It is an industry requirement that roofers tie off with safety anchors on any roof over ten feet. At Roof Life of Oregon, we always take that precaution. It doesn’t matter if it’s a steep pitch roof or a low slope, we will always take the safe route.
If you fall off a roof, even if it’s only ten feet off the ground, and you hit the ground the wrong way, you could be seriously injured or even die. It’s crucial that you follow OSHA’s instructions to tie off to a safety anchor. When we tear off your roof and install a new one, we actually leave permanent safety anchors on the roof. That way, when we come back for maintenance, we can tie off right on those anchors easily.
Unfortunately, not everyone takes this precaution. They harness in and tie off on the steeper roofs, but will just be walking around free on the lower ones. But it’s on the lower roofs that most accidents happen. Complacency leads to major accidents. To make matters worse, a lot of these roofers don’t even carry insurance, which means if they fall off your house, your home insurance will take the hit and those guys will own your house.
The rules are there for a reason. We want to make sure all of our guys get home safely to their families every night. We make sure that they are tied off to those safety anchors no matter what.