I recently visited a roofing contractor friend in western Pennsylvania. I went to meet him on a commercial renovation job he’d begun along the shopping strip in town. The building had been gutted, and interior framing had begun. Windows and doors were yet to be installed. The site was full of demolition piles, debris was scattered everywhere, and the roll-off was overflowing. There was no controlled access zone or construction signs evident.
As I drove through the parking lot around the 16-foot-high, single-story masonry building, I noticed his two-man roofing crew was unloading materials from a supplier’s flatbed onto the flat, membrane roof. Both roofers were wearing shorts, sneakers and full-body harnesses that were visibly damaged. One had his harness shoulder straps stripped down to his waist, while the other had only one leg rigged into his harness. Neither roofer wore a lanyard nor established a suitable anchorage. There was a sagging and incomplete warning-line system around less than half of the roof edge. A damaged aluminum extension ladder provided access from the parking lot to the roof. One roofer reached over the drip edge to grab materials from the other man below. No hard hats were evident.