Why You Should Care We’re Certified In 100+ Types Of OSHA Safety Training

We Shut Down Our Office For 3 Days To Take
A Master Class In Safety Practices That Benefit YOU.

BY CORY DAVIS, CO-OWNER

Safety first? Not at Childers Brothers. We’re the foundation repair company in Amarillo that practices safety first, second, third, fourth, fifth… and ALWAYS. When you’re dealing with often-dangerous work like foundation repair in the Amarillo area, that’s how it has to be.

At least, that’s how Melissa and I feel about it. Truthfully, there is no required safety training for foundation repair. Any random dude in Texas can legally poke around your home’s foundation—even if they have zero clue about proper safety. (And a lot of foundation contractors don’t!)

I don’t know about you, but that would terrify me if I were a homeowner in need of foundation repair. I wouldn’t want a company anything less than safety-OBSESSED touching my foundation. There are just too many hazards of the job for both the workers and the homeowners.

This is why Melissa and I shut down our office for three days in 2017 to take what’s called OSHA 10 training. OSHA stands for Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Its purpose is to teach businesses best practices for safety, compliance, and risk management.

We paid $8,000 to have an OSHA representative come to our business and train ALL of our employees. Our technicians. Our salespeople. Even our secretaries. We wanted absolutely everyone in our company to be unrivaled safety experts so they can serve you as best as possible.

Going Off The Grid

During those three days of training, no one answered the phone. No one scheduled in-home appointments. No one posted on our company Facebook page. We went totally off the grid. And we (willingly) lost thousands in potential profits in the process. That’s how seriously we took this.

The OSHA rep was our safety sensei, and we were his pupils. He trained, tested, and taught us exhaustively. By the end of the final day, every single one of us was a black belt in on-the-job safety.

Behind the scenes of our OSHA 10 training.

Our OSHA rep’s parting gift to us: A five-inch binder containing over 100 types of safety training that we review with our employees every month.

Behold it in all its glory…

Five fat inches of pure safety training.

This manual isn’t just thicker than a Harry Potter novel; it covers EVERY possible type of safety training…

Using power tools
Inspecting a crawl space
How to handle heat exhaustion
Defensive driving
Digging around electrical and gas lines
Office safety
And best safety practices for over 100 more activities

Will this manual bore you to tears? Absolutely. Is it necessary to ensure you get the SAFEST possible project? Absolutely.

What Happens When Foundation Companies Don’t Follow OSHA Standards

OSHA training isn’t required to be a foundation contractor in Amarillo, but companies with one or more employees must follow OSHA safety regulations. If OSHA catches a contractor conducting a willful violation, it can shut down the job on the spot and fine the contractor a minimum of $124K.

This leaves you, the homeowner, in the lurch if this happens during your project. First, this will cause serious delays to your project. Second, a $148K fine is enough to put many foundation companies in Amarillo out of business. That means you’d have to find and pay an entirely new company to finish the job.

OSHA puts these severe penalties in place for a reason: foundation repair can be dangerous! It often requires digging deep holes, using heavy machinery, and crawling into some not-so-sturdy cramped spaces. OSHA regulations protect not only workers but homeowners as well. It’s for everyone’s benefit that your foundation contractor knows how to do things like properly dig trenches, shore walls, and maintain an overall safe jobsite.

Office Safety… Really?

It’s clear how best practices relating to power tools, digging trenches, and crawl space safety are relevant to your foundation repair. But you might be wondering why on earth you should care that we practice things like office safety (mentioned in the bullet point above).

It’s simple: When we do something, we dive in completely. No half-measures. No corner cutting. No matter what. If we dive in this deeply on something as bland as office safety training, imagine the care we dedicate to repairing your foundation (something we actually enjoy doing!).

Our goal isn’t just to perform your repair right but also do it as efficiently as possible. And the only way to achieve that is by being full-fledged experts in all things safety… even if it costs us $8,000 and tens of thousands of dollars in profits in the process. Get in touch if that sounds like the kind of contractor you want working on your foundation.

Thanks!

– Cory

P.S. Another big safety concern with foundation repair in Amarillo is that many contractors lack the proper insurance. I’ll discuss this more in a future blog post, but here’s the bottom line: Make absolutely, positively certain the foundation company you hire has proper insurance. Otherwise, YOU could be on the hook if an accident occurs on your property.