Why Get Your Edge Protection Inspected?

edge protection

If your building has a Guardrail system installed to make it safer for planned and reactive maintenance and any ad hoc access to the roof, you’re not only protecting in-house teams and third party contractors from falls from height, you’re also making it much easier to plan scheduled maintenance and react quickly when access is required, thanks to permanent, collective protection.

But how confident can you be that the protection you have in place is really doing the job required of it?Unless you have your Guardrail inspected and tested, the answer is you can’t be sure. 

Why should you inspect your Guardrail?

Whether a Guardrail was installed when the building was constructed, before you took on responsibility for the building, or it was commissioned by you, you need to ensure that it was installed to manufacturer’s guidelines. This means that it must be secured with suitable fixings and provide continuous protection for any fall hazards across all areas of the roof.You should also ensure that the system in place is still the right solution to meet all the working at height requirements involved in maintaining the building. Changes that could affect compliance for your edge protection system include:

• The addition of a new roof-top plant

• Changes to access arrangements to the roof

• New extensions or roof layout

• New roof lights or light wells

Who should inspect your Guardrail?

metal guardrail around a roof skylight

While you should regularly check that your guardrail system is still robust and securely fixed to the substrate, you need to involve working at height experts like Altus Safety to make sure that it is still compliant and meets current working at height legislation.Our experts can check that the installation still complies with health and safety legislation and that it has been installed to manufacturer guidelines. We can also suggest ways in which safety at height can be improved, either through modifications to the existing system or with additional safety measures. 

What if my Guardrail is not compliant?

If we find that the system you have in place is not adequate to meet your health & safety obligations we can retrofit additions to the existing Guardrail to extend the level of protection. This approach helps minimise the cost and disruption involved by upgrading rather than replacing your safety at height installation. Where there is new plant or new features on the roof, consider installing a free-standing Guardrail to provide protection for dangerous areas.Whatever your roof edge protection requirements, you can rely on Altus Safety to recommend an approach that offers the best fit solution. For more information please don’t hesitate to contact us or call on 0330 113 0870.