Equipment

Could Landscape Architecture Be the Career for You?

May 28, 2019 by Tim McMahon

Landscaping is more than glorified lawn care. It is an artistic occupation that balances beauty with function in a home’s outside property area. This can range from a small section of land that can be cultivated into a garden, to a large yard in the front, side, or back of a home. With numerous styles to offer, landscaping is an exciting career that provides opportunities for creative design and purposeful lawn management. Here are four reasons you may want to consider this career.

Landscaping Exercises the Imagination

While some people may consider physical labor to be mind-numbing or boring, the opposite is closer to the truth. Viewing natural resources like land, water, and woodlands as the tools of an artist, and the lawn or garden as the expectant canvas, a landscaper can unleash creativity to design stylistic elements that fulfill the homeowner’s style preferences. From elegant to fun-loving, there are countless lawn themes to be developed and implemented that will suit anyone’s taste.

Landscape Architects

If you want a career that is high tech but gets you out of the office part of the time you might enjoy being a landscape architect. It involves creativity, computer design work and some onsite activity so you get the best of both worlds.

Meaningful Outdoor Work Enriches Body and Soul

Working in fresh air and sunshine, surrounded by grass, trees, shrubs, and flowers, a landscaper’s work often [Read more…] about Could Landscape Architecture Be the Career for You?

Hard Day’s Work: 4 Ways to Prepare for Working a Construction Job

February 7, 2018 by Tim McMahon

Working a construction job is a great way to apply your skills, stay fit, and enjoy a solid income. But it can also be dangerous if you aren’t properly prepared. Here are a few easy preparations, so you can be sure that the time you give to your trade will be safe, worthwhile and effective.

Have the Right Gear

A construction site offers a unique set of physical characteristics that require the right gear to effectively accommodate. For you, this may mean a pair of steel-toed boots to protect your feet, a hard hat to protect your head, or rain gear to ensure you stay dry and comfortable in case it starts raining. An interesting quote from Ben’s Cleaner Sales says “When your job requires you and your employees to work with pressure washers or outside during the rain, you want quality rain equipment to keep you dry. When you are dry and comfortable, you are more productive… Plus, most of our rain gear is brightly colored and equipped with reflective stripes for safety.” So it is important to remember that when the weather is bad visibility is also lower, so the addition of bright colors and reflective materials can also improve your safety.

You must keep in mind that you may be exposed to the elements up to your entire workday, so you need to dress to ensure you remain comfortable if that ends up being the case. If it’s cold, dress in layers so you can shed layers as you heat up while performing work. If it’s warm, wear clothing that will wick sweat away from your body so you don’t end up with wet, uncomfortable clothes all day. Two critical pieces of personal equipment you should have are construction boots and a reflective vest. Simply by wearing these to a construction site you show the job foreman that you are serious and ready to work.

Study up

If this is your first time working in the construction industry, being able to understand what’s being asked from you, right from the start, will help you reach greater heights in the industry. Know specific terminology that is used in your field, and understand how to use the tools of your specific trade. Two certifications that you can easily get are your OSHA 10 certification and your “Flagman” certification as you’ll see in this video these two certifications will take you a total of 14 hours to get and will go a long way toward getting your foot in the door of the construction industry.

Over time you will certainly improve in all these areas through daily exposure and hands-on learning, but if you don’t know much when you show up to a job site, the learning curve is going to be difficult and potentially dangerous.

Get Enough Sleep

Since your safety and the safety of others on the job site depend on [Read more…] about Hard Day’s Work: 4 Ways to Prepare for Working a Construction Job

Teaching Teens The Importance Of Workplace Safety

August 7, 2013 by Guest Contributor

When your teen goes off to their first day at work it’s an exciting prospect, inviting feelings of pride and worry similar to that you had when they first went to school. Going off to a summer job can be exciting but it can also be dangerous. Teens should be aware of the risks and cautious on their new job.

ID-10018659 — Even Working with Pets can be Dangerous

Some surveys have established that up to 80% of American teenagers have had at least one job by the time they leave high school. Worryingly, other figures suggest that there is about a 3% annual incidence of non-fatal injuries in American industry overall but some jobs like firefighting and foundry work can have as high as 13% annual incidence of injuries. Fortunately not many teens are firefighters or work in a foundry.

However, other less obviously dangerous jobs are often taken by teenagers including pet and pet supply stores which average 10.3 injuries per 100 workers… which is just under the 10.9 injuries per 100 workers at an Iron Foundry. Equally dangerous is mobile home, travel trailer and camper manufacturing. Even more dangerous are Skiing facilities at 11.5 injuries per 100 workers. You might not think ice manufacturing would be dangerous but the annual injury rate is 11.9%.

Even if your teen just works in a store like Lowes or Home Depot there could be [Read more…] about Teaching Teens The Importance Of Workplace Safety