WORKING AT HEIGHT
SAFE AS HOUSES
Nick Boulton, Chief Executive of the Trussed Rafter Association, discusses why mission to improve safety when working at height.
Falls from height are still the most frequent cause of fatal accidents at work, according to the latest Health and Safety Executive (HSE) statistics. An average of 19 deaths a year are caused that way in construction. It’s a stain on the record of an industry which has taken huge strides over recent years to transform its health and safety reputation.
So that is why the TRA is working hard to ensure our industry is not contributing to these figures. By working with the Home Builders Federation (HBF) and the HSE on improving working at height and roof truss installation information, we will do our bit to reduce that statistic.
Trussed rafters are a fundamental part of new home construction. You will have seen them transported across the country on lorries – the large triangular timbers that form the roof structure.
By its very nature, once a trussed rafter roof is completed it will form a stable, rigid structure capable of resisting the various loads imposed upon it. During the initial stages of construction however, trussed rafters are dynamically unstable. It is therefore a very skilled job to ensure the correct installation of a series of large and carefully engineered components. This, coupled with working at height, presents a potentially high hazard
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situation which always needs to be carefully risk managed to keep workers and those on site safe.
UNDERSTANDING THE RISKS Specific construction skills are required to install trussed rafters – for example, it is recommended that only suitably experienced and qualified personnel, such as those with a Level 2 Diploma in Site Carpentry, should undertake the task.
Given the size and shape of trussed rafters, mechanical handling is essential for all but the smallest fink trusses, and certainly room in the roof trusses should not be handled and installed by manual means alone. Correct temporary bracing during the initial stages of construction is also key to the safe installation of trussed rafters and where appropriate this will require input from a temporary works specialist. Once a suitable base is achieved, usually with the first group of trusses, this can be more comprehensively braced and provides a stable element from which subsequent work can take place.
The third element, which most housebuilders are now recognising as being critical for the safe installation, is the use of a safe working platform within the footprint of the building. This should be just below where the trusses are to be installed. This
eliminates the intern height and increase full access across th
Access to secure hig further factor which especially as the roof truss heights are incr systems are now ava manufacturers are h design features such for working platform
RAISING AWAREN Educating the sector of what drives the TR organisation and form objectives. By workin partners including th are making our cont the construction sec information available rafter content in the HSG.33 – the HSE’s g in roof work.
The TRA believes it is much health and saf ways of working as p cases it’s not our me rafters, so this guidan the home building se
www.tra.org.uk w
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