OSHA paid me a site visit today

The Garage Safety
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OSHA does exist. They paid me a visit on the job site today.

Lucky for me the guy was smoking a cigar and “off-the-clock”, but he sure did have a lot to say and a pamphlet ready about ladder safety. He happened to be a neighbor of today’s client and his wife “begged him not to bug” me.

Below is what he had to say:

In Oregon here, he said, if your lowest gutter line of the roof you’re walking is more than 10’, then you MUST be tied off to an anchor point that has been fastened to the peak of the roof and rated for 5,000lbs (the safety piece will state this) with “all nail holes filled”. I asked about removing the vent and tying off to the trusses/studs, tying to a tree, weights or even your truck bumper and he just laughed. He said, in their office, those “tie-offs” are the running jokes of the industry.

He asked if a 200lb weight with a 150lb guy tied to it could withstand the effect of the 6’ fall and 900lbs of torque/tension created when you fall that 6 feet. The answer was, “No.” There are systems in place for a reason.

Anything above 10’ is a “death-fall” and a $50 fine could turn into a $1500 fine. If you’re a SP, they have “almost no jurisdiction over you (unless it involves a ‘death fall’)”, if you’re an LLC or Corp or they can prove that you’ve had employees/subs (even as a SP) in the past 12 months or if you’re up there doing something wrong in front of someone else while being paid for it, they can cite you and give a crazy, yet justifiable, fine for “being a bad example.”

His best advice for me was to take a safety course and said to have the ladder extend 3 feet above the gutter line when walking onto the roof (which could have been a citation for me, today) and not to get too close to a side edge of the roof.

Take home points:

Take a class on roof/ladder safety.
Measure your gutter heights before stepping on the roof.
Extend the ladder 3’ above the gutter line when stepping on the roof.
Only tie off to anchor points that are properly installed and have been rated at 5k lbs.
Don’t tie off to anything other than a 5k lb anchor point with “all holes filled”.

These systems are all in place for a reason and developed from the examples of the many that have lost their lives to improper techniques.

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Did you charge him for all the time he wasted you on that job with his verbage? Lol

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I though you might appreciate that he complimented my black tie.

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Nice to know Garrett. You should also be careful with the videos if they show something that should not be done in their eyes.

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OSHA regulations only apply to companies of certain sizes here in CA and owners are exempt from OSHA regs if they are the ones on site

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Osha is watching more than you think… Thanks for the tips Garrett

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where on any roof are the “pre-installed” anchor points?

Let’s see I have been on hundreds of roofs. Out here in so cal less than 5% are shingles the rest tile. I can see on on a shingled roof drilling holes then caulking them when finished. But on a tile roof? So do I bust a tile to anchor on? remove it?
I thought a recent thread I started on roof anchoring pretty much concluded that there is nowhere on a roof to anchor.

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To me it seems like there should be some middle ground between the extreme safety precautions of some of the OSHA guys and the rambo mentality of the rule breakers. I don’t think it is always safer to have the ladder extend 3 feet above the roof line (as an example). Swinging yourself around the top of the ladder presents it’s own problems - throwing yourself off balance, accidentally twisting the ladder etc. I like this solution better.

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I currently use the ladder max standoff for gutter cleaning and roof access. It’s the only OSHA approved standoff for accessing the roof. I use my Werner quick click stand-off for placing the ladder against the side of the house for window cleaning, but for placing the ladder against the roof, I thing the ladder max works better (different angle, goes over the roof).

I did a job one time where I had to climb onto the roof to clean a skylight. The back of the house was the easiest access point since the house was built on an incline and the back was the lowest point. I set up my little giant in a-frame position on the deck so I could climb the 5 feet onto the roof. The homeowner, apparently, was employed as some sort of safety inspector. He said that he had “some serious reservations” about how I was getting on the roof. I told him that I don’t like to lean a ladder against the gutter on a slippery deck because the ladder will slip out from under you when you go to stand on it. I had the a-frame ladder bungee corded to the gutter, by the way. I would need a 24 foot extension ladder if I wanted to access the roof from anywhere else on the house. I didn’t really see why climbing onto the roof from a 5 foot step ladder was so dangerous or why it was preferable to have a straight ladder leaned against the gutter.

Some “safety experts” I have talked to seem like they have never actually done any physical work themselves. Everything they know comes out of a book. I would have more respect for someone (as far as listening to their advice) who has been a tradesman and has used the equipment than for someone who has just studied a manual.

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Better safe than sorry when it comes to safety (and fines). Good post. I was aware of the 3ft over extending the roof line, however I have never used anchor points except on 1 job (CCU, the foreman made me). It actually turned out all there was to tie off to was lightning rods, so he said to wear a harness and make it look like the rope was attached securely, for his safety guys.

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I’m really thinking of a company policy… if you step off the ladder you have to be harnessed in. period. I don’t think i would sleep at night if an employee was seriously injured or died on my watch

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There are anchor points on alot of roofs but if there is not you need to lift a tile up drill and caulk

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Interesting thread. I read this the other day and then tonight I talked to a roofer I know that says OSHA has been very active in our area recently. He said it really picked up last fall and a number of roofers have been busted in our area for $7 or $8K fines. Whoa

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that’s new construction though, right?

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I have never seen a pre installed anchor point.

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They’re on about 20% of the houses in my area but rarely on the roofs that actually need them.

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I’ve never seen an anchor on a house either.

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I’ve seen 2.

  • One on a completely walkable roof with an 8’ gutter height. That guy was sure proud of it.
  • And another on the last house that was built in Lake Oswego who had submitted their drawings on the last day that 33’ gutter height homes could be built. New height regulations in the town only allow a 27’ gutter height.
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and ironically, it seems, one still needs to get to the anchor and disconnect and get back to the ladder without fall protection

unless I am mistaken

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I was wondering this same thing. What protects a person from falling when they are attaching the anchor?

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