Very few carpet cleaners (like NONE ever!) look forward to a miserable winter! And it isn’t just the brutal cold, nasty winter driving, and the phone not ringing that can make your life miserable. How about ‘waking up DEAD’?
Seriously, folks, carpet cleaners (and their customers) routinely die from carbon monoxide poisoning. (HERE is just one example from Utah.)
Any death is a tragedy. But when people die because they ignore and/or blow off basic safety rules (and common sense) it is just so maddeningly senseless! Now pay attention here…
Carbon monoxide is a very sneaky and dangerous gas. It is completely odorless and will KILL YOU!
And no- you probably won’t smell exhaust gases from your running motor before you hit the floor unconscious and/or DEAD!
Don’t mess around with carbon monoxide! It is very real! HERE are 19 symptoms of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. Remember, if you suffer any of these symptoms it may be too late and you might die anyway! So you MUST always be ‘proactive’ with CO and set up your jobs accordingly! Above all else…
Park further away from the house! Go ahead and run that extra length of vacuum hose! (Yep- even in winter’s snow and mud!)
Now the poor Utah couple that died were cleaning with their gas truck mount running in a CLOSED GARAGE! I know (hopefully) you would never do this! But you can STILL get bushwhacked with carbon monoxide even with your truck mount running outside. For example…
Back in the day I lost two very good technicians (and really nice guys) who were innocently (and supposedly safely) cleaning a two story house on a beautiful summer day with the customer’s windows open. Their truck mount was downstairs and running OUTSIDE tucked up next to the closed garage door!
Without telling my techs the homeowner made a ‘quick run’ to the supermarket and left her garage door UP! The ‘chimney effect’ immediately drew the dangerous gas upstairs while my techs were cleaning. They both developed severe headaches and breathing problems, started vomiting and hallucinating before staggering outside and then collapsed unconscious.
Yep, we’re talking the whole Flight for Life/ hyperbaric chamber thing! (Fortunately the customer had taken her children to the store with her or her kids definitely would have died!) Sadly, both of my young techs were permanently disabled with one of them suffering from permanent mental and memory problems. He never worked again!
Download this “Avoiding Carbon Monoxide Dangers” procedure. PLEASE implement these simple precautions that just may save the lives of your employees, your customers or YOU!
NOTE: Learn how to work safely in customer’s homes and business in our Strategies for Success: Growing Your Business Facebook Group. All are welcome to join our 1,000’s of cleaning and restoration contractors… even if you haven’t (yet!) graduated from SFS Training.
Above all else remember that no amount of rules beats being CONSTANTLY AWARE of the dangers of CO. Safe cleaning out there!
Steve
PS Please buy a pocket size carbon monoxide detector for every onsite employee and insist they wear them!