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SAFER ROOFLIGHT REPLACEMENT
Risk during rooflight replacement reduced by working from below
Falls through fragile roofs and rooflights often occur during the replacement of rooflights. Avoiding the hazard of falling through fragile surfaces can be achieved by undertaking the work from below.
Letchworth Roofing Ltd working with Filon Ltd have developed a fixing system that allows sheet installation from below using just standard tools and a cherry picker.
The Fixsafe kits are available with a range of sheet sizes and profiles, as direct replacements for all popular asbestos and fibre cement sheeting. See short video
Comment
No work at height is 100% risk free and removing one risk may sometimes create another. There are now hardly any deaths during steel erection and roofing operations on new build “sheds” due to increased use of MEWPs and safety nets. However, the number of MEWP related incidents has risen. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
Replacing rooflights from below may come with other risks. However, this approach could make a major contribution towards preventing the 7-10 fatal falls through fragile roofs and rooflights that occur each year. If work is carried out beneath a roof the hazard of falling through the roof has been eliminated!
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December 11th, 2009 at 8:38 am
[…] by work on or near fragile roofs and rooflights is well know and safe systems must be in place. Replacing rooflights from below is increasingly seen as the most cost effective […]
June 20th, 2011 at 2:09 pm
[…] and serious injuries arising from work on or near fragile roofs and rooflights. In many cases working from beneath the roof is practicable and a safer way to carry out such work using mobile elevating platforms as the […]
March 13th, 2012 at 3:24 pm
[…] (Southampton) Ltd failed to recognise that the project could not be completed from below the roof and therefore the equipment was not sufficient to ensure […]
July 15th, 2012 at 10:55 am
[…] a common cause of fatalities in the workplace. Maintenance to industrial roofs should ideally be carried out from below using a safe working platform. If access onto a fragile roof surface is unavoidable, then adequate […]
August 17th, 2012 at 11:37 am
[…] from below – work from underneath the roof using a suitable work […]
August 29th, 2012 at 11:28 am
[…] guidance will advocate access from a tower scaffold or mobile elevating work platform from underneath the roof and will be targeted at commercial clients (such as those managing industrial estates) as well […]
December 17th, 2013 at 3:15 pm
[…] company eventually got it right by working from inside the building and avoiding the need to physically go onto the roof, but it is sad that it took a serious incident before this […]
March 25th, 2014 at 2:31 pm
[…] The proposed guidance will probably encourage the adoption of work practices which involved working from below fragile surfaces. […]
April 15th, 2014 at 9:04 pm
[…] Replacing rooflights from below the roof […]