Remodeling Your Home? Important Safety Equipment to Buy First

If you are about to remodel your home and do it yourself, there are important items of safety equipment you will want to use to make sure you stay safe during the process. Many hazards can pop up when doing home improvement and home remodeling projects, some that you may anticipate and others that were unexpected. This article will explore important safety equipment for remodeling your home. The hazards that can come about during home remodeling are plentiful. Imagine all of the chemicals, dust and debris that will be in the air. These could pose a danger to your lungs and breathing, as well as could make you sick from breathing in harmful vapors. Some chemicals that you use could be harmful to your eyes and to your hands if you touch them. If you touch something acidic it could even burn through your skin. Some main hazards that could occur involve asbestos, lead paint and mold. If you are peeling off old paint from walls that has lead in it, this could be a health hazard. Asbestos might also be present. Mold might be present in your home, and be released into the air as you remodel. Hazards may occur from objects falling and hitting you on the head or on your feet. A piece of wood or metal could drop from above and hit you. The use of a power saw could put you at risk for cutting your fingers.

1. Safety goggles. If you are remodeling your home, you will probably be using a power saw at some point to cut wood. Maybe you’re remodeling the kitchen, and you’re going to make new wooden cabinets. Safety goggles will help prevent you from becoming injured when wood chips fly up towards your eye while you use the power saw.

Safety goggles will help to protect your eyes from any type of dust or debris. Dust and debris might fall if you try to go up in your attic that is filled with insulation. Or, perhaps you open the attic door and debris falls that was collecting for the many years you haven’t used the attic. Safety goggles will also protect your eyes from chemicals that you would use to help tear down wallpaper.

When getting rid of lead paint or asbestos, safety goggles will protect your eyes from getting small pieces of lead in them or asbestos in them. Safety goggles will also block mold spores from getting into your eyes.

2. Face mask. If you are using chemicals in the remodeling process, a face mask can help you not breathe in as much of the chemical smell, protecting you from the harmful vapors. Face masks also protect you from the dust that will fly when using power saws or cleaning up debris from remodeling work.

3. Oxygen mask or breathing mask. A face mask will not protect you from asbestos. In this case, you want an actual oxygen mask or breathing mask. The asbestos particles are small enough that they can still enter your lungs through the face mask and cause harm.

4. Gloves. Gloves will protect your hands from getting small pieces of asbestos in them, or exposing your hands to lead paint. You will also protect your hands from chemicals. Just make sure the gloves you choose are made to protect you from these types of things. You can’t just use latex gloves or something from the dollar store.

5. Hard hat. If you’re going to be working with larger objects that could fall on you, a hard hat is imperative. You don’t want a steel beam hitting you in the head if you’re making an addition on the second floor of your home and you are standing below. It may seem silly, but the added safety is worth it.

6. Protective footwear or steel toed shoes. Steel toed shoes will protect your feet from getting crushed if something falls on them. Your risk isn’t totally eliminated, so you still need to be careful, but this will lessen the risk.

7. Earplugs. Earplugs will protect you from loud noise that may occur during construction. If you are remodeling your walkways and getting rid of cement or concrete to put down new brick pathways, you may need a jackhammer. Power saws can also be very loud.

8. Back supports for lifting. If you are prone to back injuries, or your back is not strong, it will serve you well to protect it from injury by using back supports. You may need to lift heavy items, such as moving a sofa out of a room or bringing in new shelves.

9. Spray bottle of water. If you are going to be working around dusty areas, you can spray the dust with water before you work on the area. This will help prevent the dust from flying up.

10. Ventilation fan. If you are working in closed areas with chemicals, the vapors could be harmful. If you can’t open up a window, you have to find some way to keep the air moving through the area. A fan might just do the trick.

Before beginning any remodeling work, you want to be certain to take necessary safety precautions. It is often useful to consult with a professional for guidance, even if you will be doing the work yourself. There is no reason to subject your child to lead poisoning because you didn’t realize there was lead in the old paint you tear down, and the child ingests lead chips, for example.