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Do you need permanent or temporary roof rails?
When starting a new project, you might wonder: “Do you need permanent or temporary roof rails?”
It's a great question to be asking when commencing work on a new project to ensure you arrange the right kind of roof protection to keep your workers safe.
Passive fall prevention measures are a specific and legal requirement for when workers are operating two meters or higher above ground level as defined by the legal framework of the National Code of Practice for the Prevention of Falls in General Construction.
When are permanent roof safety rails required?
Permanent roof safety rails are needed only if the house or construction project has permanent roof access and there would be an ongoing risk of falling. These are not the only type of safety rails for you to consider though.
When are temporary roof safety rails needed?
In this article we will talk more specifically about the legal requirements when construction or roofing is taking place for a specific amount of time, not indefinitely.
As you now know, when you and your team are working on a height two meters or higher above the ground, roof rails are needed but when this work is for a defined period of time and roof access will not be permanent feature of the property, temporary roof safety rails are all that is required.
As you can understand, installing temporary roof guard rails can be very involved and time-consuming. Beyond the operational considerations that can also increase time and cost, the National Code of Practice stipulates that a ‘competent person must install this equipment’ , inspect it and sign off on the quality of the installation.
If you do not have the expertise on your team to perform such a task where do you turn?