Safety on your roofs – A look at Guardrail systems

Many of the newly constructed buildings nowadays allow for the tenants to have access to the roof. This is a great thing for most of the parties involved but some take this ‘feature’ with a grain of salt and with good reason too.

Some of these roofs which are easily accessible even to kids are not as safe as they may be perceived to be. Without a proper roof guardrail system in place, the whole rooftop area is nothing but a danger zone.

Roof Safety

In order to achieve proper or sustainable roof safety, a number of factors come into play. Firstly off, if anyone is to have access to the rooftop, simply having a roof guardrail system isn’t going to cut it where safety is concerned. More safety measures have to be put in place.

i Roof walkway systems

These are essentially ‘paths’ via which people can navigate around areas of the roof. They should be made of strong material which can also be easy to use and access no matter the prevailing weather situation.

ii. Monitored access

Knowing who has accessed the roof and when is also important in ensuring the safety of your building tenants.

iii. Implementation of fall protection and anchorage equipment

This is in the case of an ongoing construction on a rooftop. The safety of your workers should always be prioritized.

Getting back to the main topic at hand, guardrail systems play a big role in roof safety. To ensure they do what is required of them, you have to consider a number of qualities pertaining to them before having them installed.

Qualities of a good guardrail system

i. Preserves the roof’s integrity

By this I mean that the fixings of the guardrails shouldn’t permeate through the roof. In the event of this occurring, the roof may suffer damage and continue doing so till it eventually starts to leak. This simply adds onto the safety hazards already present on the surface of the roof.

ii. Well anchored

The guardrails should be properly fitted so that whenever they don’t loosen up their grip over time. This would be disastrous in the event they’re called into action and instead of providing support to prevent the fall they simply give in to the weight.

Iii.Made of strong materials

Rather, industry approved materials I should say. The proper kind of material is needed for this kind of important security feature.

Iv. Meets Industry regulations

Guardrail systems have a number of regulations imposed on them to ensure the safety of all rooftop goers. Things like height, width, strength of the material and other aspects need to be considered when installing a guardrail in your rooftop area.

All in all

Ensuring the safety of your roof is an important matter that can be achieved fairly simply. Consulting with industry approved professionals is the best way to go about this process and you can rest assured that the safety of anyone who accesses your rooftop will be guaranteed.