An Ergonomic Walkthrough Observation of Carpentry Tasks: A Pilot Study

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Abstract
The purpose of this pilot study was to determine the ergonomic risk factors for cumulative trauma disorders associated with carpentry tasks. Twenty-one union carpenters were observed on 29 occasions at 17 different construction sites. The job specialties observed were ceiling, drywall, and concrete form. A checklist for ergonomic walkthrough surveys was developed for this study. The carpenters were observed and videotaped while performing routine tasks. Based on the ergonomic walkthrough checklist data and video data, the three job specialties were rank-ordered by the scores obtained for posture and repetition. Based upon the combined score of postures from the three specialties, the most stressful postures were used by the neck/shoulder region, followed by the elbow and the back regions. In comparison to the drywall and ceiling tasks, the formwork tasks produced the most stressful postures for the hip/leg, back, and elbow regions. For the ceiling tasks, the most stressful postures were found to be the neck/shoulder and wrist regions. In contrast to the other two specialties, the postures associated with the drywall tasks were less stressful for all body segments. The lower extremity (kneeling and squatting) repetitiveness of the formwork and drywall tasks was significantly higher than that for the ceiling tasks.

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