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Indiana Roof Cleaners · Guest

Electric Shock

Arkansas Roof Cleaning (501) 681 3355 · Premium Member Roof Cleaning Institute Of America

Well said...all I could add is........Read summore...

& join the RCIA!!!

Oh yea I almost forgot....Go Hogs!!!!

-- Edited by Arkansas Roof Cleaning (501) 681 3355 on Tuesday 14th of December 2010 09:07:23 AM

Baltimore MD Roof Cleaning 410-482-4367 · guest

This can actually be a common problem. We have been shocked by gutters a few times over the years. Now that your aware of it you can train your employees not to jump off the roof. Always good to inform the homeowner. This is great advice exampling how there are always unexpecteds and the more prepared a service tech is the less likely they will get hurt or cause damage.

BCRoofClean · Guest

Indiana Roof Cleaners wrote:

We had an interesting 1st year cleaning roofs. A lot of ups & downs. For thoses who are just getting into roof cleaning or are considering starting to my only advise is to read, read, and read some more. There is a lot of knowledge that you will need to absorb.

On one of our first jobs this year we were cleaning a home with a manser style roof. Danny was on the roof itself doing the shoot. As we proceeded to the back of the home his hands started to feel tinglely and he started to feel slightly nauseous. He took off his rubber gloves and touched the metal coupling on the hose itself and got quite a jolt. Our ladder, the gutters, everything metal has HOT with electicity. He ended up jumping off the roof from about 10' off the ground and fortunately hasn't hurt, but it took a couple of hours before he felt normal again from the electric shock itself. We called the homeowner and told what happened and he informed us that he had new gutters installed in the spring. The next day they were inspected and they found that the installer had struck a wire during installation.

I'm not sure how many of you have experienced this or how we could have avoided this situation. All I know is Danny was very lucky and a damn good jumper.

Mike
Indiana Roof Cleaning LLC

Wow, he is seriously lucky I've never been hit on a roof before but I was jolted cleaning a deck one time, the home owner had an enclosed portion and there was a bar with a radio set up in there and the radio wiring was exposed and taped up touching the metal frame of the deck encolsure and he walks out and is all " hey guys want some tunes?" Flicks a switch and I go flying back and don't remember it.
My helper was all freaked out but I was fine, I was concious but really out of it. The home owner wanted to call an ambulence I told him to call an electrician.

Wet deck plus exposed wires= shock. I had shoes on, maybe my feet were too wet, I also had a metal deck wand in my hand.

I have never been that tired and jittery in all of my life. Very wierd feeling. Hope it never happens again.
It makes me look harder now and ask more questions about safety though, not just electric either. You don't want to have to learn every lesson the hard way.

I agree, 138394,

great post!

garyw · Dec 14, 2010

You can always get a voltage tester and start testing the downspouts for voltage. Push a long screwdriver in the ground for your ground and it will show voltage if any's present. We used to test the ground wire on all joint use poles at BellSouth before climbing them. Sometimes the ground wire would be broken and you sure don't want to complete the circuit on 10k volts. We also test all mobile homes before installing a phone. Sometimes their also hot.

SP Cleaning · Dec 14, 2010

I keep a voltage tester in my tool box on the trailer. Anytime I work around
a metal structure or Gutters, I test it first.
Here is a link to the one I have.

http://www.amazon.com/Gardner-Bender-GVD-505A-Non-Contact-Voltage/sim/B000BQWU3S/2

Fixed your link - Brian

-- Edited by The Roof Cleaners of Chester County Pennsylvania 610-842-2104 on Tuesday 14th of December 2010 01:34:42 PM

garyw · Dec 14, 2010

Everybody should have on on their truck. Takes 5 seconds to save your life.
Gary

AC Lockyer · none

Been There, Done That, Bought The T-Shirt, Smoked The Doobie. confuse

Happened in my first year of biz as well!

AC

Washed-up · guest

garyw wrote:

You can always get a voltage tester and start testing the downspouts for voltage. Push a long screwdriver in the ground for your ground and it will show voltage if any's present. We used to test the ground wire on all joint use poles at BellSouth before climbing them. Sometimes the ground wire would be broken and you sure don't want to complete the circuit on 10k volts. We also test all mobile homes before installing a phone. Sometimes their also hot.

+1 on mobile homes!! It will charge the entire shell of the home!! Bad grounds too!!

-- Edited by Washed-up on Wednesday 15th of December 2010 09:54:08 PM

BCRoofClean · Guest

honestly what else... Im sitting here thinking about it..what else, I mean we have one of the most dangerous professions out there.

Safety first or nothing's second

Washed-up · guest

BCRoofClean wrote:

honestly what else... Im sitting here thinking about it..what else, I mean we have one of the most dangerous professions out there.

Safety first or nothing's second

NICE!!

Indiana Roof Cleaners · Guest

Guys,

Thank You for your responses. I figured we weren't the only ones to run into this type of situation. I appreciate the input, a voltage tester definately sounds like a must especially with any type of metal structure.

It is not easy to do some of the roofs out there today. Most artitects seem to enjoy big, expensive, odd shaped, and not always easy to clean roofs on homes today.

Mike
Indiana Roof Cleaning LLC

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Lake Marion Citrus & Sumter Counties in Florida

Dwayne Miller
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Lake Marion Citrus & Sumter Counties in Florida

The Roof Cleaning Institute Of America Training & Certification Forum "Find A Certified Roof Cleaner Directory"

Dwayne MillerFLORIDAWASH

Lake Marion Citrus & Sumter Counties in Florida

Dwayne MillerFLORIDAWASH

Lake Marion Citrus & Sumter Counties in Florida

The Roof Cleaning Institute Of America Training & Certification Forum
"Find A Certified Roof Cleaner Directory"

Dwayne Miller
FLORIDAWASH

Dwayne Miller
FLORIDAWASH