Sloped Roof Guardrail
Working on a rooftop is dangerous enough as it is. Now, let’s add in a slight slope to that rooftop as you near the edge where you need to service some mechanical units.
This was the situation that one of our customers faced with their facility.
In this article, we’ll discuss the problem our customer faced, the consultation and planning, and how the solution of using rooftop guardrail was ultimately decided on.
Sloped Roof Maintenance Work
Our customer has a manufacturing facility in upstate New York. Now when I say upstate, I’m not talking about just north of New York City, I’m talking way upstate above the Adirondack Mountains, basically a stone’s throw away from Canada. Don’t worry, this will all be relevant soon.
This manufacturing plant, like most plants, has rooftop vents, heating, cooling, electrical, you name it. And these units require routine maintenance to ensure everything is running smoothly.
Well, our customer’s maintenance team discussed with upper management the concerns they have working on this sloped rooftop. A sloped rooftop is a hazard to begin with, but then you add in the weather like rain or snow, and in upstate New York, that is all too common, and you’ve got yourself a fall hazard waiting to happen.
So, management had to come up with a solution that would work best for their rooftops and more importantly protect the lives of their maintenance team.
Rooftop Anchor Points
Their first thought was to install a mounted anchor system that the maintenance team would tie off to when they’re up on the rooftop. Now while this is a perfectly fine solution and meets OSHA standards. Anchor points/lifelines come with a few challenges.
One, they are what is called an “active fall protection system”. This means that the user must engage with the system each time and must inspect it before each use to ensure it is safe to use.
This can be quickly forgotten as sometimes you or your maintenance team are just going up onto the rooftop quickly to get something done that shouldn’t take more than a couple minutes. So, you forego the harness and lifeline altogether. Remember, it only takes one moment for an accident to happen.
Second, your mobility can be limited. Depending on how far you need walk from the anchor point to your work area, this can limit how much range you have. Plus, having to deal with the cables could be cumbersome if you have more than one person working in the same area.
This was the dilemma that our customer was facing. So, they did some research online to look for solutions and assistance. They then came across us here at Simplified Safety and reached out to our team to discuss their situation.
Fall Protection Solutions for Sloped Roofs
After reading through our website and seeing what we had to offer, our customer reached out and connected with one of our salespeople, Johanna, who was able to listen and talk through their situation to better understand their needs.
While Johanna agreed that an anchor point system would be safe and could work with their situation. She listed out all the reasons that were stated above as to why an anchor point system could be difficult on their rooftop.
Johanna discussed with our customer about another fall protection solution, guardrail. Guardrail would cover all the necessary regulations they need to meet and would be much a simpler system to install and use.
Rooftop Guardrail for Sloped Roofs
Guardrail is a passive solution meaning that you don’t have to actively engage any system to be protected from falling. Guardrail is also a collective solution. This means that it can protect a group of people instead of just one person like a lifeline and anchor system.
This also then provides the freedom for a team to work about the rooftop without having to worry about ropes being tangled or other limited mobility.
Guardrail can also be specifically designed to the angle of the rooftop. With the angle of the guardrail, the base goes with the slope of the roof while the guardrail itself angles up and back toward the roof to create a safe and effective barrier to counteract the sloped roof.
Another additional benefit of Kee Guard is that it is non-penetrating. It uses a counter-balance weight system to ensure the guardrail meets all OSHA regulations for durability.
Our customer liked the idea of not mounting a system so that there are no holes in the roof, unlike with the horizontal lifeline system.
Another question that what posed was “How much guardrail do we need?”. The customer needed to stay within budget, so this is a great question. Guardrail doesn’t have to encompass the entire rooftop in specific situations.
In this case, they only wanted to protect around areas that employees walked to and serviced rooftop equipment. This saves time, resources, and yes, money. This type of solution protects the necessary areas of the rooftop without having to undertake a full rooftop project.
However, the Kee Guard system (which is the brand name of our guardrail) is also modular. So, in the event they needed or wanted to expand their guardrail system to cover more area of the rooftop they could.
Our pipe and fittings system does not have any welding, so it allows for parts to be swapped out and added onto with ease.
Additionally, the owner was concerned about building aesthetics and Johanna demonstrated how power coating with mitigate that concern. All our guardrail can be powder coated to match building aesthetics and help them blend with your rooftop but will still be visible to workers who are navigating the roof.
Sloped Rooftop Guardrail Installation
After some planning and designing, Johanna and our customer decided on these sets of guardrails to be installed at various spots throughout the rooftop.
Now it’s time for installation. This is one of the easier parts if you can believe that. As mentioned, our Kee Guard system is designed without any welding and can be put together with just a hex key. You heard me right, just a hex key.
Depending on the type of handrail you want, you may need a drill to mount the handrails into the fittings, but the rest of the system can be assembled with a hex key and no specialized training!
Our customer easily installed the guardrail with his maintenance team, even easier than they thought it would be, and they really appreciated how light weight Kee Guard was.
Johanna and our customer communicated all throughout the installation to make sure it was a smooth as possible and answer any lingering questions.
In Review
Adding fall protection to your sloped rooftop is a crucial step toward making work safe for you and your team. If you’re looking to get started on your fall protection project, contact one of our fall protection experts.
We can discuss your plan and even perform a remote rooftop audit to assess all potential fall hazards.
