Danny “Special Forces” Hunt – Supervising Indoor Environmentalist Contracting

This week on IAQ Radio we are going to concentrate on Supervision of Indoor Environmental Contracting projects with our incomparable hands on instructor Danny “Special Forces” Hunt. Mr. Hunt has one of the most diverse indoor environmental contracting (and consulting) backgrounds in this industry. Danny and Radio Joe were both supposed to be high school teachers but fate and the job market intervened and they both ended up in the indoor environmental contracting and consulting business after graduating from the University of Pittsburgh in 1987. That was over 25 years ago and they are still teaming up to help run projects, teach courses and spread the gospel on indoor environmental quality issues.
Danny Hunt comes from “in the hole” as he likes to call it and nobody relates better with the front line worker. His background includes supervising projects and teaching courses dealing with asbestos, lead, hazardous waste, mold, indoor air quality, disaster restoration, health & safety issues and more. He has worked for and/or owned various Indoor Environmental Contracting companies including Hunt and Associates of Pittsburgh, PA. He has also worked in the lab looking through a microscope, in the field doing inspections, assessments, protocols and oversight and in the classroom teaching all of the above. There is not much in this industry he has not done.Z-Man’s Blog:

In Front with Danny Hunt

Danny Hunt’s military training and leadership skills have stayed with him and served him well. Danny’s time is now divided between teaching IAQ courses, supervising IAQ projects and taking care of his farm.

Nuggets mined from today’s episode:

· Danny’s teaching style: to keep students awake and involved – he uses high energy, high volume, interactive to keep students involved.

· Keys to successful project management: defining the objective, separating into tasks, delegate responsibility, keeping people accountable, watch weakest link. Be fair, be firm and be consistent.

· Discuss and diagram the outcome, workers need to know what occurs if successful and what are the consequences if not.

· Know and follow the chain of command. Directives to be done and orders carried out.

· “Workers must have a purpose and feel they are contributing.”

· ” Workers do 90% of the work to fix problems.”

· Respect the workers and demand a high level of performance back from them.

· To gain respect of workers, pitch in and work with them doing the tough stuff.

· Assess personnel and their capabilities. The importance of positive attitude.

· Always provide good and understandable directions to workers.

· Break complicated tasks into smaller pieces. “Baby steps cover the distance”.

· Critical path, sequence of activities in a project plan which must be completed on time for the project to complete on due date

· “Push”, the tipping point that makes or breaks the project. During the push decision makers must be present and in command. Prepare in advance for the push. Reward high performance during the push.

· “Indirects”, things that impede progress. “Use the screw factor, back them off as much as possible.”

· Project manager always needs to understand the big picture.

Dieterisms: “Learn something and then learn from something.” “Condensation is water and water is mold.”

OSHA General Duty Clause-

OSH Act of 1970 – Table of Contents

SEC. 5. Duties

(a) Each employer —
(1) shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees;

(2) shall comply with occupational safety and health standards promulgated under this Act.

29 USC 654

(b) Each employee shall comply with occupational safety and health standards and all rules, regulations, and orders issued pursuant to this Act which are applicable to his own actions and conduct.

· Evaluate work site for health and safety issue and hazards before starting work. Do a hazard and
environmental investigation/assessment .
· Investigate, observe, document and perform.

· PPE protects works, be aware that cross contamination effects occupants.

· Test to determine the most efficient remediation method.

· Know where the finish line is before you start the project, know the expectations, finish on time and on budget. “Do one hell of a job.”

· Be transparent, don’t try to BS clients.

· Importance of communication.

Word on the street report from: Mike Whitman, Environmental Solutions, Inc. Deale, MD on a successful remediation of fungal contamination on engineered wood in a crawl space using the Pittsburgh Protocol.

Firm love is Danny Hunt’s management style.

I opine that project management is under emphasized.

Today’s music: “8th of November” by Big & Rich

Z-Man signing off: