Top Drywall Safety Tips for Mississauga Homeowners

Relatively speaking, installing drywall is easier than plastering the walls as people did before drywall was invented. Nevertheless, there are still risks involved in drywall installation, especially if you do not know what you are doing. Handyman Connection provides affordable drywall repair services in Mississauga as well as professional installation services. It is much less hazardous to hire professionals to address drywall problems, but if you choose to do it yourself, here are some tips to help keep you safe.

1. Try To Minimize Exposure to Dust

During drywall installation, it is often necessary to cut panels into the proper shape. Cutting drywall produces a lot of dust. Drywall dust may damage your belongings, so before the work begins, you should either put vulnerable possessions away or cover them with drop cloths.

Damage to your material possessions can be inconvenient, but breathing drywall dust can be potentially dangerous. Dust particles can build up in your lungs and cause scarring, which stiffens the tissues and makes it harder for the lungs to expand. This is called pneumoconiosis and it can take decades to develop it. Once it starts, it gets progressively worse. Medical treatment may be able to slow down the damage but can’t reverse it.

Maybe one drywall job isn’t enough to expose you to enough dust to damage your lungs, but maybe it is. Don’t take the chance; wear appropriate personal protective equipment, e.g., a respirator, and ventilate the area when working with drywall.

2. Use the Right Tools

Anytime you do a job, you should have the right tools and equipment, and that includes working with drywall. Purchasing substandard equipment or using a tool that isn’t really right for the job could be dangerous, with the potential to cause injury to you or the people around you.

If you don’t already have drywall tools available, you could spend a lot of money buying high-quality equipment. Drywall professionals already have the right tools and know how to use them. By hiring drywall repair or installation services, you could actually save money in the long run.

3. Employ Proper Lifting Techniques

Any time you have to lift a sheet of drywall, including purchasing it to take home to be professionally installed, make sure you use proper lifting techniques. While drywall is a relatively lightweight material, a single sheet can still weigh between 55 and 120 pounds. Not only that, but drywall sheets can be awkward to carry without damaging them.

Overexertion injuries occur when you push your body beyond its limits. While some overexertion injuries occur gradually over time, others are acute. Examples include muscle strains, ligament sprains, and tendon tears. Healing these soft tissue injuries can take a long time, which can delay your drywall project.

Many people do not know how to lift a heavy object such as a sheet of drywall. If you bend over and use your upper body to try to pull the sheet up, it is very likely that you could hurt your back. The way to lift a heavy object is to bend your knees, get a grip on the object, and use your legs to do the lifting. With drywall, it is also a good idea to work with another person. That way, you can lift the drywall together and neither person has to bear its full weight alone.

Professional drywall installers use tools such as lifts or jacks to hold the sheets in place while they are affixing them. Installers use dollies or carts to move the sheets of drywall from one place to another. If, for some reason, you do the drywall work yourself, you should nevertheless employ the techniques used by the professionals.

Affordable Drywall Repair Services Mississauga From Handyman Connection

We employ only experienced drywall contractors for renovation projects in Mississauga. Learn more about our drywall services, including installation and repair.