OSHA

So if I give in and decide to make everyone be OSHA approved.....what is the cheapest rope and harness kit that is approved and where can I get them?

I am seriously thinking of making anyone on my site wear the OSHA shit, including the homeowner! I am gonna get hard hats that look like a SS soldiers helmet and uniforms to match, safety glasses with little mustaches.....that way when OSHA comes around, he will feel like he is amongst family :woohoo: Bunch of friggin commies!

I'm not even answering, gotta go to bed. Good Night. PC

For a couple thousand you can get a little tower with three spinning anchor points for three separate guys. We could call it the organ-grinder. The little purple suits with the gold trim are extra.

twill59 Said: I have heard some contractors say they will turn in others. Shades of Russia and the KGB!! We have arrived.

OTOH, how else can you survive if you are the only one playing by the rules?

Sad sad sad. :(

The sad part is you can't even hear the birds sing with the retractable cable hissing. Put everything in your wife's name and go back to running around barefoot. Might even feel good. Wife would be happy too. "I've put up with you long enough...GET OUT!!!" :laugh:

This my take on it. We know the rules, don't neccessarly accept them, we understand them. It's a call you have to make. None of you want a man/women hurt but if you don't work the job you don't understand.

I was the estimator, never worked a roof in my life but I knew what my boys were doing. Just found out this weekend my boss bitched about me all the time, he never bitched at me once. I was never off on price, I was good. Every estimate I did, he approved. WTF.

When you are approached by OSHA negotiate, bring the fines down. They will do that , we went through it.

Twill, noone is after you, maybe Frank, he can't be trusted. :laugh: PC

I have heard some contractors say they will turn in others. Shades of Russia and the KGB!! We have arrived.

OTOH, how else can you survive if you are the only one playing by the rules?

Sad sad sad. :(

Roofer, unfortuneatly someone in your neighborhood doesn't like you. That is a stiff fine, most customers don't have a clue of the regulations, I'd bet you were turned in by another contractor. Residential roofs I see them all the time, the guys are monkeys (no disrespect) commercial is another story, the general will push it. PC Stay safe everyone.

We were fined $25,000. 3 repeat offenses. No safety glasses with nail guns, no fall protection, and ladder was not quite 3' above gutter. It was a 4/12 ranch and the guys became relaxed with the rules. Another contractor called on us probably.

Anyway we are going to have to follow everything now. I am still trying to figure out the best way to work with these ropes or retractable cables. I will look into the guardrail. It is an investment for sure. How did it affect man hours on say a 5/12 1 layer tear off with ropes and harnesses? Another .5 per square? I would assume we would have smaller crews so we don't cross lines too much and can still carry tear off to dump truck in driveway.

I do care about safety and hope we can make this happen and still compete.

egg Said: ...Over 5,700 men or woman died from preventable falls last year....

I just love statistics. In our industry: 40 Doesnt matter how many ropes. Doesnt matter how many hardhats. Doesnt matter how many combat boots.

40 in the whole country in the whole year for the whole industry. No matter what anybody does, incidents will end up being assigned to that statistical column. Even if you outlawed roofing altogether.

I am disgusted. Nanny state. r-i-d-i-c-u-l-o-u-s

40 deaths? Who were they? Homeowners? Their "friends"? Wild and crazy subs? Drunks? Drugs involved?

I can honestly say that I am soooooooo glad that I never gave a penny to the NRCA PAC. Why line the pockets of the Repulicants? You can see how the party of small government is ever so helpful..........to HUGE Government

It's a PITA because anybody w/ a hammer and nails can do(to some extent) a basic residential roof. I don't know about you guys but we still have unlicensed workers on the grind everyday around here. Nobody gives a shit, and I don't report because I have SOME belief in entrepreneurship and we stay busy anyways. I bid a labor only job the other day for a basic 18sq tearoff. I was $1000 higher than his other bidder who he says is licensed. So this other guy is giving away his work because he is competing w/ all these low ballers, and we are all losing money because of it. I thought I gave the guy a decent price too.

---A friend of mine washes windows in high rise buildings. He got a big ticket for being tied off to an air conditioner unit. The rule requires a certified tie off anchor point not just some fixture or appliance. Now that air conditioner could probably have handled 25,000 lbs before it would move an inch but it was not allowed anyway by the inspector. ---The trouble is that half the buildings he works on have no certified tie off anchor. The building owner is not willing to cough up whatever thousand $$$ it would take to install one correctly. So rather than risk another even greater fine he is letting all accounts go that will not meet the codes. ---The building owner will simply hire someone else to do the exact same thing. They will get the account until they get inspected and fined. And so it goes... ---It is too bad the building owner doesn't get the fine because if he did I can assure you the correct tie off anchor point would appear immediately. Lanny

Oh come on, the guys you have working independent don't give 2 zitts. That's why they are working that way. They are working, $$$ in pocket, that's it. Don't tell me you don't know that. I know that. PC

Absolutely ridiculous.

Questions:

Are the roofers who sub as independant contractors or the sole owners/roofers who work alone required to follow these regulations?

and,

If a worker is injured in a fall and there was an improper restraint system in place, what are the legal ramifications for the owner?

No matter what. Safety cost, include it in your bid for time and materials . 2 grand in safety equipement of the average crew of 4. Tie off rachet reels will be the fastest way to move around and not be triping over ropes. if you have more than 4-5 men on roof then invest in railing system and charge the labor to install. Don't be a suppress roofer thinking you are to eat it. Only thing is the two man or three man crew that are all individual business people will have to do nothing.

This is a continuation of the parasitic natural our country has been falling into. Some one else is always responsible for your actions.. Just what we need and the country needs is increase overhead costs. On a 4-12 roof or less this ruling is just not right. Another liberal blood sucking parasitic money grubing action that slows business and does nothing for life safety. Don't blame OSHA, they just follow the law. This roofer is not so happy.

:(

Washington State Labor and Industries, (a combination of both wc carrier and safety inspectors for the state) used to send out a newsletter to all employers. In it, there would be the results of the state's investigation of work related fatal accidents. It did a service by allowing employers a little insight into the causes and how to prevent them. Cave-ins while excavating seemed to be the biggest cause.

The only roof related death that I recall was related to a tear-off. It was a single story, lower-pitch hillside roof. The bed of the truck for debris was uphill and almost level with the eave of the roof. A couple of planks spanned about 10'.The distance to the ground ranged from about 8' down to truck-bed hieght.

A laborer hired for that day to carry the debris from the roof to the truck, vision blocked by an armload, stepped over the side and fell less than 6'. It was the head hitting the retaining wall that got him. I remember wondering whether I would have foresaw that. I've used planks to deliver tile from the truck to the roof, but the guy on the plank is just relaying the tile and not walking back and forth continually. But if I did have the planks for someone to carry debris across, I hope I would have had the foresight to tell the guy "don't carry so much that it blocks your vision" and not just think "wow, that guy really is a good worker, carrying that much." It turned out to be a life-or-death decision. But in any case, the ropes wouldn't have helped in that case.