Contractors Taking a Hit From the Mask Shortage

Yes, that’s really me in the picture and no, I’m not trying to bring back the powdered wig look as a retro fashion statement (although I’m not exactly opposed to it either). That’s a picture of me during a recent bedroom renovation after sanding some spackle. The reason for this post and this picture is to try and help some of our family, friends and neighbors in the trades. 

It seems every day we learn about a new group of people who are adversely and unexpectedly affected by the Coronavirus outbreak. This weekend, my brother-in-law sent a text to all of my family members asking if any of us had spare dust masks. My brother-in-law is a union carpenter and spends his days spackling. He needs masks to work but right now, he is having great difficulty finding them. 

It appears that once the surgical masks were completely exhausted, people started raiding hardware stores for dust masks as an (inefficient) alternative defense to the virus. To make matters worse, the same companies that produce dust masks like 3M have announced they will be focusing all of their manufacturing efforts on surgical masks for the foreseeable future which means they won’t be producing dust masks anytime soon. According to my brother-in-law and the clerk at the local hardware store, dust masks may not be available until at least July and possibly later depending on how long this outbreak continues. This could mean woodworkers, spacklers and other tradespeople may not be able to work, or work safely. And like many other people, if they can’t work, they don’t get paid. 

The picture of me in this post was taken after I sanded some spackling work for about 30 minutes or so. Now imagine how much dust would accumulate during a 12 hour work day. Thankfully, the dust isn’t toxic but then again, it’s not healthy to breathe in any kind of dust either; especially in that quantity every day.

So here’s what we can all do to help:

1. Don’t buy dust masks or pretty much any other types of masks to ward off the virus. They don't won’t work very well and you’ll just be taking them away from someone who really needs them.

2. If you’re a DIY weekend warrior like me, you probably have a few of these masks tucked away in your garage or shed. Go find them and offer them to a family member, friend or neighbor who works in the trades and needs them to make a living. If you don’t know anyone in that field, maybe reach out to a local contractor and offer to donate them.

3. Share this post, let others in your network know about this shortage and ask them to help if they can.

After searching my garage, I found about a dozen masks that probably cost me less than four dollars when I bought them. I gave them to my brother-in-law with an apology that I wish I had more to offer. He told me he uses about two masks per week so those handful of masks would allow him to work for six more weeks. That’s six more weeks of paychecks for maybe the cost of a couple of cups of coffee. 

If we all work together and help each other, we will get through this.