A word from one of our safety professionals.....
"Regarding walking on roof tops, metal or membrane roofing. In todays new roofing material such as synthetic rubber, thermoplastic (PVC or similar material), or modified bitumen. Membrane roofing and metal roofing are becoming the most popular type of roofing material on modern commerical buildings and for good reason, most of these new materials such as membrane roofing and metal roofing can last much longer and require less maintenance. However, these type of roofs can be lethal to workers when walking on wet or frosty roofs, servicing air conditioning units, air exchangers, air exhaust, heating and plumbing vents.During the dry months walking on these roofs is not a problem but when colder weather comes along, like early morning frost or worst still SNOW!, walking on these roof tops is a dangerous occupation and can casue injury or death, due to workers sliding off the end of roof tops etc. ..
Fall protection can stop the long falls but the slips and slides are still an injury related problem.
The draw back with these roofs is that they cannot be penetrated easily as to not cause leaks and other problems. Up until now to install catwalks and stairways you needed to penetrate these roofs and the maintenance is endless, not anymore, so what can be done?
Lately there is now on the market a new type of catwalk and/or straiway that is non-penetrating, attaching to the roof without penetrating the roof - catwalks and stairways that can be fixed as perminate as the building roof itself and never penetrate the roof. Never again do you need to worry about walking on a slipper roof, these systems can be installed anywhere on the roof and follow any path required.
http://www.fallsafe.net/form.php
