Solution Summary: Door Deckers
Door deckers may reduce stooped postures and stressful hand and wrist activity required when transporting doors for painting or storage.
Description:
The door decker is an engineering control that may reduce stooped postures, overhead work, and stressful hand and wrist activity. Residential and commercial painters are frequently required to paint multiple doors on the job-site. The Door Decker is a handle and stacking system that allows painters to spray un-finished doors horizontally, paint the bottom of the door, and easily handle doors.
Each rectangular Door Decker grip (6 in x 8 in) is made out of galvanized (16 gauge) steel. The Door Deckers grip is attached to the top and bottom of the door with two wood screws. The system can be used on solid or hollow core wood doors, hollow metal doors, and shutters. The Door Deckers interlock so that finished doors may be stacked to dry.
Risks Addressed:
Stooped postures can cause low back disorders, such as muscle strain or a disc herniation (“slipped disc”), which is bulging of disc material possibly pressing on the spinal cord or nerves that go into the leg. The door decker can help reduce lifting and carrying and stooped postures by allowing workers to stand in an upright position while painting doors.
Overhead work can cause musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) such as shoulder muscle strains; tendonitis, which is inflammation of the tendons; or rotator cuff tears, which is a rupture of a shoulder tendon. The door decker can help reduce overhead work by providing workers with a station to paint doors horizontally below shoulder height.
Stressful hand and wrist activity can cause musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) such as muscle strains; tendonitis, which is inflammation of elbow and wrist tendons; or carpal tunnel syndrome, which is compression of a wrist nerve, resulting in finger numbness and loss of hand strength. The door decker can help reduce stressful hand and wrist activity by giving workers a place to grip doors that keeps the hands and wrists in more neutral positions.
How Risks are Reduced:
The use of a grip system such as the door decker reduces time spent in stooped postures to paint an entire door. The grip also decreases time spent in stressful hand and wrist positions when moving doors.
Manufacturers report that the “Door Deckers provide a comfortable, horizontal working level and have convenient handles for turning” doors.
Door Deckers allow painting to be done in an upright position eliminating bending and stooping required when coating the bottom of the door. Independent studies have shown an association between the time a worker spends in trunk flexion and the incidence of back pain (Hoogendoorn et al., 2000).
Door Deckers provide a handle for carrying and positioning the door for painting. This allows painters to keep wrist in a more neutral position when carrying doors. Independent studies have shown an association between tasks requiring wrist deviations from neutral and elbow tendonitis (Werner et al., 2005).
Independent published studies state that spending less time in a stooped posture and carrying materials closer to a worker’s body decreases the risk or injury (Marras et al., 2010). However, no studies have been conducted to measure the effectiveness of the Door Deckers to decrease these risks.
Effects on Productivity:
Door Deckers increase productivity.
Additional Considerations:
The Door Decker system reduces the need for large areas at the job-site to paint and let doors dry. The Door Decker System also eliminates the risk of doors falling over or being knocked over when painted and dried in upright positions.
Availability
Speed Painting Inc. Door Deckers
To obtain information, visit http://www.speedpainting.com
or contact 1-806-355-4360 http://www.speedpainting.com/contact-us.html
