Pole Shed Washing Warning

[Deere Dude]

Just passing on a memorable experience. Over 10 years I noticed my pole building roof was getting dirty from overhanging dirty trees and farm dust and a little mildew. I wanted to wash the mildewy walls of the building for 5 years but the side walls are 14' so I kept putting it off, until a week ago. The roof was dirty and very slippery so I was nervous about it, but found if I started on a small section using a swimming pool brush pole and some Mold Armour from Menards and standing on an adjacent building I could clean part of it and then when that was dry I could methodically clean the rest of it while standing on clean dry panels. I did one side of the 36x54' building that way. I tried to not let any over-spray go over to the dirty side because I know dirt and water makes it like an ice rink.

I must have let some over-spray get on the dirty side because when confidently walking to the other end of the building very near the peak trying to not walk on the clean panels but on the dirty side, I fell down and slide to about 4' from the edge before I skidded to a halt It was so slippery I could only back up about 3 inches at a time to get back to the peak. Needless to say it scared to snot out of me. All the way down I was trying to figure out how to land this puppy, and I couldn't envision a very happy ending. I had so many scratches running down my body I looked like I got in a cat fight. And then I still had to clean it.

A few day later I noticed if I pull my tall fifth wheel camper next to the building I can get a lot of it clean from the roof of the camper. I guess the answer is either to cut down the trees so the shed don't get so dirty, which I hate to do because the shade is nice in the heat of the summer, or remember to stand on the camper roof next time to get the bottom 3/4 of it clean. Maybe also to make sure it stays clean by not waiting so long to wash it.

If you have any other suggestions, I would be glad to hear them.

 

[idaho2]

Deere Dude,

Your **** lucky your not in the hospital or dead. That job is a two man job and someone has to be wearing a safety harness. I x-ray people for a living and from 14' any fall will and can cause all kinds of problems. It's not the flight down but the sudden encounter with terra ferma that'll get cha. I'd suggest to go to a sporting/hunting store and purchase a tree stand safety harness and use a rope to tie it off on the opposite side of the building - truck, tractor, tree or anything - that will not let you slide off the side your working on. Thanks for your story. Hope others pay attention to it.

idaho2

 

[dreamer]

tie it off on the opposite side of the building - truck, tractor, tree or anything - that will not let you slide off

I would strongly suggest NOT tieing off to any vehicle! Ask my brother why!

dreamer.

 

[idaho2]

Dreamer,

Someone left the key in the ignition!!

idaho2

 

[Jstpssng]

Deere Dude,

Your **** lucky your not in the hospital or dead. That job is a two man job and someone has to be wearing a safety harness. I x-ray people for a living and from 14' any fall will and can cause all kinds of problems. It's not the flight down but the sudden encounter with terra ferma that'll get cha. I'd suggest to go to a sporting/hunting store and purchase a tree stand safety harness and use a rope to tie it off on the opposite side of the building - truck, tractor, tree or anything - that will not let you slide off the side your working on. Thanks for your story. Hope others pay attention to it.

idaho2

I should have been one of those horror storoes... years ago I was climbing from a 1 story shed to a 2 story house. I had just gotten 1 leg up when the ladder kicked out. I slid down the shed face first and did a swan dive onto the frozen gravel. All I could think as I was laying on the ground was "holy ----, I'm still alive! Buckets of Safety - Snug Harness.com These are well worth the money, for guys who aren't going to be using them every day.

 

[newbury]

tie it off on the opposite side of the building - truck, tractor, tree or anything - that will not let you slide off

I would strongly suggest NOT tieing off to any vehicle! Ask my brother why!

dreamer.

Ditto - more than one person has been injured when the"anchor" vehicle was driven off!

 

[Deere Dude]

Good advice, and I knew I should tie myself off to something using the right harness, but I don't have one. Bad excuse, I know. I'll have to keep my eyes open for one.

 

[1bush2hog]

Wow! I would be having to clean my shorts after that

Glad to hear it was not worse.

