ROOF SAFETY; DOES NOBODY CARE??

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May 29, 2013 at 11:20 a.m.

Estorey

So there's this thing called roof safety.......Or at least there used to be. Guys, I'm not here to harp on anyone but I thought it was only right that I say what's on my mind.

Where's the safety these days. I mean come on, unsafe roofers are the reason that our insurance rates (for those who actually have insurance)go up. I periodically get emails from the coffeeshop about articles. The last one I got showed 2 guys drinking water. The title was to "Keep Hydrated". What about the safety harnesses they don't have on?? What about t-shirts they seem to forgot? Come on. I read another article about a guy falling off a roof. Where was his harness?? I've been in this business my entire life. I know the safety hassles but until you actually have a serious event, people just keep ignoring it. Don't want OSHA to stop by your jobsite or are you tired of them stopping by?? Guess what, most of that occurance is our fault as roofers not going by the rules.

I was on a job last year and my customer wanted me on another job (I am a subcontractor), so he had another crew replace me on the one I was on. I was coating a metal roof with a ton of translucent panels on it. I had plywood to cover them when in those areas. We had our harnesses as well. A few days after we left that job, the crew that replaced us used nothing. Not one bit of fall protection. A man stepped on one of the translucent panels, fell 30 feet and landed on his head on a concrete floor. To this day, I don't know if he lived or not.

Gentlemen please. Get with it and think smart. Sure, it may take a little bit longer, but it is worth it. Every roofer not being safe not only jeopardizes the lives of their workers which affects their families, only makes all of us look like idiots. it's not fair for the guys that DO go by OSHA REGULATIONS!! For those of you that DO follow OSHA regulations, I thank you.

People that send this website pictures of people not using safety should not be posted on this website because you know better! In fact, I strongly encourage the roofers that are smart enough to practice good safety, to call into OSHA when they see these guys not representing our trade in a safe manner! It's those guys that make all of us look bad and quite frankly I'm tired of it. A REAL professional utilizes OSHA safety practices.

I am curious of the comments I will see on this post. Anybody sticking up for not being safe for the well being of their workers, just know that your ignorance will be obvious.

June 28, 2022 at 7:12 a.m.

dennis1

So I have now spent a total of an entire week researching this subject. “Fall protection for roofing subcontractors in Texas not being enforced.” I have typed this subject into google in hundreds of different ways with no success. Including within this very forum. Out of thousands of clicks there is not one educated post giving you specific answers as to why Texas does not mandate and stricktly enforce fall protection like the rest of america. Looking for someome from OSHA to post specific answers to this question as well.
As a contractor, i should not have to live in constant fear of losing a highly experienced crew that can actually deliver on all of the promises made to the customer, over enforcing that they wear their fall protection.
I have worked in multiple states throughout the nation and Texas is literally the only state were subcontractors straight up refuse to wear the fall protection unless it is a truely steep roof 10/12 or higher.
The highly skilled larger Texas crews are of the opinion that wearing fall protection actually makes them more likely to have a fall. The constant tangling and pulling of a rope on a steep 2 story roof is actually putting them in more danger.
What ever you believe, they dont want to wear it. If enforced they will just go work for another roofing company who will not enforce the fall protection.
What exactly is the loophole letting Texas contractors off from enforcing thisIs it the subcontractor agreement? Since they are not actual employees am i not responsible if they fall or get hurt or if OSHA stops by the job and sees that they are not wearing the proper protection?
Anywhere throughout the DFW area you can drive around and literally see hundreds of roof jobs going up after hail storms or homes being built by large national home builders, and none of them are enforcing fall protection. From framers, to roofers, to welders, no one is wearing the safety equipment that is mandatory in all other States.
If OSHA and the state of Texas truly cares about these peoples lives like they claim and it’s not just about money, why is it not a state mandate like all other states? Why does OSHA get to just walk up and choose which job-sites and which companies they randomly go after??
My guess is the Texas building/housing sector really does not the proper OSHA fall protection enforcedjust like they don’t want the state licensing for roofers implemented because that’s going to mean big building and big insurance will then have to have to pay millions more to Texas based roofing and building contractors? If that’s the case, why should I be responsible if my crew refuses to wear the gear? I do not want someone’s death on my conscience. I do not want any of my subcontractors to fall or get hurt. However, I also have to earn a living for my family. I’ve been a roofer since the age of 12. I am now 44. I do not know anything else. I cannot do anything else. This is all I have ever done.
I have worked in other states and those crews immediately get out of their vehicles and start putting on their safety equipment without batting an eye. There’s not even a conversation about it, they already know they have to wear it because all contractors are required to do so.
Texas seems to be the only State where both crews and the company owners have no fear of OSHA citations. Can anyone out there working in the Dallas-Fort Worth area shed any light onto this ridiculousness? As a Texas roofing company owner, what exactly relives you of this liability??
I worked for many years letting my crew decide for themselves and have never had one injury or fall. But, i only have to be wrong once and everyones life is going to change forever. The older i get, the more it has started to bother the crap out of me that the good crews refuse to wear it. To the point, i just fired the best crew i have ever had over it. They are now calling me everyday asking why i am all of a sudden doing this to them after 11 years.

