Safety and compliance

The standing position

How we work on every job, residential or strata. It changes when the facts change, not to suit a quote.

Roofs and gutters

Roofs are soft washed and gutters cleared by hand and flushed, single storey and up to a second-storey roof, worked from a ladder at the edge. Walls, render, cladding and soffits are washed from the ground with a telescopic lance: we do not take on second-storey wall or facade washing.

Ladders, and nothing else

Ladder access is the whole method, and ladder work is work at height, so we scope it that way rather than pretend otherwise. No harnesses, no fall-arrest systems, no elevated work platforms, no high-rise and no multi-storey commercial facades. A ladder needs firm level ground at a safe angle with something solid to land against; where part of a roof cannot be reached safely we clean the rest and name what we left.

Asbestos stops the job

The corrugated sheeting everyone calls Super Six is asbestos cement, so are fibro eaves and gable infill, and a roof is exactly where you meet them. We do not test and we do not assume: if we identify or suspect it anywhere in the scope we stop that part of the work and tell you in writing, then soft wash at low pressure where that is appropriate or decline it. Confirming a sheet and handling it is a licensed assessor's and removalist's job.

Drains and products

Loose material swept and bagged, stormwater grates inside the wash zone covered or dammed, biodegradable products at working dilution. Garden beds and lawn along the run-off line are soaked with clean water first and rinsed again after.

Wash-water capture

No vacuum recovery unit, so no capture, no removal and no trade-waste disposal. Basement car parks, service bays and bin bay floors carrying oil, grease or paint residue need a contractor with recovery gear.

Wet surfaces

Signage and cones go out before the hose and stay out until the area is safe to walk, and a wet stairwell gets a physical barrier. Hoses and leads stay out of doorways and off the pedestrian line.

Every job photographed

Before, during and after from the same angles, plus a separate set of anything already cracked, drummy, rusted, lifting or previously wand-striped, pointed out on the day. From the roof that means slipped or cracked tiles, failed pointing and rusted valleys, photographed for you to hand to a roofer. The lot goes out with the invoice on every visit.

Insurance

Our public liability cover is being put in place, and until the certificate of currency exists this page will not say we are insured. Ask and you get a written answer on exactly where it stands before you appoint us.

Documents on request

Scope with the exclusions named area by area, a safe work method statement written for your site, safety data sheets for every product, and the photo set. Emailed to you, the committee or the building manager; nothing here is downloadable. We ask for your asbestos register, if the building has one, before the scope is written.

Cleaning, not restoration

We wash, and that is all. Roof cleaning is us: the growth killed, the gutters cleared, the downpipes flushed. Roof restoration is not — sealing, coating, painting, re-bedding or re-pointing capping, replacing tiles or sheets and repairing flashings are licensed building work under the QBCC, and we do not hold that licence.

The law

High-pressure water on asbestos cement is prohibited under Queensland's asbestos code of practice, and wash water carrying detergents, oils or paint flakes reaching stormwater can be an offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1994. On common property that exposure is yours as much as ours.

Body corporate scope·Commercial scope·How records are handled