ACC figures show Spring cleaning a risky job

ACC data shows that many claims from Northland include the words are due to people Spring cleaning.

If you're waiting for the weather to let up so you can tackle those maintenance jobs around the property, then consider this: 281 Northland people hurt themselves while spring cleaning last year.

ACC data shows that many of the claims included the words "clean", "gutter", "ladder" and "broom". Those claims have cost $106,638 to date.

Alice Lee, of John the Pom Handiman Services, said people should know their limitations when it comes to property maintenance.

"If you can't manage it or don't know what to do, don't do it and call someone who does."

If somebody knew they couldn't manage a job physically they should leave it to a tradesperson.

Mrs Lee said homeowners risk voiding their home insurance if maintenance is substandard.

Mrs Lee and husband John's work included clearing out guttering, waterblasting and whatever else clients needed.

She said they hadn't had any calls to do work for people who had been injured while trying to do it themselves.

However, they had done work for people with injuries unrelated to spring cleaning.

Many of their clients were elderly and unable to do some jobs for themselves.

ACC senior media adviser Stephanie Melville said ACC accumulated the data by searching accident descriptions for the key words.

The level of detail provided for accident descriptions could vary greatly and there were likely to be more related claims which had not been uncovered.

The most common spring-cleaning injuries were related to loss of balance and the most common injury diagnosis was soft tissue damage.

"In terms of staying injury-free when spring cleaning I would recommend paying a team of professionals to do it for you, while you get together with friends and enjoy a long overdue lunch with maybe a little shoe shopping afterwards followed by wine and nibbles to wrap up the afternoon.

"This way the only thing that will hurt is getting the credit card bill."

Ms Melville said that about 700,000 injuries happened in or around the home each year, well over a third of the 1.7 million claims ACC received annually.