Lights and heights

[lofty84]

is there anything that says you cannot work above a certain height unless on a tower or scissor lift for example. The reason I ask is becasue im not that great with heights and unfortunately working at height is what the majority of my new job is. Im talkling 20ft plus up on a A frame ladder. To say I am ****ting myself is an understatment, I just hope I can get use to it lol. On occasions I will be expected to change 400w ballasts whilst at the top and these are pretty heavy, tewn spot lights are on the menu two which are even heavier and one is going to have to hold it up with one hand whilst screwing it in with another. basically I wont be holding on.

My next question if I may, whilst at the top of this a frame I am haveing to take down these lights that clip on to a light track system. The idea is to turn them of on there switch which has a 1 setting 2 setting 3 setting and off setting and then unclip them, take them back down the A frame and change the lamp inside them or take out the guts and put in new lighter ones because the heat destroys them, when i go back up with me new light and clip it in to the light rail and turn it onto settings 1,2,3 from the off position, there is enarf a scary arching noise happening. I know I should be messing about with this if I dont no what im doing but ive never had any exerience with commecial stuff and I just wanna reasure myself im not about to get electrocuted whilst clinging on to a metal A fram 20ft in the air.

 

[Plonker 3]

. From what I can gather sports direct will not pay for a scissor lift unless 40% of the lights are out, if one or two are out then we are expected to go up and fix em, if its a simple bulb change fair enough but even then its scary stuff when your not a monkey.

I wouldn't work for someone who accepted that stipulation in a contract.

 

[Plonker 3]

This isn't about costing its simple heath and safety, if your not happy say so. I know it sounds like a broken record, but better that is broken than yourself

 

[Marvo]

I have a rule that's always served me well. If I'm not comfortable with a job for any reason I won't do it. I don't care what weight rating or height rating it says on the access equipment or in the safety manual, I don't care what the project manager or structural engineer says, if I have valid reservations I owe it to myself to make any necessary changes without concerns of costs or peer pressure until I'm comfortable with the work environment.

 

[lofty84]

Personally I would sooner start at 4 in the morning on the shop floor with the scissor lift that lives in the yard. I think I am going to have to see where I stand with the HSE. Ive just got use to the 60 hr weeks but I cant see myself getting better with heights. I seriously do no know why there isnt a system where you can lower a group of lights at the same time. in principle imagine 3 bamboo caines going one way with thre overlapping ontop going the other way. the lights could be hanged of of this and this could then be lowwered with a pully or something

 

[Guest111]

one of my ex bosses tried something similar with me once,wanted 30 odd 8 foot twin florry,s changing in a school gym off an a frame ladder on my own empty school nobody but me.told him no and he said lads used them for relamping and I was being difficult, no interest in health and safety whatsoever,he ended up having an accident involving a fire exit and flight of steps,again due to lack of risk assesment,he failed to asses the risks involved with being abusive to me which resulted in my fist making contact with his face which caused him to hit the door which opened causing him to fall down about 4 steps.If nothing else it taught him the importance of proper risk assesment.

 

[trev]

he ended up having an accident involving a fire exit and flight of steps,again due to lack of risk assesment,he failed to asses the risks involved with being abusive to me which resulted in my fist making contact with his face which caused him to hit the door which opened causing him to fall down about 4 steps.If nothing else it taught him the importance of proper risk assesment.

See, positive proof that slips, trips and falls are dangerous

 

[plugsandsparks]

I'm with Marvo on this. Believe me most of the sparkies i have met don't like heights either. I have had to change the guts out of these and even with a cherry picker its hard work to change whole fittings or the heavy ballast on your own. Believe me there is no special breed out there that has the grace of a cat and the strength of a gorilla, which is what you need to do what you are proposing on a step ladder. FWIW, my limit on a ladder against a solid wall, is 6M and even then i do not remove the whole fitting (taking security lights) i take the guts out and fix the unit on the floor and then replace it. Anything else is tower, scissor or cherry picker. .... step ladder - never considered it.
I have seen some painters operate at higher levels but the weight of a paint brush is not too difficult and there's little chance of getting a belt.
Suggest - get the management to demonstrate how it should be done

 

[Andy 7671]

Yeah, got you, and the moving of all the clothes, jeez them places are packed with merchandise.

Tower I guess then, although to be fair I can see his reason for A frames, still didnt like them myself too much.

