OSHA

The rules take effect June 16. No resi exception now.

roofer; Nothing new there....Always been that way....There was an exception for res. a few years ago..maybe they've repealed that?

Egg, I know you love facts. My boys knew when they were safe or not. Truly. Took precautions. The newbies were the problem, they had to be babysat. Even my veterens would tell me this was a tough one, a little scary. Some of my boys were monkeys, nothing scared them. We had commercial jobs where they were required to wear hard hats, long pants , shirts on, regardless of weather conditions.

My boys were my boys , they found their way around it. PC

"...Over 5,700 men or woman died from preventable falls last year...."

I just love statistics. In our industry: 40 Doesn't matter how many ropes. Doesn't matter how many hardhats. Doesn't 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

Lanny, I definitely know of WSHA residential inspections. In fact 2 of the last 3 new houses I worked on had inspections. With the new construction slowdown, my guess is every project with a building permit gets an inspection.

We had jobs that required full clothing. In summer my boys would be close to naked as possible. So they would wear sweat pants, pull them pull them down. hahahahahahaha

I believe in the safety but some of the safety gets in the way. IMO PC

Job sites commercial , eyes were open and calls came out OSHA on board.

I understand the objective, but these boys aren't doing the job.

Like everything else, you have to walk in the shoes. :dry: PC

"---I have always enjoyed the "hard hat" rule for roofers. I suppose bird doo is a problem in some areas. But I know that nobody is dropping anything on us when we are on the roof." That's been off the books since '72 when OSHA and I had a run-in on a Ramada Inn. They decided that I was right and the hard hat wouldn't help if the sky or a plane hit any if us up there. The hard hat rule is in effect ONLY from the ground, to ladder use, until you step onto the roof. Hard hats did injure several people that got hit when 40+ gusts took them from a roofer's head and the hard hat hit somebody on the ground though.

---Fall protection has been the rule in Washington state for years. We always have harnesses on the job although we don't always have them on on one story 4/12 roofs. The Dept. of L&I has a long list of compliance issues when they show up to do a safety check. ---Ropes are not really a big deal on a roof. They can be annoying but you get used to them and work accordingly. You learn not to step on them on a 7/12! The rule has always been 10 feet but I think it changed to 6 feet awhile back. ---I have never heard of an OSHA inspection on a residential roof. I suppose they happen but how many inspectors are there? Our state enforces their own rules and most of the time an inspection occurs when a competitor calls in a violation. I know of one large company that has company policy to call in competitors. ---I have always enjoyed the "hard hat" rule for roofers. I suppose bird doo is a problem in some areas. But I know that nobody is dropping anything on us when we are on the roof. Lanny

Soldierboy: How do you protect your men's feet from nails?

They now make a safety rail system for the residential roofer. I spent 2 hours in a meeting with OSHA along with about 20 other roofing companies. We were going over the new directive, the rule has always been there they just never enforced it. I just researched online for about 5 minutes and found a place that has them. We have no intention of buying them as we have 100' safety lines with harnesses that we invested in for our employees. We will be bringing these safety fences up in the next company meeting on equipment. We have been in complience with the new directive since last year. It has made us raise our prices but we make sure the homeowner sees the difference between our companies and others. They need to pay us more because we are taking every precaution not to have accidents on their property. Hope everyone who has 1099 guys along with employees understands that they are gunning for companies that do not comply with the new laws. Their fines start at $7,000 and only let you get a 30% decrease. Of course that's $7,000 for every issue. If they are using air guns without having safety glasses on that's another fine. No way to protect the workers feet from nails, another fine. It won't end until you have a safety program in place and work that system.. It's our duty and moral obligation to protect our workforce and keep them within the laws written to protect them. If business owners don't care about those that work for them then they aren't worth the spit on the bottom of a boot. Things sure have changed since I started roofing but I won't say they are going in the wrong direction. Over 5,700 men or woman died from preventable falls last year. Can you imagine being that company that has to explain to the children, wife or husband, Mom or Dad on why they didn't make their employee stay in complience? Just imagine for a minute that the ranch your working on someone slips and falls just 6'. They land on their head and die. Just imagine your pants soiling because you knew to keep them in complience. You had an accident on your jobsite that was preventable but now you have someones death on your shoulders. Could you live with yourself if you didn't prevent this death? Roofers, Laborers, and the workers that must wear these harnesses, hard hats, work boots, etc. will complain and whine everyday for a solid month. Eventually, they settle themselves down and it becomes normal for them to be in complience. Now, you have a workforce that can prevent that death. Cheating death? Maybe. Our company sleeps well at night knowing we have done everything in our power as humans to help prevent that death waiting to happen.

Soldierboy

When I first started getting serious about compliance, I had to revise almost all procedures and take a price increase. Besides the rope/cord/hose tangle mess, I also had the potential avalanche of tile stacked. It required me to only have two men on a side at a time, to start laying over 5 or 6 tiles at a time in vertical rows and constantly move the rope-to-roof attachment as the side was layed. I initially had pretty good luck at being in compliance with ropes back when you could use a safety belt and I used climbing gear as rope attachment. That allowed easy adjustment. Eventually both of these were disallowed.

The harness with the back rings aren't workable as to adjusting rope length. I constantly see people roped up with so much slack in the rope that the man would be over the edge (or even hit the ground) before it tightened up to arrest the fall. I use a positioning harness with rings on the sides as well as the back.

I think all OSHA inspectors should be required to wear a harness and dragging lanyard around the office for one day a month. It wouldn't take long before they came to realize "this is stupid, annoying, unnecessary, the lanyard is constantly catching on things, the harness is bunching up on me, it's increasing anger and making the whole workplace hostile."

twill59 Said: not sure if you can get out of this one by subbing or 1099ing your employees cts

I'm a 'one-man show'. I have no secretary, employees, etc. Just little old me and I don't take anything that I can't handle by myself.

not sure if you can get out of this one by subbing or 1099ing your employees cts

Sounds like alot of fines in 2011 I'm blaming obama for this too!

roofer Said: How are you suppose to walk the tear off on a 3/12 to 8/12 roof and throw it in the dump truck without crossing lines and tripping up?

Haven't you ever played 'jump rope' before? :lol:

Ppl (OSHA) aren't born with common sense anymore.

Let's see... I got an air hose and electric cord stretched out across the roof. Hey, why not throw a rope on there too. I pity you guys that have employees. - there's going to be so much hose, lines, cords ...talk about dangerous conditions.