Fall protection harnesses are a convenient and safe alternative. Though fall protection harnesses have become comfortable to use in recent years, not all roofers take them as seriously as they should. Failure to use a fall protection system properly results in many falls a year and an average of 37 fatalities per year in the United States. Therefore, keeping up to date on how to use a fall protection harness and other safety training is essential. This guide will walk you through the basics of what an approved personal fall arrest system PFAS should look like and how to use it properly.
First, you need to know when you should be using a roof safety harness. As a professional roofer, it is mandatory you use a PFAS when working from a certain height. In the most jurisdictions in the United States, the OSHA requires you to use a PFAS if you are working on a high-sloped roof that is six or more feet off the ground and not using guardrails and safety nets.
Or, if you are working on a low-sloped roof of or less, which is also 6 feet off the ground, you have the option to use a PFAS or a few different combinations of guardrail and warning line systems.
However, you should always check with your local regulations, which may differ from this national standard. Safety regulations vary in Canada by province. However, in most provinces, including Ontario , British Columbia and Alberta , a worker must wear a personal fall arrest system if he or she can fall from a height of 3 meters or more and does not have guardrails.
Before you rush out and buy a harness, you should know that there are two main types of harnesses. In both Canada and the United States, safety regulations make a distinction between PFAS and travel restraints, which are more commonly called fall restraints in the United States.
Fall or travel restraints, when used properly, stop you from working at the edges of the roof. When you wear a travel restraint, you cannot reach the edge and fall. In contrast, a PFAS allows you to work on the edge of the roof, but prevents you from hitting the ground when you fall, so long as it is used correctly. A roofer should use a PFAS, as he or she must often reach the edge of the roof to do his or her work. Further, a travel restraint system may not offer enough protection to meet your safety requirements.
In this article, we will discuss only how to use a PFAS. Local regulations and standards will require your anchor point to hold a certain amount of force. No roofer weighs 5, pounds of course, but anyone can generate significantly more force than their weight when falling. Your regulations may require a different weight, so be sure to check. PFAS harnesses have different weight ratings, so check the label. Also, when you buy a fall protection harness, keep in mind that it is wise to buy a full roof safety harness kit, instead of buying the harness, lifeline, lanyard, rope grab and anchor point separately.
You want to be sure each part of your safety harness is meant to work together, as there are different ways the rope may attach to the harness and anchor, depending on how the system is meant to work.
When you buy a roof safety harness kit, you know each piece will work together. Now that you understand what a fall protection harness is and when you should use it, we can detail how to use it properly.
Before you get on the roof or put the fall protection harness on, there are a few things you need to do:. It is the minimum vertical distance between the dorsal D-ring on your harness the metal ring found on the back of the harness between your shoulder blades and the lower level of the roof or the ground that is necessary to avoid hitting the ground.
Your local regulations will restrict how far your PFAS can allow you to fall. Also, it must not allow you to contact the ground or a lower roof level. To do so, you need to add up the following measurements:. The sum of all of these measurements is your fall distance.
If your total fall distance is equal to or more than the distance you could fall, you need to shorten some element of the PFAS, typically the lanyard, to ensure you will not hit the ground.
Now, you need to install the anchor point on the roof. Be sure to select the nail or screw the manufacturer lists, install it in the correct place such as into a truss. Add as many nails or screws as the manufacturer lists and do not skip any steps. There may be no single, safe way to reach the peak of a steep slope roof to properly install your anchor point. We recommend that you contact your local safety authority, such as OSHA or NRCA representatives, to get their best advice on how to handle this critical part of fall safety in your specific region.
If you use a PFAS system, you will typically attach your lifeline to the anchor as your manufacturer recommends. You then attach your rope grab and lanyard to the lifeline. First, inspect and don your harness, and ensure it is safe and comfortable. Attach the lanyard the shock absorber end to the D- ring, which is located on the back of your harness. You may need help, so do this on the ground. If you use an SRL system, attach it to your anchor directly unless it has an integrated anchor system.