 

[Deere Dude]

Wow! I would be having to clean my shorts after that

Glad to hear it was not worse.

I have been in bad situations where I came out of it in very good shape and I just move on and forget about it right away. But this one rattled me a little bit. Sliding in my poop probably didn't help anything. Of course I didn't tell my wife about the incident until I was all done. She would have found out anyway come laundry day.

 

[greasemonkeyok]

I tied off the "safety" rope to the hitch on a vehicle in the driveway while working on the roof. When my 16-year-old came out the front door and headed to the vehicle oblivious to the world, I had visions of being drug through the neighborhood with the stereo blaring rock music. Still gives me shivers to think about it.

 

[jveretto]

I know this is not the solution so I DO NOT advise anyone to do what I have done. I was cleaning an sheet iron roof to paint. I had no rope or gear to tie off. I would wear very soft rubber sole shoes and walk on the lead heads of nails or screws. Worked 90% of the time. Don't ask about the 10%.
'

 

[Deere Dude]

I know this is not the solution so I DO NOT advise anyone to do what I have done. I was cleaning an sheet iron roof to paint. I had no rope or gear to tie off. I would wear very soft rubber sole shoes and walk on the lead heads of nails or screws. Worked 90% of the time. Don't ask about the 10%.
'

That is what I was doing. Stepping on the nail heads with worn tennis shoes and it worked most of the time. I didn't mention it before because it would seem like I'm a very slow learner, and it sounds like I am, but after my original slide mishap I was really careful, but on the mostly clean side of the shed by my roof antennae tripod at the peak I was so careful but before I knew it the feet slipped out and down I went, but I was able to grab the tripod so I didn't slide any further, but 280# going down on a roof doesn't help the roof any. Still, a harness is the way to go, because I think I got lucky this time.

 

[techwrtr2]

Good advice, and I knew I should tie myself off to something using the right harness, but I don't have one. Bad excuse, I know. I'll have to keep my eyes open for one.

I bought a harness from Northern I think, intended for roofing which is what I used it for. I hate heights and am in no way comfortable up there. Harness gave me comfort. I was using a boom lift as a means to lift myself, tools and materials up (hips don't like climbing ladders with heavy loads), so for part of the job I was tied off to it.

I hate roofing work.

 

[Johndeere3720]

Very interesting thread. The best way I could see washing your roof would be renting a large cherry picker with some 90 ft boom and using a pressure washer to thoroughly clean each metal/fiberglass panel. then once you have cleaned the roof I would check for leaks and replace any nail/screws with larger diameter + longer screws to ensure your barn doesn't leak again.

 

[BrianDT]

I never thought about washing a roof as I have never had a metal roof. The thought of soap, water and sloped metal would scare the crap out of me! Glad you were/are safe.

I was thinking of putting a metal roof on a 40 x 60 barn I plan to build and walking on it was not part of the decision. It is now.

 

[groundcover]

I second the boom lift pressure washer combo. Motor homes can ruin your day too. A friend of mine was washing his,standing on the top of a step ladder when the ladder kicked out. He landed on it,knocked himself out and broke three ribs !

 

[Localmotion]

I know this is not the solution so I DO NOT advise anyone to do what I have done. I was cleaning an sheet iron roof to paint. I had no rope or gear to tie off. I would wear very soft rubber sole shoes and walk on the lead heads of nails or screws. Worked 90% of the time. Don't ask about the 10%.
'

Always walk on the screw heads - especially on a fibre or asbestos roof...

Many years ago (when I was 15) I worked weekends on a dairy farm. One day I was using the farms loadall to push muck out into the lagoon - it was full and so took quite a lot of effort. In my haste (and in-excperience) I pushed the boom right out, and managed to get it hooked behind the brick corner of a cubical shed. Needless to say, it did quite a lot of damage trying to get the loadall back out, and I ended up smashing some of the roof pannels.

