Its a good read! And I do appreciate your response. I never intend to come off as a know it all. I am just interested in prices. I’m not looking for people to hand me a price on a silver platter that will win me the contract. Its just nice to know what people think. Even if it is 1/4 of what I was thinking. That’s why we ask these questions. The prices on these are not put out all over the web and I’m sure the guys that do them full time keep that number close to the cuff.
2 Likes
2M commercial GL
500k Med Each person
2M Gen AGG
3M Completed projects
500K Work Comp
I don’t mean to come off like an ass but I know what all it takes. Yes I am asking from anyone who may have washed a tower or even bid on them what rough numbers were.
1 Like
Have had inspector see jugs in Crane basket & not say a word his concern was capacity. All the operators I have dealt with have never said a thing ??? Thanks for the information . I know of No municipality that would pay 10K + for a tower cleaning.
1 Like
You can have tools and equipment in the basket… I don’t know where he got that but its not correct. If you stay under load limit you are fine. You are not allowed to lift anything that would cause DE-stabilization. IE large wind catching objects or items that would stick way past cage rails.
I appreciate you answering the topic! Don’t tale offence to what I said. When I was first asked to bid the towers I searched and searched the internet. I found tons of information on how they are cleaned. The contract by the city also had all the required PSI and acceptable chems in it. In my mind that figure seems low but I think about things like rain and wind delays pushing you off schedule with a lift sitting on site. Then rain days turn into poor compaction days.
1 Like
I think the confusion is that I was talking about a man lift, and @Maelstrom is talking about a man basket that would be attached to a crane(remember to deduct 50% of chart for man basket work, and depending on boom length and jib, wind speed shut down will be either 15mph or 20 mph, you will also need to know the ground bearing pressure).
The man lift information is directly from the OSHA website… I even included the section in my quote so you could reference…the information is correct. Just because a rule is not enforced does not make it acceptable in the eyes of OSHA. I am a manager for an industrial construction company and work with this equipment on a daily basis… I know exactly what I am talking about.
I do not take offense to any discussion that I have on the internet… people have to be willing to listen to fact and opinion and decide for themselves what steps to take next.
Pricing is THE most subjective topic… that is why most times there are not many replies with pricing. Commercial projects can be even more divisive. This area may have rough terrain, power lines, etc… that would all account for pricing… I do not have enough info to give you even a rough estimate.
If you would like to give more info, I would be more than willing to give you what my estimate would be… but I would need A LOT of additional info first.
1 Like
It’s kind of funny this post showed up because I was honestly thinking the same thing just yesterday because our water tower is filthy. Sounds like it might be too big of a hassle unless you’re a big outfit and already have everything in place.
We work out of a jlg quite often in an industrial setting and a lot of times have no other choice but to have our tools and materials inside the basket. I’m not talking hundreds of pound of material or anything. We would hoist something like that into position with a crane. If it’s something small enough to fit in the basket without going over the weight we do it all the time. Welding lead, torch hose, welding rod, grinders, maybe some steel, etc. I’m not only talking about a man basket on a crane but also a boom lift. That’s what we always call a jlg and get trained for. Not only does our contractor have a few safety gurus but all of the power plants bring in a couple extra to help out their main safety guy during outages. Often times the contractors safety rules exceed what OSHA or the plant recommends. These are the type of places that will run you off the job and give you your last check if they catch you breaking any safety rules. If it’s something minor they’ll usually give you warning and explain what you’re doing wrong. There are times we have to go against a safety rule to get a job done. An example is having to take a grinder’s handle off because the grinder won’t fit in between some tubes or something similar. There’s a bunch of paperwork involved just to be able to do that. I’ve seen guys fired for taking a handle off a grinder without getting the okay and proper paperwork. The request goes through the contractor’s safety guy all the way up to the plant’s head safety officer. I’m surprised they let us take our tools up in a jlg if it’s against OSHA standards. I’m not saying I don’t believe you. If it’s in the regulations it’s in there. It just surprises me because we have to follow all regulations to a “T”.
Maybe they have special circumstances where it’s allowed?
So per your code you are not allowed pachaged goods, freight, pipe, or construction materials. I fail to understand how I am wrong? What good is a lift if all you can do is stand in it? OSHA knows this and the code is written accordingly. You can have tools (pressure wand) what have you. I understand you are a manager, but safety is my job…
We have to keep up on OSHA 30 and have safety classes before every job. Most of the stuff I don’t even remember. I personally have no idea about the regulations when it comes to man lifts, jlg, etc. I just know we take stuff up in them and so do other trades. A job we did a couple years ago had one of the world’s largest crawler cranes on site. It took something like 120 semis to deliver it. You can imagine how many safety guys were running around a job like that so I figured someone would’ve been all over us for taking stuff up in a jlg. There are some great safety guys that actually care and usually just correct you if you’re doing something wrong like forget to have your earplugs in, tied off wrong, etc. Then there are the guys that are just looking to hammer someone thinking it’s going to make them look better. There’s always one running around like that and try and nail us on stupid stuff. I personally have no idea about the regulations on what’s allowed in a lift. I always thought you just had to stay under the weight limit. That’s why I was surprised when I heard you couldn’t take anything up in them. As long as my foreman tells me to do it it’s on him…lol. Actually, we’d probably both get ran off if I blamed it on him.
2 Likes
Yea I’m not a hard ass safety officer! People are less receptive when you are a jerk. Being a safety officer is hell trying to keep op on codes. Imagine trying to be the only safety officer over an entire university. Inspecting every inch of every building. My wife says I talk about safety stuff in my sleep!
I just provided the quote from OSHA… did not want to make this a safety discussion. In most cases, OSHA would not ever get involved if something fell from a man lift… more likely just lawyers if someone was hit by a small tool or material. If you seriously injure someone, it may be a different story, I just wanted to give some facts. If you feel comfortable that you are in compliance, then there is nothing else I can say to persuade you to take caution.
OSHA codes read like tax law.
1 Like
What color was the crane?.. most of the time I can tell what crane it was depending on the color. Not many cranes take that many trucks to build. I have traveled a lot of places to work with Deep South, Mammoet, and Lampson.
1 Like
We are governed by department of labor (that uses osha codes) but we do not have to report injuries unless it is death or dismemberment. Loose a finger or worse at my college and your gonna make me have a rough few weeks…
That being said I coordinate with osha guidelines for our lift equipment. I have to train our guys on proper operation and safety on all equipment across campus. Even if they how to know how to run it better than me lol…
I am comfortable knowing we won’t have an injury on any site that my side business runs. At least one due to negligence. Manlift can be a very safe tool but the thing that got this ball rolling is that it’s still riskier than ground work and should be billed accordingly.
We have done apartment complexes where we averaged 3-4K in a day and that was from the ground.
Thus why I feel like the ONE price given out seemed low. Personal opinion!
1 Like
It was blue. If I remember correctly there are only 3 like it in the world but only one in the United States.
2 Likes
Lampson!
2 Likes
We used lampson cranes when I worked on wind farms back in the day. Good stuff but god moving from pad to pad was a deal…
1 Like
There are a few different configurations, sometimes takes up to three men to operate. I worked with Big Blue, the one that collapsed building the Milwaukee stadium, at Exxon refinery in Baton Rouge before it left for that job. Lead operator was called Snowman.
2 Likes
Boy he has that thing stretched out! Looks like he was getting high enough though! Haven’t seen that video. Cool thanks!
1 Like
