This SafeStart Story Series episode may be of particular interest to DIYers and weekend warriors. Danny recounts a deck construction project that quite literally went downhill—see if you can identify all of the states and errors leading up to this incident and identify and CERTS that could have prevented it.
Host: Danny Smith
This SafeStart Story Series episode may be of particular interest to DIYers and weekend warriors. Danny recounts a deck construction project that quite literally went downhill—see if you can identify all of the states and errors leading up to this incident and identify and CERTS that could have prevented it.
Host: Danny Smith
Hello and welcome once again to Safe Talk with Safe Start. I'm your host, Danny Smith, or, as my grandkids call me, B appy. Well, it was supposed to be Big Daddy, but when my grandson was small he couldn't say that, so he started calling me Bappy, b-a-p-p-y. He's seven now. My wife asked me the other day do you want the kids to start calling you Big Daddy now, if they're older and they can actually say it? And I said absolutely not. I've been Bappy this long, so Bappy it is. So anyway, today continues our Safe Start story series, and this episode is entitled Down Goes Bappy. I'm guessing you can already guess who the star of the show is in this one. I'll share this story and then ask you to pause the recording and you and your team can consider the state-to-error pattern, any CERTs that could have helped, and then discuss how this could have been worse. So here's my story.
Danny Smith:My oldest daughter and son-in-law have bought a piece of property up in North Alabama a couple of hours north of us. They're building an arch cabin there for a week and get away and maybe be rent out as an Airbnb down the road. They're making pretty good progress on the structure itself, but before they could close in the ends of the arch they needed to put the back deck on. That will overlook the backside of the property. It's really nice. It's going to look over a hill there and down to a small fork of the river that runs behind them there at the bottom side of their property. I really like doing things like this because it takes me back to when I was younger, working with my grandfather. He did remodeling work as a carpenter, and so I worked with him a lot when I was a teenager, during summers and while school was out. Now this deck project was going to be a three-man operation it was myself, my son-in-law and his dad.
Danny Smith:We all drove up that morning and so it was a mid-morning start. Fortunately, the high temperatures that we've been having had broken just a bit, and it was really nice in the shade when we first started out, but later in the day the sun shifted a bit and as it got more overhead it was starting to heat up and the sun was directly on us. We had used a tractor with an auger bit to dig out the holes for the big six-by-six post, but there was still some handwork using what we affectionately call a redneck PhD that's otherwise known as post-hold diggers. For those of you not familiar with them Now, those were employed when we hit rocks or maybe large roots. The middle hole, which shall play a very prominent role in our story a bit later, was a little larger than it needed to be, because we'd hit a very large rock. I don't know, it was probably 12 inches across by six inches by six inches. It was a beast. So anyway, we had dug it out and gotten the pole set and everything. We were making pretty good progress, although probably not as fast as we had hoped.
Danny Smith:After lunch we had three of 10-foot-long big treated six-by-sixes installed, and we were starting to put an outer band around and maybe a few of the floor joists to the deck up as well, trying to get everything squared up and plumb and everything. The sun was really beating down on us by now, though, while we're installing the outer band, that required one of us to hold one of the big six-by-sixes in place and hold it upright while we were making sure it was exactly positioned and plumb. Another one of us had to hold the outer 12-foot long two-by-eight band, and the other third person of the crew had to also then try to help level that up and then screw things in place. Did I mention it was getting hot? Well, not only was it getting hot, but we'd already carried a good bit of the lumber down, probably about 125 feet down the drive to the deck location, and we were literally toast. We were on the back side of the deck and I had just installed a little block of wood to help us hold one board in place. That was way over our heads.
Danny Smith:Being the tallest of the three of us, I had the screw gun and we had carefully raised the two-by-eight overhead. Now, folks, I can reach nearly eight feet with my arm fully extended and it was all I could do to reach the screw to screw the band in place. Well, why didn't we use a stepladder, you may ask? Well, despite the fact that all three of us on several stepladders, none of us had brought one with us because we were thinking we could reach everything from the ground While we could. It was quite literally a stretch.
Danny Smith:So, on this particular board, to help make things go as quickly as possible, I had pre-started a couple of screws and then, once we lifted the board overhead and everyone pretty much was in a bind, I extended my arm up to run the first to screw in. I was having trouble reaching it. So, while looking up directly into the sun, I took one step forward just to try to improve my reach a little bit, and when I did, I stepped right in the edge of the previously mentioned hole. And when I did that, well, as the title of this podcast says, down went Bappy. And when I say down, I mean down.
Danny Smith:Not only did I fall backwards, but I tumbled slightly down the hill and right into a bunch of what we in the South call sawbrires. I'm not really sure if that's what a botanist would call them, but I can tell you they hurt really badly when you fall into them. But at least they caught me and kept me from rolling down the hill further. Now, fortunately as well, my son-in-law held onto the board that was overhead and it didn't come crashing down on me either, and my foot didn't go fully in the hole, which could have easily resulted in it at least a severely sprained ankle. As it was, I took a pretty solid and jarring seat on my rear end and I can tell you I definitely felt it the next morning. But other than that and a few scratches from the briars and one where I kind of landed on my elbow a bit. I was okay, I will note, though it did take me a minute to get up. Not only was it in the briars, but I was leaning downhill at this really, really weird angle. So in order to get up, I had to twist around yes, in the briars and then get back to my feet and get my feet up under me on the downhill side just to try to get back up.
Danny Smith:All right, so here's your chance to walk through things. Pause the recording, then talk it over with your team. What states and errors did you see? Were there any CERTs that could have helped prevent this or possibly could prevent something similar from happening in the future? And finally, did I cover that famous fourth element of a good, Safe Start story? How could this have been worse? Okay, we're back.
Danny Smith:In terms of the states, I would say I was definitely in a rush, trying to get the board secure overhead. I wanted to hurry as much as possible just to get everybody out of the physical bind that they were in. And after driving up that morning, having been out in the sun for a bit, probably some fatigue kicking in as well, and since I've done work like this literally all my life. Yeah, I would say the complacency was probably pretty high as well. The errors are pretty obvious. I guess with this one I was focused mentally on getting that board secured overhead, so my mind wasn't on the task of maintaining good footing there. I was looking up into the sun at the screw and the screw gun, so my eyes weren't really on the task of where my feet were either. And obviously when I stepped in the hole, that caused me to lose my balance and I fell. You may have even listed line of fire due to stepping in the hole or maybe where I landed hard in the briars.
Danny Smith:In terms of CERTs that I could have used. Probably the best for me would be just continuing to work on that habit I've been working on for years now moving my eyes first before I move my body, in this case, my feet. Specifically. You might have noted another one as well that I'm honestly not that good at, and I'm continuing to work on. That's testing my footing or grip before committing my weight. And as I've often said, well gang, I've got a lot of weight to commit. So that was pretty important to me, by the way, if my son-in-law hadn't held on to that board.
Danny Smith:Yeah, if he tried to even catch me instead of holding the board, I could have easily ended up with a bad injury if that board had fallen down on top of me, not to mention the potential ankle injury from stepping in the hole or the potential to roll all the way down the hill. Hitting who knows what on the way down. Now, perhaps you've had some similar experiences. Maybe you've got a weekend project plan soon as well. Take this story as a reminder just to continue to work on your habits as well. I know I'm going to continue working on mine and, as always, be sure to share this story with others in your organization, if you haven't already, and share the podcast with them. I'm Danny Smith, or, as I'm known around here, Bappy for Safe Talk with Safe Start. Have a great day.