Put Your Guard Up: Guardrails Save Lives and Keep Builders in Compliance
Guardrails play a critical role in protecting workers and visitors on a jobsite, but they work only when installed properly.
NAHB Safety sponsor Builders Mutual has launched a campaign called Put Your Guard Up to encourage home builders to pay more attention to the need for and the installation of guardrails for worker safety and company compliance.
OSHA Requirements for Fall Protection
Before work begins, OSHA requires that employers provide fall protection where workers are exposed to vertical drops of six feet or more. Guardrails are one of three main ways to provide that fall protection. You can also deploy safety nets or provide personal fall arrest systems for each employee.
Many times, the nature and location of the work will dictate the form that fall protection takes. Consider inspecting these common fall locations before beginning work:
- Window openings
- Stairways and landings
- Second-story entrances
- Exterior porches, decks, front steps
- Scaffolding
- Around the floor deck in the house (reassess these areas as you build each floor)
- Elevator shaft
- Top edge height of top rails must be between 42 +/- 3 inches above the walking/working level, except when conditions warrant otherwise. For example, when employees are using stilts, the top edge height of the top rail must be increased by an amount equal the height of the stilts.
- Mid rails must be installed between the top edge and the walking/working surface when there is no wall or other structure at least 21 +/- 3 inches high.
- Mid rails must be midway between the top edge of the guardrail system and the walking/working level.
- Toe boards must be installed to prevent materials and/or tools from falling to lower levels.
- Screens and mesh must extend from the top rail to the walking/working level and along the entire opening between rail supports if material is stacked above the toe board height.
- You may leave a maximum of 19 inches between your guardrail and a structure to allow for work to be done.
- Guardrail systems must be capable of withstanding at least 200 pounds of force applied within 2 inches of the top edge, in any direction and at any point along the edge, and without causing the top edge of the guardrail to deflect downward to a height less than 39 inches above the walking/working level.
- Mid rails, screens, mesh, and other intermediate members must be capable of withstanding at least 150 pounds of force applied in any direction at any point along the mid rail or other member without deflecting below 18 inches.
- Guardrail systems must not have rough or jagged surfaces that would cause punctures, lacerations, or snagged clothing.
- Top rails and mid rails must not cause a projection hazard by overhanging the end posts.