Roof work and fragile surfaces

This talk is about work on a roof today: the edge, the opening, and any surface that might not hold a person. HSE's roof work page says the law requires all roof work to be organised and planned so it is carried out safely. It also says all work on roofs is highly dangerous, even if a job only takes a few minutes, and that proper precautions are needed to control the risk. The people doing the work have to be trained, competent and instructed in the precautions. HSE says a method statement is the common way to manage roof work and to tell the people involved what those precautions are. On business premises, contractors should work closely with the client and agree how the work will be managed. I read that page, the fragile surfaces page, and leaflet GEIS5 on 20 October 2026.

HSE's roof work page gives the scale, and I am using its words rather than a newer count of my own. Almost one in five deaths in construction work involve roof work. Some of those people are specialist roofers. Many are repairing or cleaning roofs. The main causes of death and injury are falling from roof edges or openings, through fragile roofs, and through fragile rooflights. HSE says many of those accidents could be avoided if the most suitable equipment was used, and if the people doing the work were given adequate information, instruction, training and supervision. Falls from roof edges happen on commercial and domestic jobs, and on new build and refurbishment. HSE says many deaths each year involve smaller builders working on the roof of domestic dwellings. A short repair on a house is still this talk.

Access has to be planned, particularly where the work moves along the roof. HSE's typical methods are a general access scaffold, a stair tower, a fixed or mobile scaffold tower, mobile access equipment, ladders, and a roof access hatch. For sloping roofs, HSE says scaffolding is required to stop people or materials falling from the edge. Edge protection has to be fitted to the eaves of any roof, and on a terraced property to the rear as well as the front. Where the work is short duration, which HSE describes as tasks measured in minutes, properly secured ladders to get onto the roof, and proper roof ladders, may be used. That is not a reason to skip the edge protection on a longer job, and it is not a reason to walk the tiles because the ladder is already up. The ladders talk on this site is how to use a ladder when it is the right kit. This talk is whether the roof is the right place to be.

Flat roofs are the same family of harm. HSE says falls from flat roof edges can be prevented by simple edge protection: a secure double guardrail and toeboard around the edge. If that is not there, we do not start and call it a quick look.

Fragile surfaces are the part people trust because the sheet looks solid. HSE's fragile surfaces page says a fragile surface will not safely support the weight of a person and any materials they are carrying. All roofs, once fixed, should be treated as fragile until a competent person has confirmed they are not. The roof work page says the same thing, and it adds this: do not trust any sheeted roof, whatever the material, to bear the weight of a person. That includes the roof ridge and the purlins. The surfaces HSE says are likely to be fragile are non-reinforced fibre-cement sheets, whatever the profile; rooflights, particularly those in the roof plane that are hard to see in some light or hidden by paint; liner panels on built-up sheeted roofs; corroded metal sheets; glass, including wired glass; rotted chipboard or similar; and wood wool slabs, slates and tiles. A painted-over rooflight is still a rooflight.

HSE's fragile surfaces page gives a figure I am not replacing. Falls through fragile surfaces, particularly fibre-cement roofs and rooflights, account for 22 percent of all fall-from-height fatal injuries in the construction industry. People doing roof work and building maintenance can die or be permanently disabled. Small, short-term maintenance and cleaning jobs are over-represented in those injuries. GEIS5, HSE's leaflet on fragile roofs, says falls through fragile roofs and fragile roof lights account for almost a fifth of all the fatal accidents which result from a fall from height in the construction industry, and that on average 7 people are killed each year after falling through a fragile roof or fragile roof light. Many others suffer permanent disabling injury. Those are HSE's figures. I have not updated them. The deaths GEIS5 describes occur mainly in building maintenance, often on factories, warehouses and farm buildings, during repair or cleaning.

The order is HSE's, and it applies no matter how short the job, whether the work is construction, maintenance, repair, cleaning or demolition. First, avoid the surface. Plan the work so people stay away from fragile surfaces so far as possible, for example by working from below on a mobile elevating work platform or another suitable platform. GEIS5 says the same thing as a MEWP that lets people work from inside the basket without standing on the roof, and it describes replacing sheets from underneath. If someone still has to go onto a fragile roof, the control is a combination of stagings, guard rails, fall restraint, fall arrest, and safety nets slung beneath and close to the roof. GEIS5 adds perimeter edge protection, stagings on the roof to spread the load, and guard rails on the work and access platforms. If that cannot be done, nets underneath, or a harness. A harness needs adequate anchorage points, and it has to be used properly, which HSE ties to discipline, training and supervision. Proprietary covers, temporary or permanent, stop someone falling through when they pass or work near fragile material. The roof work page says rooflight protection is barriers or covers that are secured and labelled with a warning. Warning notices go on the approach to any fragile surface. The people at risk have to be told the precautions. The people doing the work have to be trained and instructed. The safe system also has to protect the people who are installing the nets, the covers and the edge protection. On a business premises, agree that system with the client.

What we do before anyone goes up today: can the job be done from underneath or from a basket; what is stopping a fall at the eaves, including the back of a terrace; who has said this roof is not fragile; which sheets and painted rooflights we are treating as fragile anyway; whether the covers are secured and labelled; and where a harness would actually anchor if we are down to that. If the answer is that we will be careful, we do not go up.