My mentor, John Zilka, taught me in 1997 the value of working with water and negative air machines. These simple yet effective machines have not only kept our crews safe when working in dirty old lead homes but also keep irritant dust contained and not in our lungs or our customers. These machines became as standard as saws on our sites – we wouldn’t ever consider not working with them.
Fast forward to last year in Salem, MA at the PDCA conference when
I couldn’t help myself but walk up to the Festool booth demonstrating their sanders and dust extractors and ask..
“Nice in a booth, but have you ever seen these things work in the field?”
One thing I know is this — you can’t BS a contractor for very
long. Being from the field, I doubted this was as easy or as effective as their laboratory tests claimed they were. My negative air machines or “air
scrubbers” have worked for years and sometimes you just can’t beat the old methods.
Still not convinced, I asked Mike Williams of Festool if he was up to a challenge. I remember asking if he really felt they were better or as good in containing lead dust as my true-blue machines. Was he ready to put up or ….?
Ten days later, my wife called and politely asked where I would like her to move all these boxes blocking our porch and who the heck is Festool??? — I knew the challenge was on.
Over the next couple of months, we were busy finding an interior project in the Boston area that would allow us to run air sampling tests during the preparation of the job. A client of ours, Catchlight Painting in Brookline, MA, brought us a site that was perfect. The inspection report showed high levels of lead in walls, woodwork and even one ceiling. Contracting with a video production company with an upcoming field date — the LEADSMART THROWDOWN was ready for the rumble.
We supplied the negative air machines, Festool supplied the dust extractors and Catchlight supplied us with the site and with Cole whom we had previously trained in RRP, Respirator Use and Fit Testing, PPE use and Negative Air Machine Use.
Our entire field challenge was recorded including the analytical results from ProScience, an EPA approved laboratory here in Woburn. Interested in seeing the actual video? The results will amaze you. I won’t say who won but the loser had to write a blog on the experiment.
GREAT When you are sanding– What if you are removing trim or tearing down walls??
Sounding a bit like a sore loser — I remain preaching that when removing trim or windows you should be working with misting water and negative air machines. These practices create different volumes of lead dust, asbestos or other particulates which you should prefer to be outside of your body envelope. Certainly not in your respiratory system.
If you are interested in negative air machines and how to use them – contact your local safety distributor for information on how they work. Prices usually run around $750 for a 700 CFM or $1200 for a 1900-2000 CFM unit. Depending on your work, sometimes bigger is not better. Feel free to email me at peter@leadsmarttraining.com with any specific questions or for vendors in the New England area.
This isolated test proved to me that when there is profit to be made, industry will respond. YES Profit is a good word. In this case, it inspired a firm to develop a product that is
proven to provide safe atmospheres for workers in a manner that is easy to operate, light to handle and guaranteed to work (without having to buy an extended service contract!!). They have worked hard to earn yourhard earned dollar. Their product will help you work cleaner, safer and faster which ultimately returns better PROFITS to you – the professional remodeler.
My special shout out to the Festool USA team – thanks for teaching this old dog a new trick.
Peter