Then, attach the snap hook end to your dorsal D-ring. The benefit of this more complicated system is that the SRL acts like a seatbelt and eliminates the possibility of a fall, when used correctly. The last step to using your fall protection harness properly is to keep the system taut at all times. Avoid extreme distance to reduce the chances of a pendulum effect should you fall.
Refer to your fall distance calculations and recalculate as necessary. When you need to move on to another part of the roof, you need to move the anchor point with you. To save time and increase safety, some roofers will install multiple anchor points and then simply switch between them as they move across the roof. Most of them have pull down belts, you might want to consider pull down lap belts adjustments that make it much easier to tighten the belts once in the seat.
Top of the lines harnesses will also have a anti-submarine belt adjustment that will be easier than can be done without having to go under the seat for adjusting which is very convenient if the seat is shared between several individuals especially in endurance racing or rally with different codrivers. Below are pictures of a 6 and 7 points harnesses 5 points are being phased out due to their inferior performance in preventing submarining.
The ARA rule 2. Make sure the seatbelt attachment points are going to give the right angles to the belts. Check your harness manufacturer manual for correct angles and mounting instructions, see below some examples from the Schroth installation manual and the FIA diagram on seatbelt angles.
Using eye bolts will clip on buckles will be much easier to install and get the correct angles than bolts on that will keep the belt in a fixed position. The most common mistake is to attach the belts to the seat mounts or support. The other common mistake is improper anchoring points when stock mounting points are not used. Here are the main rules about the anchoring points:. From FIA Article edition : 'The shoulder straps may also be fixed to the safety cage or to a reinforcement bar by means of a loop, and may also be fixed to the top anchorage points of the rear belts, or be fixed or leaning on a transverse reinforcement welded between the backstays of the cage see Drawing or on transverse tubular reinforcements according to Drawings , B, , , , B, or In this case, the use of a transverse reinforcement is subject to the following conditions :.
The transverse reinforcement must be a tube measuring at least 38 mm x 2. It is typical to have a 10 degree angle, make sure you have your seats test fitted in the car before your cage builder welds the harness bars in as they will have to match with the height of the holes in the seat for the proper angle once the driver is seated. Make sure your belts are wrapped properly, you are supposed to go 3 times through the buckle.
Check the tutorial below:. The rules state that 'It is prohibited for the seat belts to be anchored to the seats or their supports. However, on some cars, the 3 point belt anchor might have been attached to the factory seat. In this case, it is necessary to create a new anchoring point. The rules specify 'For each new anchorage point created, a steel reinforcement plate with a surface area of at least 40 cm2 and a thickness of at least 3 mm must be used'.
The configuration below uses the stock anchoring point of the car, note that the mounting point near the transmission tunnel also sandwiches the seat mount. This is a legal installation. This is where we see the most mistakes with incorrect mounting points or angles. These belts are also commonly called sub belts or crotch belts.
Once again, the rules state 'It is prohibited for the seat belts to be anchored to the seats or their supports. You cannot use any of the components in the red area in the picture below to secure your lap belts or anti-submarine belts not that any of those components would offer a correct mounting angle anyway :.
The angle for a 6 point harness is about 2" rearward of the hole in the seat as shown in the pic below from the SFI Foundation installation guide. If you have a 7 point harness, the 7th point must be installed like a 5 point belt anti-submarine belt, 20 to 25 degree FORWARD of the seat hole not behind like the 6 points.
A common option is to use an eye bolt with a washer and a backing plate under the floor. Note that the bottom nut might still be exposed to impacts and might require additional underbody protection.
Subaru GD chassis have a reinforcement just under the seat that will protect the bolts but might require the backing plates to be bent to conform the to the shape of the reinforcement depending on the location of your eye bolts. A better option is to have a dedicated bar as shown below that is welded to the chassis like the seat mounting bars.
This way you don't rely on the floor pan for securing any belt. You just loop the anti-submarine belts around the bar like you would do for the shoulder belts. This is particularly useful on older cars like Subaru GCs that don't have any floor protection and let the nuts and backing plates exposed under the car. There have been a number of counterfeit harnesses over the years, most of them are sold on eBay.
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