You don’t always have to hire someone for every single repair or improvement project in your home. Sometimes you need to it yourself just for the fulfillment. Of course, you’ll save some bucks if you skip hiring a repair person. But, DIY projects come with a set of challenges. One of them is getting a bodily injury.
Most likely, you are not a pro in the improvement project you are undertaking. Maybe you are relying on an online tutorial that failed to inform you about safety precautions.
And even if you are an expert in the area, you may get injured while working – accidents are inevitable. Here are the ten most common DIY injuries you should try to avoid during your home improvement projects:
Cuts
In many cases, you will need to use sharp objects during your home improvement project. These include cutting tools like a saw, scissors, pruner, knife, or machete. Scrappers, staple guns, and nails may also cause lacerations.
Cuts often result in wounds on the fingers, hands, wrist, or legs. However, severe cases may require amputation of the limb. To avoid accidental cuts, ensure that your cutting tools are sharpened, and wear protective gloves.
Ladder Falls
Ladder falls are the most popular types of falls in DIY projects. You’ll most likely be using the ladder when replacing a light bulb, fixing the roof, trimming a tree, or painting a high wall. Such activities put you at risk of falling if the surface underneath is slippery, wet, or soft.
A faulty center brace of your A-ladder can also cause an accidental fall. When the ladder is placed too close to the structure, it becomes unstable, and it can fall easily. This mostly happens when you use the wrong size of a ladder.
Eye Injuries
Your eyes are extremely vulnerable to injury during home improvement projects. Injuries to the eyes may be caused by flying debris such as metal fragments, splinters, and wood chips. Dust that comes from sanding, welding, and grinding can also hurt your eyes. Besides that, falling objects that hit the head can cause severe injury to the eye.
Your eyes may also be damaged by fumes, gases, and chemicals in the materials you are using in the project. Common eye injuries include corneal flash burns and scratches, inflammation of the iris, eyelid laceration, and bleeding between the iris and the cornea. These injuries may be temporary and treatable, but they can severe and cause partial or full blindness.
Repetitive Motion Injuries
If you are carrying out the project for several days or a week, you will likely suffer from repetitive motion injuries. These injuries result from assuming a position for long periods.
Activities involving vibrations, moving too quickly, pressing tools to apply pressure, constantly contorting parts of your body, lifting, pulling, and pushing using excess pressure may cause repetitive strain injuries. Usually, these injuries affect the tendons, which become extremely painful.
Insect Stings and Bites
When working outdoors, you are at risk of being bitten by venomous or non-venomous spiders. You can also get stung by flying insects like hornets, wasps, or bees. These bites and stings can be painful and cause mild discomfort.
However, some may result in severe allergic reactions that will require urgent medication attention since they can lead to death. Signs of these allergic reactions include fainting, dizziness, a sudden drop in the pulse, swelling of the throat and face, and difficulty in breathing.
Poisoning
Many home improvement materials contain toxic chemicals. Pesticides, detergents, paint, herbicides, and bleaches may contain chlorine, ammonia, sodium hydroxide, and other harmful substances. These are health hazards that may cause allergic reactions, trigger asthma, or even death if not handled properly. Exposure to these substances can be through the skin, inhalation, and ingestion.
Electric Shocks
Electric shocks are not uncommon during improvement projects. They range from minor jolts to big surges that are often fatal. You may experience an electric shock when replacing wires without turning off the current. Electrocution might also occur when using a metallic ladder near an electrical line. And you at risk of electric shock if you are using faulty power tools.
Trips and Slips
Slips and trips are quite prevalent during home renovations. They result from wet or slippery surfaces. You can also trip over when walking on a rough surface. The injuries caused by slips and trips include concussions, wounds, and musculoskeletal injuries to the spine, hips, pelvis, arms, and wrists.
Injuries from Falling Objects
Falling objects in a home improvement project usually result from poorly placed items. These include pieces of metal and wood, tools, and buckets containing materials. In most cases, falling objects cause trauma to the head and the spine. The injuries range from mild concussions to brain injury, spinal injury, and chemical burns.
Lifting-Related Injuries
Some DIY projects involve the lifting of heavy objects. Carrying excessively heavy loads can cause trauma to your ligaments and muscles. You can also hurt yourself when lifting, loading, unloading, and dropping loads incorrectly and speedily. The injuries associated with lifting heavy objects include fractures and injuries to the foot, ankle, knee, wrist, elbow, neck, shoulder, and back.
Carrying out a DIY home renovation project is cost-saving and exciting. But, there are several risks involved in such activities, as discussed above. Be sure to follow the manufacturer’s instructions for the equipment, tools, materials, and chemicals you’ll be using to be on the safe side. You don’t need tobecome a home inspector to run into all these health hazards around your home, just some DIY home improvement can put you in harm’s way, so be careful.