Demolishing something at home before a renovation can be tricky, and it’s very easy to end up hurting yourself – or somebody you care about – if you aren’t careful. The larger the scale of the renovations, the more important this becomes.
Turn off Water and Electricity
If your demolition work requires any kind of wall modifications, turn off the power and electricity as soon as you can. If you need emergency lighting, then use something with an internal battery if you can. Breaking a water pipe or cutting into a wire can be incredibly dangerous and cause major long-term damage.
Some properties will let you turn off water and power to one area of your home, while others will only let you turn it on or off at the home level. Keep this in mind before you start work, since you may end up having to turn off all power unless you have batteries or a generator.
Wear Protective Gear
Always have some kind of protective gear relevant to the work that you’re doing. It doesn’t matter if you’re only knocking down a single thin wall: having at least eye protection and a fairly thick, arm-covering short or coat is vital to keeping yourself safe.
For serious renovation work, a helmet might even be needed. The more danger you’re in, the more reliable your protection should be.
Use the Right Tools
Keep the right tools on hand for the job, and don’t use substitutes unless you’re willing to accept responsibility for anything that happens. For example, don’t try to ram a thin wall down with a full toolbox just because the sledgehammer is in another room.
Also, keep electrical tools charged up. Running out of power during the project can delay things and make it hard to patch up leaks, damages, or other safety risks.
Clean the Area
Between individual steps of the demolition, try to clear out a proper workspace, even if you recently demolished something right next to it. If you’re having to step over piles of bricks and splintering wood pieces, it becomes a lot harder to get out of the way if something goes wrong with a later step. Sometimes it can even cause an accident. However, by having a dumpster company by your side like https://eagledumpsterrental.com, you can now have a container to dump all the waste generated from the renovation.
Remember that some materials can also have toxic or hazardous properties that you should clean. For example, an old coal-burning fire might have plenty of soot that it can leave lying around, which can make it harder to breathe.
Dispose of Debris Safely
The debris you create as part of your demolition and renovation project means that you’re often going to put yourself at risk. You could fall, trip yourself up, create unexpected hazards, or generally just make it harder to move around. On top of that, some debris can be toxic, adhesive, or otherwise dangerous.
Companies like Ewmdumpsterrental offer dumpster rental services that you can use to get a dumpster outside the renovation area. This gives you a single place to store, dump, and dispose of waste during the project without having to store it in awkward places near your home.
