The boss asked me to look into harnesses and anchors for roof work. We've just been careful in the past, but want to be a little safer. What I can't figure out, and Youtube isn't much of a help, is how to anchor to an existing ridge when there is a vent installed. Most of the videos show a roof in progress where you can see the rafters. On a finished roof I can't see the rafters and don't want to compromise the safety the anchor provides. How do you do it?

Matt

Good topic Matt, looking forward to this discussion, I get a ton of metal roofs that had standing seams (found some special anchors for these, pricey, but strong). Think roof safety and equipment could be its own forum on here, to the betterment of us all....

Personally, going to take a course this year for some of the trickier things I like to do that relate a bit to houses but more to other structures for surveys and so forth.

Okay, lets here from the folks who have been doing this a long time...

Justin

I have done a tremendous amount of research on this topic over the years. The challenge with some of the anchors, is following the instructions to the letter. It is literally akin to following a pesticide label.

I think that this one is the best for fall protection or positioning on finished homes.
http://superanchor.com/rsSeries.php

The building codes ought to require permanent roof anchors be installed on every home...so painters, satellite TV installers can access safely after construction.

The thing that would stop me from leaving a permanent roof anchor up there is what happens if it fails at some time in the future? Is the roofer, or ADC guy, going to get sued?

There are anchors available through roofing distributors that will mount below the ridgelines, or onto the ribs of metal etc. You wont find many different models at HD, etc, but, the roofing distributors will have these other product lines.

Lots of stuff out there to safely work on these roofs, just do a little roof anchor specific searching and you should find what you need. ABC supply has a lot of different models in stock.

Is this the ABC Supply that you were talking about?

http://www.abcsupply.com/

They have a local store!

True DaveK, I loved last year getting on one of the ski places and seeing they had a permanent track built in that you could hook to for roof work.

I agree though with EBL on the future use of such a system. With rock climbing routes it is climber beware, but if you leave it on a house I'd say it might
be a worry or could be at least unless you put that in your contract maybe?

For my standing seams last year I finally found a product that when you hear the name will make you laugh, but they are rock solid on standing seams.

I have two of their units and they are solid!

https://www.constructionspecialtyanchors.com/

I think they were going for a product that works on seams, so seamsafe, however to my better half it was saying "I dunno, seems safe!"



http://www.ussafetyequipment.com/

I also get sherril tree and rocknrescue catalogs, all have great products for a variety of safety situations.

There is another one with the tagline... "we help you work high" that you've got to appreciate!

Stay safe, looking forward to more discussion on this,

Justin

yes

When using roof anchors, the first step is to make sure they are OSHA/ANSI certified. The next step is to figure out if you want temporary or permanent mount. A good online store to look at a lot of different overpriced models is www.grainer.com.

For most anchors, the instructions "require" attaching the anchor with 16d nails to one of the roof rafters regardless if they are permanent or temporary. Of course, there are exceptions like the anchor for standing seam metal roofs and those that require a section of roof be removed so they can use a bigger gripping surface against the sheathing so you don't have to use the nails.

OSHA/ANSI doesn't care if you have to remove shingles or ridge vents to install the anchors, however there are other options if you don't want to get into all that work. The first option is to use roof brackets. Then there are multiple ridge hook systems that can be attached to the ladder, the roof itself, or like the ultimate ridge hook be able to go on top of the vent. It needs noted that some of these systems, such as the ultimate ridge hook, are not meant to use as actual anchors for fall protection but rather as anchors for placing or building scaffolding systems.

For purchasing, check your local Home Depot, Lowes, Menards, and some wildlife control supply stores like WCS. The anchors may be part of a fall protection kit or sold separately. For instance, Home Depot sells a temporary anchor for $15 that is sold through Grainger at $65. ABC is offering a "new" permanent anchor in their catalog this year that can be installed anywhere under asphalt shingles (in three colors), but it does stick up from the roof unlike the permanent bands with D rings on either side that can be mounted under a ridge vent.

Justin, back in my framing days one of the first questions we would ask an applicant was "do you like to get high"?

Not what it seemed but if you can't climb a scaffold to set rafters you aren't getting high. Of course with framers we often got the other response.

Gotta love it and with the framers I grew up with, I can agree with the second statement too!

Oops, I thought you guys were talking about getting high with farmers. Never mind.

Thanks for the thread. Was just talking about this today.

http://www.guardianfall.com/performance-...anchor-1-d-ring

Click on Download Instructions and look at the bottom of page 12. It looks like they have the anchor laying above an existing ridge vent. When I look up the part number the strap doesn't look long enough. I'll probably get a chance to sit down at the office and call next week. They might have different length straps.

Matt

Matt,

Those are meant to go under the ridge vent. For anything to go over them they would have to be a minimum of 14 inches long. You can also click on the "video" to see how easy it is to remove one top shingle and install it. LOL

Yeah, shingle removal has never gone that quickly for me.