Skylights hold like a sheet of glass
A skylight looks like roof and holds like a window. That is the whole hazard in one sentence.
The points
- A skylight reads as part of the roof and holds like a pane of glass. People fall through them every year in this trade.
- Cover it, screen it, or guardrail it, and mark it so nobody has to work it out in low light.
- A cover has to carry twice the weight of the people, equipment and material that could be on it, and be secured so wind cannot move it.
- Old fiberglass panels and rusted decking look solid from above. Probe before you trust the walk.
- Do not back up on a roof. Many falls through a surface happen to someone walking backwards carrying material.
Why it goes wrong
Falls through a roof surface are their own category, separate from falls off the edge, and skylights are a leading cause of them. The reason is not carelessness. It is that a skylight sits flush, gets covered in dust and moss until it reads as the same color as the deck, and gives a walking person no signal at all.
A cover has to do two jobs. It has to carry at least twice the weight of the people, equipment and material that could be on it at one time, and it has to be secured so wind cannot move it - an unsecured cover that slides six inches leaves a hole with a lid next to it. Marking it matters as much as the strength, because the next crew up there did not watch you install it.
Old fiberglass panels and rusted metal decking are the same problem without the name. From above, a panel that has been in the sun for twenty years looks identical to one installed last year, and it has lost most of its strength to UV. If you cannot see the underside, probe before you commit weight.
Walking backwards is a behavior that kills. Pulling a hose, dragging material, laying out a run - it all happens facing the work rather than the direction of travel, and every hazard you identified in the morning is now behind you.
Questions for the crew
- How many skylights or openings are on this roof? Does everyone know where they are?
- Are the covers we have strong enough and actually fastened down?
- What are we doing today that has someone walking backwards?
To close
Walk the roof with me before anyone works up there and we will mark every one of them.
To hold this talk with your crew
1
Read it aloud. Five minutes, before the work starts.
2
Ask the questions. A crew that talks is a crew that remembers.
3
Have them sign on their own phones, and the record is sealed.