Safety Advice for pruning at height

[The Blind Gardener]

Good afternoon fellow gardeners, I look after a private estate and am having difficulty explaining best practice and also trying to explain legislation and the lack of real guidance to my employer. So my example is as follows, Pruning a climbing rose underneath windows on the top floor of a 2 storey Victorian property of my bosses house. Asking the gardener to prune and using the correct ladders and safety equipment.
My question is, is there legislation or guidance that will correctly give information on the correct ladders, safety equipment to use and would I need a risk assessment prior to the job starting?

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Pruning from a ladder is vey restrictive, you can only reach a very small are without leaning out sideways, tempting, but not a good idea. A couple of scaffold lifts and a platform means you can get to everything without having to keep moving things. It should be relatively cheap to hire for the day.

 

[The Blind Gardener]

Pruning from a ladder is vey restrictive, you can only reach a very small are without leaning out sideways, tempting, but not a good idea. A couple of scaffold lifts and a platform means you can get to everything without having to keep moving things. It should be relatively cheap to hire for the day.

Thanks Oliver, totally agree and understood, I was hoping if someone could recommend a guidance or legislation that directs people to the correct equipment. For example is there a correct ladder type ? Are there specific safety wear that should be worn? Do I need to do a risk assessment or does my employer need to do a risk assessment ? I know they are all strange requests and I know the answers, common sense prevails on most jobs in the garden, but I need something in writing to show them so I can obtain the correct equipment. Hence asking if people know of the right place for guidance, HSE
etc or their own experienced recommendation's?

 

[onionman]

Good afternoon fellow gardeners, I look after a private estate and am having difficulty explaining best practice and also trying to explain legislation and the lack of real guidance to my employer. So my example is as follows, Pruning a climbing rose underneath windows on the top floor of a 2 storey Victorian property of my bosses house. Asking the gardener to prune and using the correct ladders and safety equipment.
My question is, is there legislation or guidance that will correctly give information on the correct ladders, safety equipment to use and would I need a risk assessment prior to the job starting?

Absolutely there is... Here is the official Government site that deals with the OHSA standards for this type of work. https://www.osha.gov/tree-care/standards

Also, it might be a good idea to run a background check on the person to make sure they don't have a history of workers comp claims. I found this site that shows how to do it for free:https://backgroundcheckrepair.org/how-to-find-old-arrest-records/

 

[oneeye]

Maybe you can get the training from this outfit.

OSHA 10-Hour Training Courses | OSHA Education Center

OSHA Education Center offers OSHA 10-Hour training for Construction and General Industry. Earn your OSHA 10-Hour card online on your own schedule.

www.oshaeducationcenter.com