February 26, 2020 at 2:08 p.m.

MaxieG

Why not wear a harness just in case? I mean it won't hurt to be 100% safe right? What's the point of not wearing it? I am always wearing it....

February 24, 2020 at 12:13 a.m.

Ken Evans

Right! same thoughts were going on in my mind.

August 25, 2016 at 12:06 a.m.

egg

I wear low-cut Redwing shoes with understated tread which has excellent grip. I wear gloves when I tear off. I wear knee protectors maybe once every five to ten years. I wear glasses and I wear ear protection when I'm running a gas-powered saw, a grinder, or a Fein tool. I wear a mask when I'm around concrete dust. For headgear I either wear a ball cap or my naked head. If I'm working below someone I'll wear a helmet. I never work below someone. I wear a safety harness when it is essential and no other time whatsoever. I'm coming up on seventy and so far everything is still working just fine, thank you. I love this job, I'm good at this job, to put it mildly, and I am proud to report that I am a free man. I have a special link to God don't ya know and if I had wanted to spend eight to ten hours a day six days a week in a harness he would gladly have made me a mule to start with. Watched a poor guy clanking back and forth while loading my 4/12 roof. One of the most pathetic things I have ever witnessed in my life. So pathetic in fact that I jumped in and helped him (three of mine for every one of his) just to shorten his own personal misery and get him out of my sight. End of sermon.

August 24, 2016 at 11:59 p.m.

egg

This is me in the great old shake days.

August 24, 2016 at 11:57 p.m.

egg

This is one of the most uncomfortable-looking, unsafe-looking roofer-types I have ever seen in my life. He does not and will not ever work anywhere near me, just so everyone is crystal clear where I stand on the subject.

August 24, 2016 at 3:02 a.m.

johnwillingham

egg Said: Well, it may be time for a trip down linguistic lane. Per diem is related to carpe diem by the day. Woody might just be annoyed because nobody payed him what they should have to drive that motorcycle through the desert way back in the early diems. The benefits were just uplifting panoramas and self-reliance while building independence and a first-rate mind, day after day. A person can get carpal tunnel syndrome grabbing at small amounts of money on a repetitive basis. Could even happen to you while nailing on shingles though even a four cents a nail, it didnt happen to me. Minimum wage on the other hand, just gives you plain old tunnel syndrome although you could also get carpal tunnel syndrome while you were at it if you happened to be continuously clutching at the walls. Sometimes it seems like we are walled in by the tunnel of days. But one diem does not equal another diem really and hopefully never will. Each day is a unique gift. Carping per diem is not latin-based, per se or even per say. Our rugged old English has accumulated a lot of variety and that one is Scandinavian from karpa (to dispute.) There is benefit from disputation, even sometimes the carping variety. How this shakes out for anyone in particular is not for me to say, only that it is all somehow related and I get a per diem allowance for such things.

I completely agree with you.

August 24, 2016 at 3:01 a.m.

johnwillingham

Roofers should prevent themselves from injury. Before climbing roof they should wear helmet, boots, knee-cap and harness to ensure safety.

August 24, 2016 at 2:59 a.m.

johnwillingham

It is very important that professional roofers shoul abiode by roofing safety rules. They should not act careless. Before climbing roof, roofers should prevent themselves from injury. Helmets, boots, knee-cap and harness should be best friends of roofers.

August 24, 2016 at 1:37 a.m.

egg

I watched a great video awhile back, a Ted Talk episode. The person giving the talk made a number of great points but how those points relate to this discussion and the fog of political correctness that surrounds it comes down to this:

If it's Safety First, why would you bid on a roof project? Really. Why? If you even bid one the best you can claim is Safety Second. If you get the job why would you then send people out to do it? At that moment, the best you could claim is Safety Third. I can live with Safety Third. What I can't live with is anything dumb or sanctimonious.

