Foibles of working in the garage alone.

Do you?

I do, have for years. Sometimes I imagine a car dropping on my chest with my house >100 feet away so I'm pretty safety Nazi. So far so good.

Until today ....

I have flourescent lighting that doesn't light when it's cold. I get the ladder out and wiggle the bulbs, poke at the ballasts, you know the drill. I'm thinking about replacing the 4 ft. long bulbs with normal whatever light bulbs.

So I'm near the top of a 10 foot ladder, looking at a light recessed into an 11 foot ceiling, next thing you know I'm fighting gravity that insists on yanking me toward the concrete and all I can do is find a soft place to land.

Martial Arts taught me how to take a fall so that may have helped, but hitting stuff on the way down is just bad Ju-Ju. I hit with my hands in the triangle position and landed bows and toes. I've got a quarter sized bruises on each elbow. On the way down I hit a 2X4 stand that grazed my butt/thigh. If you want to see pictures we can, but who wants to see and old guy's butt?

I have road rash down my left forearm and up my thigh, onto my butt cheek, bruised elbows and everything else is just sprung.

I limped crawled into the house. Standing at the kitchen sink running water over my hands Trish comes in "What's bleeding?"

She tells me that's my usual response to a wound, clean it.

No. I just hurt all over. When I go upstairs to take a cool shower I notice the butt skuff and forearm ding. I'm too old for this E36 M3.

I still don't know what happened, but this has me thinking: I could have cut my head off, hung myself, severed something important and no one would know for a while. Trish says that's been her concern for years.

Great.

Do you have safe guards?

Do you have failsafes?

Dan

Try convincing an 80 year old fart that wiped your nose and changed your dirty diapers that it would be a good idea to have someone around when he is cutting down a 100 foot oak tree or splitting it into fire wood or making god knows what project in his wood shop or tilling his garden in 90 degree 90% humidity weather. The nearest neighbor is 1/4 mile away unless mom is home. My wife and I do live next door but god forbid he asks for help. Yes it is wonderful he can still do these things at his age but use a little common sense.

About two years ago the chainsaw slipped and cut his thigh enough to need 5 stitches. He finally conceded to carry his cell phone when he remembers after that incident. The problem with that is he forgets it half the time, leaves it on his tractor half the time he does remember it and is usually so far back in the woods Mom and the rescue squad would have trouble finding him.

WHen my girfriend is home, she checks on me to make sure the car hasn't fallen on me.

Otherwise, I always have my phone out in the garage with me, usually hooked to the stereo, so if I was able to move at all, I could get it and call for help. If I was trapped, well....these are the risks we take to enjoy our hobby.

I do try to avoid the situation in the first place: Jackstands under everything, shake the car before you get under it to be sure it is secure, if the wheels come off I usually stick them under the car for another way to keep the car off of the ground, etc...

Yeah I takes risks working alone under cars too. Its a risk driving to work every day or crossing the street. If im under the car with jack stands I try and leave the jack underneath as well just or almost touching the car to possibly stop it from falling. You can usually reposition it so its out of the way but will still support the car. Never go under a car for even a second that isnt on stands. Plenty of safety gear to hopefully avoid cuts and other damage, and a phone within arms reach.

I'm paranoid about garage safety since I work alone 99% of the time. Lots of jackstands and fire extinguishers. Right now, my garage is packed to the brim, so I won't work in there for safety reasons.

I go through a lot of double safety precautions because I'm not young, I live alone, no cell, and work on all kinds of crazy things alone. If I could do it when I was 20 I still do it in my 50's. If a cars on jacks there's a floor jack under each end and something under each tire (or rotor/whatever) so hopefully even if there was an earthquake I wouldn't be crushed. I have 2 people who check on me every other day so it alternates. Ya, I might not live a day if something really bad happened but I figure it's better than not having anyone check up on me. The most I'd have to wait might be a day and a half. I checked into the "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up!" things and they're not cheap.

Edit: Saw the fire extinguisher mention. I just counted 7 scattered about the house and garage! LOL

If I have to get under a car, I do four things.

1) Put it on stands

2) Shoulder check the car when it's on stands to see if it moves

3) Place floor jack under car with the slightest pressure on the body

4) Place two spare wheels (one on top of the other) under the car

Some jamaican guy taught me #4, since most people over there I guess don't have jack stands.

Coming from a guy who's truck has fallen on him (thank god the truck). Your neighbors will hear you scream like a little girl and instantly appear to help

I generally try to stack some old tires under a car if I jack it up very high.

Jackstands et al would not help me today. I misstepped or overstepped or something that caused the ground to be missing when I needed it.

My cell phone was on my hip but got flipped off by the 2 X 4 attacking me on the way down. Schmutz happens.

Some hours, a meal and some beers later I still don't now how this happened.

Good news today? It's not an Obit report! The sided she spoons against isn't the bruised one and there's a boink on my head that hasn't caused a black out.

blackout.

blackout

blackout.

dain bramage.

S'all good.

I always work alone, and I'm the clumsiest person you'll ever meet.

I err on the side of caution.

I work as safe as possible. I always have my cell with me and usually have a small child standing near by begging to hand me a tool. Calling for help wouldn't be a problem. Worse comes to worse a ratchet thrown through a window would bring someone.

