Last week, OSHA and NIOSH released a new guidance document “Nail Gun Safety – A Guide for Construction Contractors“. This document is intended to help employers and their workers maintain a safe and injury free environment while working with nail guns. It is also yet another document directly related to the Residential Construction sector which we all know OSHA has been focused on lately.
Nail guns are definitely a time saving tool during stick frame construction as long as they are used and maintained properly. It has been reported that approximately 37,000 visits to the Emergency Room each year is due to some sort of nail gun injury. Although most people who are injured are not hospitalized, it does not mean these injuries are not serious. Examples of nail gun injuries include fractured bones, eye injuries, lacerations and burns to name a few.
If you are an employer and workers are using nail guns on your construction site, ensure regular training is being conducted on the safe work practices of the tool. Make sure you document all training! If you don’t document the training, OSHA will assume you did not conduct any training.
Here are some useful tips when using a nail gun:
- Review the owner’s manual carefully with all operators. Have someone who is familiar with the tool demonstrate safe operating procedures. Then have each employee take a turn on the tool, and watch how each one performs.
- Always wear safety glasses.
- Do not hold the trigger down unless you’re purposefully firing the tool. This is especially important when descending ladders (you shouldn’t have a tool in your hand when going up or down a ladder anyway!).
- Keep people out of range of fire. Exercise extreme caution when using an air tool around another worker.
- Never point the tool at anyone. Treat the tool like a firearm. Never assume the tool is empty.
- Disconnect the air hose before clearing a jam or making adjustments.
- Rule of thumb: If you cannot see your tool, disconnect the hose.
- Do not fire the tool unless the nose is firmly pressed against a work piece.
- Use only compressed air to power the tool, not bottled gas. Do not exceed the manufacturer’s specified air pressure for the tool, and never exceed 120 psi.
- Keep your free hand safely out of the way of the tool.
- Do not operate the tool around flammables.
- Nail top to bottom when nailing wall sheathing in a vertical position.
- Nail from the eaves to the ridge when nailing roof sheathing, this way you will not back off the edge of the roof.
- Move forward, not backward, when nailing horizontal areas.
- Secure the hose when working on scaffolding, to prevent the weight of the hose from dragging the tool off the scaffold if you set the tool down.