Just a reminder

[Scott Gilligan, CMI]

As many of you might know, the east coast is getting blasted with some pretty high temperatures right now. We all know that it is important to drink plenty of fluids when it is hot out, but sometimes we often forget until it is too late. Our jobs put us in situations when we can easily become dehydrated. We are climbing around in attics, crawlspaces, climbing roof tops, and squeezing in some pretty tight places. Not to mention lugging around heavy tool bags and ladders. The body can become dehydrated before we start realizing what is going on.

• Drink plenty of fluids during the course of the day.
• Pace yourselves and take more breaks than normal.
• Bring a dry change of clothes to your inspections and keep them in the truck.
• Stop at the local convience store and buy a couple of bottles of water to bring along.
• If you have room for an ice chest, now would be a good time to hose it out and load it full of cold drinks.
• Stay away from caffinated and sugary flavored drinks because they act as a diuretic and dehydrate you faster.
• Buy a couple of those snap and shake ice packs and keep them in your tool bag.
• Never go into a hot attic or crawlspace when nobody is around. Always have a safety standby.
• Program you cell phones with ICE (In Case of Emergency) contacts so that emergency personel know who to contact if the need arises. Simply put "ICE" in front of the contact name. This is a nationaly recognized program and all emergency professionals should be trained to look for this at this point.

The last thing we want to hear is a horror story of a fellow inspector getting trapped in a confined space or falling off a roof this summer.

[mreusch]

Thanks for the tips mind if I share them with some friends?

[Christopher Currins]

Good tip Scott, it's easy to ignore the heat sometimes. Until it's too late.

[Jeffrey R. Jonas]

Thanks for the reminder, Scott. It is so easy to 'forget' or think "I'll only be in the attic for a short while, I'll be okay. It's not that hot". Also thanks for the "ICE" tip... I hadn't heard that before.

[Scott Gilligan, CMI]

Originally Posted by mreusch

Thanks for the tips mind if I share them with some friends?

Share them with whoever you can.

[Bruce A. King]

Good advice that should be considered all the time, not just in hot weather.

Any inspector who does not take time for water breaks etc, is working too fast and will miss many defects on homes.

[cduphily]

You mean like today when the attic I was in was 135 deg?

[Dale Duffy]

Originally Posted by cduphily

You mean like today when the attic I was in was 135 deg?

Chris,

It's that warm in vacant houses here, the attic is generally 165 or so, give or take a degree or two---

Personally I love it---

[James F. McKee]

Originally Posted by dduffy

Chris,

It's that warm in vacant houses here, the attic is generally 165 or so, give or take a degree or two---

Personally I love it---

you are a sick sick man Dale...imho....jim

[Vince Santos]

For those of you who don't have one already I highly recommend a Cool Vest. I purchased one a few years ago and would not do an attic in the summer without one. Put it on during the whole inspection if you want or 20 minutes prior to the attic portion of your inspection. It keeps your core temperature down which is really important for that extreme attic heat.

The ice packs freeze in about 15 minutes and stay that way for hours.

http://www.glaciertek.com/