The good news about the many issues we face in the roofing industry is that we will overcome most of them in time. I know because I have seen a lot of them come and go. Trouble is there always seem to be new challenges lurking around the corner. Safety being the theme of this issue of Roofing Contractor, it is appropriate to address one of today’s top safety challenges: fall protection on residential roofing projects.

I took a quick look back through past columns on the topic and one from 2001 caught my attention. I was pointing out the fact that many commercial roofing contractors had moved from considering fall protection on low-slope commercial roofing projects as a necessity rather than an inconvenience. We had reached a tipping point where you (at least anecdotally) saw more commercial roofing projects laced with warning line systems than without.