Keeping Your Customers and Floors Safe During Construction Projects
When you start a renovation job in a client's house, you unload all your construction tools and make your plan for the day. Before you start demolishing a wall or replacing the tiles, take these steps to protect your client's floors throughout the project.
Put Down Protective Materials
For every room you're working in, cover the floor with protective materials. First, determine how threatening your project is to the floor if your customers don't want you to replace it. Are you working on a hardwood floor that would get damaged if you dropped your drill on it, or is the ground covered in carpet that would soak up any epoxy, paint, or wallpaper remover that you spill? Make a list of the different floor types within the house and all the hazards they present.
Now that you know the problems that could happen, it's time to make your preventative plan. If you're working with carpet, a drop cloth is sufficient for projects that don't involve liquid, but you need an adhesive cover if you're painting or gluing. If you're working with hardwood, use very thick drop cloths to mitigate scratches and paint spills, and add a layer of foam below the cloth to prevent dents from dropped tools.
Plan How You're Going To Leave
Throughout your job, you need to exit the house many times to take waste to the dumpster or grab a tool from your truck. When you're constantly walking through the house, it's easy to spill materials that could damage your client's house:
- Paint
- Nails
- Wallpaper scraps
- Epoxy bottles
- Wet drop cloths
To limit unnecessary repairs, talk to your client about the best way for you and your employees to exit the house. Then, lay down drop cloths and other protective equipment to keep track of any spills and reduce the dirt that you track into the house.
Maintain Good Ventilation
When you think about preserving good ventilation, you're worried about particles getting into your lungs or toxic chemicals building up in the air. However, you also need to worry about these substances getting ingrained into the floor, particularly if the floor is covered with carpet or your client has babies or pets. Whenever you're using construction tools that create lots of dust or rely on poisonous chemicals, open all the windows in your room and run a fan or professional air scrubber.
Clean Throughout the Job
Leaving all your cleaning until the end of your job allows you to work more quickly, but it also means that clean-up takes hours when you're already tired. Whenever you finish a step or minor project, spend at least five minutes cleaning up the mess before moving on to your next to-do item. For example, if you've been removing rotten drywall in the living room and now you're ready to do the same in a bedroom, vacuum all the dust particles out of the floor and throw away leftover drywall scraps first.
Not only does this cleaning method speed up the end of your day, but it also ensures that you leave your client's floors in better shape. By addressing issues immediately, you're able to clean up paint spills when they're still wet rather than when the color change is permanent. Additionally, as the same problems happen, you come up with new floor-protection strategies to ensure that you don't make a similar mistake.
Before you leave for your next job, add extra cleaning supplies and a variety of drop cloths to your collection of construction tools. For an even smoother clean-up process, visit Engineer Supply for updated versions of your favorite tools that cause less mess and are easier on floors of all types.
