Scaffolding Safety Tips For Painting The Exterior Of Your Home

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When it comes to painting the outside of your home, it's a good idea to give serious consideration to hiring a painting contractor, like Artios Painting. However, if you decide to tackle the job yourself, you'll need not only the right painting gear, but also the equipment to help you reach the upper level of the dwelling. Instead of a ladder, you should strongly consider renting some scaffolding. Doing so provides a sturdier and safer foundation for you on which to stand, which you'll appreciate over the hours that you'll need to paint the house. Here are some tips for keeping safe with your scaffolding while you paint.

Wear A Harness

When you're using scaffolding to paint the exterior of your home, you want to tether yourself to the scaffolding with a harness. You can customarily rent harnesses at rental centers, so you can likely get one when you pick up your scaffolding. This device is simple — it consists of an adjustable harness that you tighten snugly to your body, a tether, and a heavy-duty clip that you affix to the scaffolding. As you move around while you paint, you'll need to undo the clip and change its position, but doing so will keep you sturdily attached to the structure.

Don't Skimp On Planks

When you rent your scaffolding, you'll have a choice of how many planks you get to span across the bars of each level of scaffolding. Professionals will often just use one or two because they're accustomed to working at heights and the setup and takedown is faster. However, one or two planks leave some openings around you, which isn't what you want as a beginner or resident. Always get enough planks to cover the entire level of scaffolding you're standing on. This way, you won't make the mistake of stepping back when you're focusing on the job at hand and having your foot fall into a void.

When In Doubt, Tie It Off

Unless you can get the scaffolding on an extremely flat surface, you're wise to tie it off to prevent it from toppling over while you paint. Get some heavy rope and, once the scaffolding is in place, look for sturdy objects to which you can run the top. For example, if there's a tree nearby, a taught piece of rope running from the scaffolding to around the trunk of the tree will further improve your stability. You should endeavor to tie the scaffolding off at opposite ends so that it's likely to topple.

Remember, in the end if the project is too big to tackle, it's best to hire a professional.

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