When Is Residential Fall Protection Needed?
There are a lot of misconceptions when considering home constructions which ends up with not needing any fall protection method. One of the considerations which lead to this conclusion is the fact that the tasks were only around 6 feet above the ground. The truth however is that despite this seemingly small distance, fall protection is still necessary. Fall protection equipment like safety nets and guard rails can be used.
While in the past, residential construction workers were permitted to work without having the need for residential fall protection methods, the new rules regarding residential fall protection still considers the use of these respective methods even for the workers focused on residential projects and tasks. According to the new rule, residential constructions workers should also familiarize themselves with how the different fall protection methods work. This is also the reason why they are advised to consider two important factors in the task to say if a construction is residential or not:
- The materials used in the construction should be consisted of wood frame materials as well as the corresponding methods.
- Despite the need for the presence of wood frame materials, a construction tasks involve with steel materials but predominantly are made from wood frame materials are still considered residential.
- The end product of the entire construction task is a house or a residential building and structure.
Time Factor as an Important Consideration for Residential Construction
One of the reason why some workers do not consider using fall protection for their task is because of the time frame it would take them to complete the task. For some tasks which would only take an hour at most, most of the workers believe that these tasks do not need the help of a residential fall protection to complete their task. The truth though is that however little time it takes for the workers to accomplish the task, it still does not affect the responsibility of providing fall protection.
What Makes Residential Fall Protection Different than Other Fall Protection Systems
When considering the different fall protection systems, the residential kind is not different in terms of the processes involved or the methods used for protection. In fact, the only reason why it is considered residential is because of the end product of the task or where the task is applied. As long as it involves home construction, it will fall under the residential type of fall protection. The gears, equipment and tools however are similar and would still depend on the preference of the workers or their employer.