My dad just started carrying his cell with him when working by himself in the middle of nowhere. Of course it took a heart attack a mile walk from the house to get him to do that. Luckily it was mild enough that he also drove himself an hour to the hospital by way of Walmart to pick up the shorts he forgot. Hard headed doesn't even begin to describe him.

914, it might be time to consider an intercom or maybe one of those air horns just in case. A hundred feet to the house with a broken leg or a nasty gash would be misery. Stay safe, and replace that fixture. The things are a lot cheaper than falling off a ladder.

I used to work on the Mighty Dak in my backyard. Had it up on a jack with one front wheel off, stupid me, cutting corners, didn't bother putting down the heavy sheet of board I usually use. Jack flipped over, rotor buried itself 8" in the earth, just inches away from my leg.

Now if I work on that big bastard, I borrow a friend's garage.

I haven't had a car fall on me, but I was there when one fell on one of my friends. Luckily the injuries weren't too bad, but it did still require a hospital trip. After that, I won't work under a car that's not supported by its own wheels unless someone is close enough to hear me scream.

No matter how "manly" you may be, when 2 tons of steel falls anywhere near you, the shriek you make sounds as if you're a proper MJ impersonator.

I was doing brake work on one of the miata and it dropped onto my ankle(I was sitting in the wheel well). I dont remember now if the jack fell off the frame or what but I do know that there were no jackstands. Pinned, I yelled for my wife for a few times and realized that I was going to have to take action, I stretched around and grabbed the jack and manuevered it under the frame enough to get a decent grip and raised the car off of my ankle. No recognizable injury and after shaking it off, I finished the project.
I now raise the car enough to ALWAYS get a jackstand under the car. I recognize that I dodged a bullet.

I'm a big stickler for jackstands, safety glasses, etc. But sometimes, E36 M3 happens. None of my normal safety stuff would have helped you with your adventure today.

There have been a few times that I've known I was about to do something potentially dangerous, while alone. In those cases, I've called my wife, dad, or someone else reliable and said _"Hey, I'm about to yada yada yada, and don't want to get hurt without anyone knowing. If I haven't called you back in 5 minutes, call me. If I don't answer, call 911."

In reply to DILYSI Dave:

I often do something similar, but I use a chat room instead. Still nothing under a vehicle without someone there in person, though.

I usually am alone. Like everyone said I put plenty of stands under the car and bring the phone out with me. If I have to do something after work 2-3am I leave the garage door open. Whichever officer is on patrol usually stops to check on me and sometimes hand me tools.

In reply to Rad_Capz:

On the no cell comment - a prepaid cell should be able to be had for ~10$ or so, just for emergencies.

I'm good about using jackstands and leaving the jack in place. I need to be better about having my cell in reach and definitely need to get safety glasses and a couple extinguishers. That air horn idea is genius!

My cell does no good in the garage, but the cordless house phone works out there. I had a friend stuck under a car once. He was stripping undercoating off the underside of a car at an old job when a person turned around in our lot, knocked the car off the stands and kept going. He ended up in the empty engine compartment unharmed but had to stay there until the next morning for someone to pop the hood and let him out

They sell a thingy on TV- the ad has an old lady yelling" I've fallen down and can't get up!". Face the facts.....we're getting older and sometimes stuff happens. Anytime I'm in the garage and worried something might happen, I've got a dollar store door alarm I keep handy. As long as I can move the switch to turn it on, it makes a loud annoying chirping that can't be ignored. It sounds sort of stupid, but I would rather be safe than sorry.

I was driving to work a while back and I spotted a Saturn in a parking lot with two wheels removed and one brake rotor resting on the pavement. Scattered around below the car were the crumbled remains of a hollow cement block, which failed under the weight of the car.

Use proper jackstands and back them up with a tire just in case.

I work alone pretty often and have had lots of near misses and some "wow that could have been a lot worse" scenarios. I have faced the fact that my body is aging along with the attendant failures of eyesight, reflexes,etc. I try to do a risk vs. reward assessment with an eye toward my personal safety. If I have to do something stupid I usually try to find a witness. I don't want SWMBO spooning oatmeal into my mouth, I prefer the other kind.

theres rarely anyone home when i work on the cars, but same as most above. dont cut corners, never get under a vehicle with out jack stands (properly stable.) I try limit use use of tools with sharp blades to when there's someone around to hear the screaming (cursing), just in case... i wont even use a sheet rock knife without gloves any more, figured that one the hard way, but the finger tip did grow back..mostly..

Honestly, the worst that happened to me was when I was chopping up a friend's P1800 in the woods. Moving the car wasn't an option, so I had to chop it where it was. I had just pulled out the engine, and in my futzing around with the hoist, the engine shifted, my finger got stuck in a kinked chain link and was being crushed. Oh man did I start screaming. I tried lifting the engine to relieve the pressure, but nothing I could do would work. My bro was 300yds away, heard the screaming and booked it over.

Damn those Volvo 4 bangers ain't light. Since then, I'm way more careful with hoists and chains. It could have been way worse, I could have been limited to counting to 9. Anybody familiar with the base 9 system?