Preparing and painting surfaces may seem like a relatively simple and safe job. Yet many dangers lurk around a work area; not to mention the health hazards associated with scraping, sanding and painting various surfaces.
Though safety is the last thing on someone’s mind when working on a clear, sunny day out in the fresh air, many things can go wrong. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, dangers for painters, building occupants, visitors and passersby come in many different forms, such as:
- hazardous chemicals in paints and solvents that can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin during the spray application of paints or during the curing and drying process of coatings;
- old paints that contain lead, which may result in lead poisoning and environmental contamination;
- substances that are highly flammable and can easily catch on fire or explode, particularly during operations involving open flame;
- walls and structural building elements that hide different bacteria or fungi, such as mold and dry/wet rot;
- defects in ladders/scaffold, inadequate ladder placement and missing scaffolding fall protection;
- occupational injury and illness due to repetitive stress or overexertion from lifting heavy equipment and paint buckets.
Being well aware of the dangers posed by all these factors, our commitment to health and safety goes beyond the basics of EPA and OSHA compliance. At Performance Painting Contractors, we’ve implemented a complex injury and illness prevention program and trained all our employees in every health and safety aspect of their jobs. As a result, not only do our painters comply with OSHA and EPA rules, regulations and orders at all times; they’re also able to recognize the hazards that may endanger their own health and safety and that of the people around them.
Why do we focus so much on health and safety?
Currently, the health and safety rules and regulations are a major pain point for many paint contractors. But not for us. Why? Because we know that a serious workplace injury, illness or death changes lives forever. However, that’s not the only reason. At Performance Painting Contractors, we’ve also realized that reducing the risk of injuries and illness enables us to:
- Complete projects on time – Besides the financial implications, a worker injured on the job can cost a company a lot in terms of lost man hours. When the other painters have to stop doing their jobs to replace an employee who was injured, productivity is lost. This may lead to significant project delays, with negative consequences on project deliverables, customer satisfaction and contractor’s reputation. Health and safety policies and procedures are very effective at reducing injuries, illnesses and fatalities, allowing companies to deliver projects on time.
- Reduce business costs – With a complex injury and illness prevention program and proper health and safety measures in place, our workers feel safe, being fully committed to their jobs. In addition, we don’t need to spend money on administrative tasks following injuries, wages paid to injured workers for absences, employee replacement and training, replacement of damaged material, machinery and property, and costly lawsuits. Thanks to all these, we’ve experienced a significant boost in revenue and profit. Getting more profit is a good thing not only for our company and employees but also for our customers and the communities we serve. At Performance Painting Contractors, we return a portion of our profits to our customers and communities in the form of our “Gift of Color” program and more affordable painting rates.
- Provide high-quality workmanship: When a work area is free of obstacles and debris, our painters can better focus on our customers’ needs and expectations, and on the quality of the work they do. Going beyond our customers’ requirements and providing high-quality workmanship are two things that have always helped us make our customers happy.
Our painters want to do their jobs in a safe environment so that they can deliver the best results possible; our customers want high-quality work without worrying about potential injuries, property damage and lawsuits; we, on the other hand, want all of our employees and customers to feel comfortable and safe, irrespective of the painting projects we undertake. That, in a nutshell, is why safety comes first with Performance Painting Contractors.
To find out more about what safety means to us and what exactly we do to eliminate hazards and reduce the chance of injury, illness and fatalities during our painting projects, we invite you to call our Jacksonville team at (904)-641-4800 or Tampa team at (813)-308-0388.
