Rooftop guardrail products are being used nowadays in order to provide a working environment that is as safe as it gets. These are free standing systems that provide protection around the edges. Apart from that companies are also coming up with other such products such as roof and skylight hatch railing products. All these are designed with the precise intention of making sure that workers do not fall below when they are working at height.
What do the guidelines say?
These days, fall protection guidelines in Australia make it impossible to ignore the importance of something like a roof guardrail system. These rules and regulations make it quite clear that companies have to look at the workplace and assess it properly in order to determine if the working or walking surface where they are working is strong and structurally sound enough to support them in a safe manner.
The importance of fall protection
This is where the fall protection systems are so very important in this day and age. They make sure that there are no accidents when people are working at a certain height. As far as being a precaution to stop workers from falling to their deaths or any grievous and debilitating injury is concerned these systems are unparalleled for sure. These are basically blocking devices that we are talking about over here and their primary responsibility is to lower to the minimum the chances of people falling from heights that are otherwise dangerous to work on. It could be that they are working on a leading edge or an access point.
They could be working on a roof, a walkway, or a building. All of these areas pose a great threat to their overall well being and much of this is because of their heights.
The requirements to be kept in mind in this regard
While choosing such a system, it is very important that you place it at least a meter above the ground or to any other level that is sufficient enough in these cases. This is true for all workplaces where people are working at a height such as traffic routes. This is applicable for hatches, openings, and skylights of all kinds. The main locations in these cases would be the likes of controlled access zones, evacuation areas, leading edges, holes such as skylights, and roofing, to name a few.
Criteria with respect to choosing guardrails
If as an employer you are choosing a guardrail in order to make sure that your employees do not fall down while working at a height it is very important that you keep a few things in mind. The top rails and mid rails of the guardrail system that you have chosen should have a minimum thickness or nominal diameter of a quarter inch. This would make sure that your workers do not receive lacerations or cuts while working on the same. If you are using wire ropes for guardrails it should not be flagged at an interval of more than 6 feet.
