As a team of roofing specialists with many years of experience on top of Auckland homes, we know how important it is to be safe when working at height. The truth is, regardless of a building’s height, proper safety measures are crucial when working on a roof.  

Whether you’re a homeowner who’s wondering about the safety measures we rely on or you’re simply curious how roofers aren’t constantly falling off roofs, we’ve got the answers for you. Read on for a breakdown of our re-roofing safety measures and how we keep both you and our workers safe.

Roofs present a variety of potential hazards, from falling off the edge to falling through a structurally unsound area. Before we go anywhere near your roof, we first assess any potential hazards (to us and to you). This is known as a “hazard assessment”. Once we’ve identified every potential hazard, we develop a plan to manage them.

• The strength of the roofing material. 
• The condition of the underlying timber or steel. 
• The stability and brittleness of any cladding. 
• Any electrical hazards, such as nearby power lines. 
• Any incoming poor weather conditions. 
• The size of the roof. 
• Whether the building is occupied. 
• The pitch of the roof. 
• The roof framing. 
• The presence of asbestos, if any.

Source: WorkSafe NZ

The idea is to prevent accidents, rather than minimise the damage and injury of a fall. This requires that we pay attention to two key dimensions: personal safety measures and group safety measures (illustrated by WorkSafe NZ above).

• Edge protection system. Consisting of a toe board, a main guard rail, and an intermediate rail, edge protection prevents people and tools from falling to the ground below. The rails are placed all around the perimeter of the roof, as well as any brittle or weak sections, skylights, or other openings that could present a hazard. 
• Scaffolding. Scaffolding provides a platform with stable footing on roofs that have a strong pitch or uneven footing. 
• Multi-user MEWP. Mobile Elevating Work Platforms (also known as cherry pickers) are machine-operated platforms that elevate workers to the roof and bring them safely back down. They are commonly used on commercial construction projects with very tall roofs. 
• Safety mesh. This mesh is used to bridge gaps in a roof during construction, preventing our workers from falling through should any other measures fail.

• Total restraint system. These systems involve a harness that we wear, attaching us to a guard rope that is in turn attached to an anchor point on the roof. The rope doesn’t stretch beyond a certain length, preventing us from getting too close to the edge.  
• Platform ladder. These are used to provide permanent access to a work positioning system (e.g. a harness holding us in place), usually used on a gabled or pitched roof where we can’t reliably stand on even footing. 

Once again, the kind of protection we choose for your roofing job will depend on the intricacies of your roofing system. Therefore, it’s best to talk to one of our friendly team members, who can expertly determine what your property requires.