"Numberless" people paralyzed or dead falling from a single story? I think not. I would say it's more likely numberless people are paralyzed BY a single "story" and I don't mean Aesop or the Illiad. "He fell with a thud and his armor rattled upon him." Beware "the pitiless bronze." Don't fight, brothers and sisters. Don't think. Don't be present in the world and enjoy it for what it is. Just don't do anything. Much safer that way.

August 23, 2016 at 6:08 a.m.

Lindsey Hill1

First of all, the foremost obvious risk related to roof cleansing is that the potential for a life-ending or life-altering fall. Many people wrongly presume that only two-story roofs are unsafe,but there are numberless people who are paralyzed or die by falling from single story.

Here are some basic roofer safety tips if you want to go up on your own roof. Please recall twice before getting on a roof and strongly consider using a professional instead. The guidance given here is not a complete guide to roof fall protection, but to some extent this is useful.

https://youtu.be/FRaV93zBplE

June 5, 2013 at 7:45 p.m.

tinner666

I'm always safe! I took this one today to prove I do use my ladder.

June 3, 2013 at 10:51 p.m.

egg

Dorothy Parker was a phenomenal wit. Here's a bit from one of my favorites of hers:

"Oh, I should like to ride the seas, A roaring buccaneer; A cutlass banging at my knees, A dirk behind my ear. And when my captives' chains would clank I'd howl with glee and drink, And then fling out the quivering plank And watch the beggars sink.

I'd like to straddle gory decks, And dig in laden sands, And know the feel of throbbing necks Between my knotted hands. Oh, I should like to strut and curse Among my blackguard crew.... But I am writing little verse, As little ladies do.

Yes, some kinds of planks were designed to get people from the ship to somewhere else, and out at sea, well, the somewhere else was... how shall we say.... making someone walk the plank under those conditions was designed to kill them. But it's not the plank's fault.

Woody made the right rule. Yeah, if you're doing a repair job, why not prepare a place at the base of the work, sanely drop the trash there, and then take it to the truck. What would be the sanity of erecting a scaffold or setting up a plank for something like that? But you build bridges for the bigger stuff; that's what they're for.

It's all about determining where to stop a cascade of events from leading to something harmful, without utterly destroying your quality of life and freedom in the process.

So here's how the intellectual, arm-chair genius mind works: (the kind of stuff we get from over-paid, self-aggrandizing, bureaucrats and judges and actuaries and such) You've got a car accident. Guy was driving without his lights on after dark, goes over a hundred foot embankment (missed the bridge) and dies. You've got another car accident. Guy drops his cigarette between his legs, fishes around for it and plows into a cement and steel column (didn't miss the bridge) and is dead on impact. The next incident on the stat sheet is related. Man gets into his car, gets out on the freeway at high speed, starts pondering on how absurd life is and how many restrictions to happiness there are, puts a Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket over his head and plays chicken til he goes off the shoulder (no bridges involved) slams into an oak tree, and dies three days later in the hospital. Or worse, causes a head-on collision killing a dozen other people while he is at it. How do we find and fix the source of this preventable stuff? Outlaw cars. That's it. No more driving cars and no more deaths involving or not involving bridges when there are cars around the scene. You can own them but you can't drive them. You need to hire a licensed, insured, seat-belt certified, non-drinking, bonded driver to take you to the supermarket. A chauffeur, so to speak. But wait! It was all because you couldn't see. There was no vision.

In this case, there wasn't even a car. I don't like using my 28 foot plank much because it's too damned heavy to move around easily, and when you are out in the middle you get the sympathetic vibration bridge syndrome going. But roof to truck with a six-foot drop below? I'm using the plank. Every time.

June 3, 2013 at 4:42 p.m.

OLE Willie

Walking the plank was designed to kill people! Sometimes you just gotta throw the crap on the ground and double work it. :unsure:

June 2, 2013 at 3:38 p.m.

egg

In my opinion you do a stellar job, John, and I would feel extremely safe working on any of your projects, but as I've mentioned before, I still don't think you are in compliance, even though the OSHA man on the last tile project you posted gave you the ok. Those guys setting tile at the top of those ladders would have a lot of velocity by the time they hit the scaffold deck. Way more than a six-foot fall. Don't get me wrong, I'm not finding any fault with how you set things up. Just saying.