# SAFETY FIRST! Just a reminder!



## lenaitch (Feb 10, 2014)

Good advice. I'm always leery up there, but I gotta confess it brought back a memory:






But I'll bet she didn't laugh.


----------



## F250 (Feb 13, 2018)

Actually, though she kept saying "It is NOT funny!", she couldn't contain her laughter when she watched my daughter's video capturing my leg dangling through the ceiling, and then suddenly disappearing back up into the attic space when i pulled myself back to my feet in the attic! It also turned out that my foot and leg missed the spinning ceiling fan blades by mere inches!


----------



## Guap0_ (Dec 2, 2017)

I guess that you'll put in a few temporary screws in the next temporary floor.


----------



## F250 (Feb 13, 2018)

Either screws or nails because I'm going to use two layers of the thin decking I've removed, and the screws/nails will be required to keep them from slipping around under my feet and under the ladder.


----------



## F250 (Feb 13, 2018)

Surprise, surprise! I had no idea where my thread went because apparently, the moderators do not tell you when they move your thread from where you started it to somewhere else.

Though I understand moving it into the "Safety" subforum, I seriously question the value of even having a Safety subforum. All it does is shove the safety stuff off to the side and reduce it's visibility to those going about their daily tasks. I specifically put my thread in an active forum in hopes of it serving as an unexpected reminder to those in that forum... those who would probably NOT otherwise even glance in the Safety forum.

I'm both surprised and disappointed in the strategy here in DIY by keeping Safety shoved off to the side! That perspective has some "organizational value", but otherwise pigeon holes the topic and reduced people's tendency to offer up helpful tips and reminders, and we ALL need that because of how easy it is to forget!


----------



## CaptTom (Dec 31, 2017)

Thanks for the reminder, and for sharing your story.

Let's face it, these can be entertaining. But they also stick with us, and hopefully reinforce what we already know by adding some real-world experience. Always better to learn from someone else's mistake than our own.

I don't care where the thread is, I use the "New posts" feature anyway.


----------



## Guap0_ (Dec 2, 2017)

> I don't care where the thread is, I use the "New posts" feature anyway.


Me too.


----------



## MTN REMODEL LLC (Sep 11, 2010)

F250.....Thanks for the reminder and glad you are ok.......


But honest talk.... I'd be interested to know how many of us have NOT steped through, or at least cracked, some ceiling drywall.


(Many years ago, it was moving day and had sold and closed on our home and I stepped through getting something out of the attic. And all my tools were already packed and on the moving truck.

Luckily the ceiling was in a a closet, and ,I say shepishly, luckily the packers/movers had some duct tape.....:wink2


----------



## BayouRunner (Feb 5, 2016)

I've spent many years crossing the rafters in attics. The only time I fell through was at my dads. Guess I was careless, was just trying to help him out. Hit my kidney, pissed blood for a week. Another time a customer/friend came up in the attic to show me what he wanted done. He put a leg through the dining room ceiling. He didn't say too much about it but when his wife walked in and asked what happened he said I fell through the ceiling. Lol I guess he didn't want to hear it from the wife. Had a friend of my sons ask for some work one time. I cautioned him to be careful many times before he went up while we were changing out a coil. Anyway he put his foot through the ceiling, caught himself. I had to have ceiling repaired and painted. I still call him "Twinkle Toes" every time I see him. That was about 15 years ago. He's about 6'2" 275. He can't stand it lol


----------



## F250 (Feb 13, 2018)

Guys, I appreciate your understanding and input. I've been doing home remodeling (my own homes only) for over thirty years, have done lots and lots of work in unfloored attics, and this is the first time I've ever stepped through a ceiling as well. I'm determined for it to be the last time, too.

The New Posts feature has not been part of the forums I've been in to-date, so that's a new one on me, and I like the concept and will use it myself. Thanks for pointing it out!

On this particular project, I had already cracked the sheet rock at the edge of where the ceiling flat meets the rise in the angled tray structure. That happened because I had to cut back those particular joists in the attic to make way for the step stringers from the newly installed doorway off our upstairs hallway into that raised attic space. Before cutting back those joists, I had installed a temporary strong back across the joists and beyond the cut zone to hold them up, but obviously located it too far back from the cut which allowed them to wiggle and flex while installing the new double header across the front of the cuts... that joist movement cracked the sheet rock. So, I now have those cracks AND the hole to patch.

Something else good has come from this experience, though. I figured out last night that my fall has confirmed how rigid and sturdy the newly reinforced joist structure is. I'm 6' 240lbs, and when all my weight hit those cut back rafters with the new header and step stringer assembly, the ONLY damage was the hole for my foot and leg... there have been NO other cracks or popped divets over any sheet rock screw/nail heads on any of the other ceiling surface... it's a solid structure, and I'm extremely grateful and pleased to have that confirmation, even though it came the way it did.


----------



## F250 (Feb 13, 2018)

I've just been using the New Post feature, and I really really like it's functionality!!


----------



## CaptTom (Dec 31, 2017)

Our internet connection is out. I'm trying this forum on a cell phone. This is painful!

I usually open posts of interest in new tabs. That allows me to go through all new posts in one sweep. I see no way to do that on the mobile site. Open one at a time and have to reload the whole page when I go back to the new posts list. Yuck! 

Anyway, as kids we played in the attic of my cousin's huge Victorian house. Plaster ceilings with exposed joists in the attic. Never went through, but always remember being extra careful. Maybe that's why I made sure to put down flooring everywhere in my attic here.


----------



## BayouRunner (Feb 5, 2016)

CaptTom said:


> Our internet connection is out. I'm trying this forum on a cell phone. This is painful!
> 
> I usually open posts of interest in new tabs. That allows me to go through all new posts in one sweep. I see no way to do that on the mobile site. Open one at a time and have to reload the whole page when I go back to the new posts list. Yuck!


It works pretty well on tapatalk app on a phone


----------



## Gregsoldtruck79 (Dec 21, 2017)

Good thread ! 

Speaking of stepping through a buildings structures. I recall one that happened too often WAY back when I was working for my brother framing houses. We would be "blacking in " a new roof right after we sheathed it. Someone would cut out the roof vent holes needed, then sweep the saw dust off the roof.

Then, after rolling the underlayment paper down the tack down person would miss cutting out a vent hole opening out in the paper. Along comes the next guy nailing down the paper and steps through the vent hole. Skinned shins, groin strains and a lot of beeching and moaning seem to follow these events.


----------



## fa_f3_20 (Dec 30, 2011)

Some years ago, I was part of a group trying to clean up some dodgy wiring in a planetarium. One afternoon, I was walking around the outside of the dome in the attic, trying to trace a wire. There was a catwalk that went around the dome in this part of the attic. But as I went around, I got over on the far side from the attic entrance, an area that I had not been in before... and I wasn't looking down because I was trying to follow that wire... and I didn't realize that the catwalk didn't go all the way around...

Next thing I knew, I was falling through the drop ceiling. Somehow I managed to twist myself around so that I landed on my rear end on the concrete floor, 10 feet below. I just missed landing on top of the projector console. Incredibly, I wasn't hurt other than a cut on my ear from the drop ceiling grid, which was fortunate since no one else was there, and this was in the pre-cellphone days.


----------

