for that matter.
Long clothing
We wear long protective clothing when cleaning gutters for a few reasons. One reason is to protect our skin from dangers around a roof like insect bites, tree branches, thorny plants, scrapes from sharp parts of the roof or gutter and other dangerous occurrences.
We also wear long clothing to help protect our skin from the sun. Gutter cleaning is an outdoor job, so we spend most of our time in direct line of the sun’s rays while we work. We pair long clothing with sunscreen and other sun protection to reduce our risk of melanoma caused by the harsh Australian sun.
So, while we love the work we do, we are also very mindful of how dangerous this profession is. That’s why we provide all our gutter cleaning technicians with extensive health and safety training surrounding ladder safety, best practices for emergencies and anything else we deem important for them to know from our perspective and from a legal perspective. We are very strict about following the health and safety practices outlined by state and national government in relation to the work we carry out.
Need a Melbourne gutter cleaner?
If your gutter could do with a clean, we’re here to help!
As you can see from the information above, cleaning gutters is a dangerous task and should only be carried out by trained professionals. Save yourself the risk of injury by getting in touch with our team at Grayson’s Gutter Cleaning. We are Melbourne gutter cleaning experts with over 19 years of experience, so you can trust us with your residential or commercial building.
Feel free to head across to our contact page or give us a call on 1300 GRAYSONS (1300 472 976) today to secure your gutter cleaning booking.
Want to see the worst gutter blockage we dealt with in 2020? Read the article here!
