As a homeowner, you have a lot of responsibility when it comes to taking care of your home. One of the most important tasks is making sure your roof is in good condition and keeping it safe. Unfortunately, many homeowners don’t take roof safety seriously enough and end up with an injury. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at the dos and don’t of roof safety. We hope you find this information helpful and please share it with other homeowners to help keep them safe as well! Thank you for reading!
When most people think of the dangers of home ownership, they typically think of things like fires and burglaries. But one often-overlooked hazard is the roof. A faulty roof can lead to water damage, which can cause all sorts of problems in your home. That’s why it’s important to take roof safety seriously and to have your roof inspected regularly. Perhaps the most dangerous, even life threatening, mistake made by homeowners is to not adequately assess the risks attached to working on a roof.
Any work on a roof will require working at a height. And working at a height is dangerous (it accounts for a high number of fatalities and major injuries every year). This is especially so when a roof is fragile because it is need of repair, or because the material it is made from cannot safely support the weight of a person.
Before attempting any roof repair or maintenance work, we urge you to first assess the risks involved and consider whether you have the adequate equipment and skill to tackle the job at hand. If in any doubt, then it’s wise to call in the professionals!
The HSE provides some very helpful advice on working at height for employers, which is just as relevant to homeowners working on their own roofs.
The Dos and Don’ts of Working At Height
Working at height can be dangerous. To keep you safe, here are some dos & don’ts that will help prevent accidents:
DO
- Take into account weather conditions that might compromise your safety
- Work from the ground as much as possible
- Ensure you can get safely to and from where you need to work at height
- Ensure equipment is suitable, stable and strong enough for the job, and that it is well maintained and checked regularly
- Take precautions when working on or near fragile surfaces
- Provide protection from falling objects to those passing underneath
- Consider emergency evacuation and rescue procedures
DON’T
- Work on roofs in icy, rainy or windy conditions
- Overload ladders – consider not only the weight of the person using the ladder, but also the weight of the equipment or material you’re carrying up and down. Check the pictogram or label on the ladder for more information
- Overreach on ladders or stepladders
- Rest a ladder against a weak upper surface e.g. glazing or plastic gutters.
- Use ladders or stepladders for strenuous or heavy tasks. Use them only for light work of a short duration (max. 30 minutes at a time)
- Let anyone work at height, including yourself, who does not have the skills, knowledge or experience to do the job
So, if you are in any doubt about the condition of your roof then please give us a call. We have the specialist equipment and skills needed to safely carry out roofing work and we can provide you with a competitive quote for our services. Remember, it might be slightly more expensive in the short-term but could save you from a nasty injury or more expensive roofing repairs further down the line. Get in touch today to find out more.
Keay Roofing are local roofing contractors who work across Berkshire and Buckinghamshire on both commercial and domestic roofing projects. We can be contacted on 01753 358267 or office@keayroofingservices.com.