DB schedule or your boss should look for you, check if there are time clocks as well, guess all this takes time and your boss is rush rush rush.

Guess its your call in the end, sorry if that sounds harsh, let us know what your boss says, if you are not happy bin it.

 

[mogga]

seriously appreciate all of the advise guys, I wont lie I absolutely brick it up there. Im ok on high steps that you see in sports shops but these A frames are seriously high. I am going to take a look at that link in a second. Does the responsibilty end from his part if I work for him on a self employeed basis, at the moment I am paid via the agency but I sure I will soon be paid direct by him but again as a self employed employee if that makes sense.


Does anyone have any comments on the second question. In future im going to insist on isolateing the racks that feed the RX7s becasue the noise is proper concerning. I think I will be told that I cant do that as the customer cannot see. what shall I say to that?

Basicaly he is using your uncertainty of having and keeping a job as a lever to "persuade" you into carrying out your work in
1 an unsafe manner
2 the manner that will cost him least outlay for plant
3 another agency monkey will do as they are told
4 it would save getting staff to WORK instead of SELL SELL SELL
as for isolating the tracks thats a must as you would have to hold the rack to plug the lights in and may touch something
Clients 5 mins inconvienence Your Life Your Choice

 

[trev]

Lofty, here's a question for you mate.
How do you think your wife/girlfriend/kids/dad etc would want you to do the job?
Off a big ladder or some other way?

 

[Guest111]

RISK Assesment an you have 3 points of contact at ALL times answer from your post would be NO so scaffold it would be A frames are ok but the bigger they are the more unstable they are and personaly I wouldnt fancy working from one without having a hand holding on

By the sound of it the clown this guy works for would probably say "well 2 feet on ladder, teeth round trunking = 3 points of contact so where,s the problem?"

 

[plugsandsparks]

Thought of another way, BTW - i have just made this up. Install a trapeze wire at high level and the hook your harness onto it, ha ha i cannot get the image out of my head of someone hanging in the middle of the store with no way of getting down..... perhaps not then

 

[lofty84]

I like the gang im with but dont think the boss has my safety in mind . I cant wait to use a few of the lines in many of the posts on the team im working with (who are really nice blokes) as it will get back to the boss.

I have another question and accept im gonna be ripped apart but hopefully someone will be able to tell me what happened and thus I will have learnt something.

Basically I had to install a timer which would power the front of shop lights an hour after opening and an hour after closing and then they would turn of. I was told by the previous spark who worked in the store what breaker it was and set about isolating it. I took out the cable from the 16 amp breaker (red) and put it in a choc block, at the other end of the choc block i attaced a length of 2.5 brown and this went into the back of the timer L out. I then took another length of 2.5 brown cable and ran it from L in back into the breaker. I was told to then run a neautral from anywhere on the neautral bar to the N terminal in the back of the timer (I chose the nbeautral bar that was on the side that my breaker was on. and finally I put a cpc from the back of the timer cpc squere teminal to the earth bar again on the same side as the breaker. I turnt it on and bang there was a bright flash and all the lights and tills went down. after finding all the breakers which had tripped (in another board on another floor) power was restored but the timer was disconected and never installed. On the way home I was trying to think what had happened as I had followed the advise from the other sparky. The only thing I could think of was that there must have obcviously been another Neuatral and earth from the original red cable which was in the 16 amp breaker and this must have meant what was going out on the live wasnt coming back on the neautral as it had been split with two neautral cables if that makes sense, but then I thought that it wouldnt matter as they would have been on the same neutral bar ( I say the same but this was not proved) dodgy i know

 

[lofty84]

Thought of another way, BTW - i have just made this up. Install a trapeze wire at high level and the hook your harness onto it, ha ha i cannot get the image out of my head of someone hanging in the middle of the store with no way of getting down..... perhaps not then

IF anyone remember gladiators, there was a game where they ran around on a figure of 8 track in the ceiling. I thought this idea could be applied to this problem where one clips themself into a track and scurrys allong inbetween the rows of lights. it then dawned om me you would have to climb high up the ladder to the roof to clip urself into it

 

[alarm man]

I like the gang im with but dont think the boss has my safety in mind .

you could put that on your headstone...if you do work in those conditions your as bad as the so called boss...cowboys....absolute joke..