Eliminate Safety Hazards with Skylight Fall Protection
Falling through a roof can be worse than falling off a roof. When a worker falls through a skylight, he or she will take broken surface material down with them onto anyone who may be in the room or work space below. For this reason, Tritech Fall Protection Systems provides passive fall protection solutions to meet the needs of rooftop work and walk areas.
Skylights serve the obvious function for a building, but they deliver a serious safety problem. There may be several skylights on a rooftop, usually made of corrugated fiberglass sheets or acrylic domes. Any one of these skylights can become a hazard to work crews.
Skylight Guards
OSHA has laid down minimum requirements for skylight guards. Regulations 29 CFR 1910.23 and 1926.501, which cover skylights, hatches and other openings, state that these items must be protected with a screen or railing on all exposed sides where the drop is greater than six feet. OSHA requires that skylight guards have the structural integrity to safely support a worker. The guards must be fixed, must be able to withstand a vertical force of at least 200 lbs, and must provide deflection in order to prevent the skylight from breaking and falling onto anyone below. A skylight can break and fall onto someone even when the rooftop worker does not fall into the room below.
Skylight Guard Rails
Tritech’s skylight guard rails meet or exceed all OSHA and CSA standards. The guards attach to the skylight or opening’s retaining frame without breaking the roof skin. This feature’s importance includes the fact that installing the guards will not compromise the building owner’s roofing warranty.
The guards are easy to install, increasing their cost-effectiveness, and will withstand any type of adverse weather conditions. This includes withstanding major hail storms, thus protecting the skylights, themselves, from being damaged or weakened before a fall hazard occurs.
Tritech Fall Protection Systems provides standard and customized passive fall protection solutions for all types of roof and roofing material. Our solutions include both guards to cover the skylights, and free standing guard rails to surround an entire roof area.