Trying to be a good employee (and right my wrong), I immediately found some spare sheets and set to work replacing the damaged ones. Working up on the roof (which was asbestos) I made sure to only stand on the nail heads - ensuring there was always a beam under me. Unfortunately when I finished I stood back to admire my handy work - stepping off the screw heads and falling straight through the abestos sheet roof. :banghead:

Luckily the fall was only 15 feet or so, and somehow I managed to miss the cubical frames below, instead landing on the straw bedding. Needless to say it was a mistake I'll never make again - I always use crawl boards when working on fibre roofs now.

Oh - and my boss was not at all hapy that I fell through the roof - he couldn't work out what I was doing up there in the first place as I didn't dare tell him about the loadall fiasco :ashamed:

 

[rekees4300]

If you have any other suggestions, I would be glad to hear them.

Don't cut down the trees use them for an anchor. You can get a decent roof harness for a couple hundred bucks.

View attachment 275252

 

[Deere Dude]

Always walk on the screw heads - especially on a fibre or asbestos roof...

Many years ago (when I was 15) I worked weekends on a dairy farm. One day I was using the farms loadall to push muck out into the lagoon - it was full and so took quite a lot of effort. In my haste (and in-excperience) I pushed the boom right out, and managed to get it hooked behind the brick corner of a cubical shed. Needless to say, it did quite a lot of damage trying to get the loadall back out, and I ended up smashing some of the roof pannels.

Trying to be a good employee (and right my wrong), I immediately found some spare sheets and set to work replacing the damaged ones. Working up on the roof (which was asbestos) I made sure to only stand on the nail heads - ensuring there was always a beam under me. Unfortunately when I finished I stood back to admire my handy work - stepping off the screw heads and falling straight through the abestos sheet roof. :banghead:

Luckily the fall was only 15 feet or so, and somehow I managed to miss the cubical frames below, instead landing on the straw bedding. Needless to say it was a mistake I'll never make again - I always use crawl boards when working on fibre roofs now.

Oh - and my boss was not at all hapy that I fell through the roof - he couldn't work out what I was doing up there in the first place as I didn't dare tell him about the loadall fiasco :ashamed:

That reminds me of a good one that happened to me when I was about 11-12 years old. My dad and uncles built a 40x100 pole shed with 12' sidewalls using steel from a different building. The steel had all kinds of nail holes in it, so it leaked as you can imagine. When I was young I would climb up to the rafters and step from one to the next and so on. They must have been about 4 feet apart but was a stretch for a young un'. It snowed one night and the next day I was up on the rafter doing what kids do but there was about 1" of snow on the surface and it was slippery. All of a sudden I slipped and down I went. There was a John Deere grain drill under me and the hitch stuck out the front about 4 feet or so. I landed backwards on that hitch right in the middle of my back. I kind of folded over backwards in the center of my body. I got up to make sure nobody saw me and brushed myself off. I totally realize how lucky I was that day and never told my folks, That was about 50 years ago and I can still remember it like it was yesterday. Should have had a harness.

 

[Localmotion]

That reminds me of a good one that happened to me when I was about 11-12 years old. My dad and uncles built a 40x100 pole shed with 12' sidewalls using steel from a different building. The steel had all kinds of nail holes in it, so it leaked as you can imagine. When I was young I would climb up to the rafters and step from one to the next and so on. They must have been about 4 feet apart but was a stretch for a young un'. It snowed one night and the next day I was up on the rafter doing what kids do but there was about 1" of snow on the surface and it was slippery. All of a sudden I slipped and down I went. There was a John Deere grain drill under me and the hitch stuck out the front about 4 feet or so. I landed backwards on that hitch right in the middle of my back. I kind of folded over backwards in the center of my body. I got up to make sure nobody saw me and brushed myself off. I totally realize how lucky I was that day and never told my folks, That was about 50 years ago and I can still remember it like it was yesterday. Should have had a harness.

Kids will be kids - but that was real lucky!!!! Bet if you did it now it would hurt a bit more