Keeping Your Striping Crews Safe

Other Essential Safety Tips

There are several other areas where it is essential for contractors to take additional safety measures. Although contractors might not complete work on public roads often, contractors can find themselves in the position of completing work on a public road. “If you do work on public roads you have to know about work zone safety,” Liles says. “The roadway has to be closed off properly by someone who is competent in public roadway work zone safety. If we ever complete work on roads we hire a company to set up the work zone. It is less expensive to hire someone to do it for us than to have someone trained to set up the barricades ourselves.”

Another scenario contractors may encounter is working inside a building. “Primary things you have to worry about in buildings is ventilation, the type of paint you are using and gasoline engines,” Liles says. “You need to be especially aware of solvents and solvent-based paints, and you need to be sure you have ventilation to keep the solvents away so you aren’t breathing them.”

Liles also encourages contractors to remind their employees about properly using pressure washers. “We do a lot of pressure washing associated with our striping to prepare surfaces for painting,” Liles says. “People forget that the pressure washers we use are capable of cutting through your shoe or cutting your skin if they aren’t treated with respect and care.”