The true benefit of the skylight screen is that it continues to protect those who go up on the roof - employees, maintenance people, etc.
If you don’t think you need to be concerned about fall protection where skylights are concerned, just ask Jim Hauer, president of Imperial Roof Systems Co., West Union, Iowa. The company recently did a reroof job for a large retail store in Minnesota where one section of the roof had 130 skylights. “I tripped on one while doing the estimate,” Hauer explains. “I think roof openings are more dangerous than the roof edge.”
The skylights on the store were installed several years ago, and they had no fall protection – on the inside or the outside. Hauer suggested that the client use skylight fall protection. He had experienced a similar situation while working on a food processing plant in Waverly, Iowa. The plant had been cited in a safety audit for a lack of skylight fall protection. “We bid the job to remove the skylights and roof over the openings,” says Hauer.