Fall-Arrest Safety Anchors

[NeverEnding]

Hello, I am new here.

I have this old house (of course), Wood Framed, 3 storey, and have to scrape and paint its exterior. I am having problems to find the information about Safety Anchors needed and where to attach them; The roof is out of question, there is nobody in this little town willing to go up there. I know one thing is that I must secure the anchors on the exterior walls, but what kind of anchors and where exactly?

Any help will be appreciated.

[cs]

Hmm... I followed the directions to the letter when installing my fall arrest anchor. Mine did not mention an option for a wall anchor point, and so I installed it on the roof exactly as the directions indicate. Did yours not come with any instructions? Why is your roof out of the question?

Chris
http://www.saracenihouse.com

[shazapple]

It depends on where you are, as regulations differ between Canada and the States, and probably between individual states as well.

That being said, fall arrest is probably not a good idea. Without proper training, equipment, and anchors you can be seriously injured or die. If you REALLY need to go this route I would suggest a training course (they are usually only a couple hundred dollars), but otherwise I would suggest staging, ladders, or anything else.

[cs]

Maybe I misunderstood... I was thinking this was about fall protection while using staging, ladders, pump jacks etc. Were you planning on using this to somehow rappel around on the walls of your house?

Shazapple, is right about proper training, equipment and anchors. There are some very good fall arrest kits, which include everything you need, on the market (for use as fall protection while working on ladders, NOT for rappelling) but training would still be key. Even something simple as putting the harness on is not intuitive. Having someone who could train you would be most helpful. I think the complete kits run about $150. That said, I've only ever seen them with roof anchors. Maybe some other kind exists, but I don't know.

Chris
http://www.saracenihouse.com

[McCall]

THe fall arrestors and harnesses I have been looking at can be mounted on the roof in various ways or on walls or rafters and the whole thing is designed to be used with ladders etc, not hanging in the air.

here is one place I looked at: http://www.snugharness.com/Anchors/Roof ... lo-Anchor/

here is another:
http://www.ussafetyequipment.com/HTML/roofanchors.html

[NeverEnding]

Thank you Chris, shazapple, and MCCall.

As all of you have indicated I am concerned about the danger of working so high up that is the reason I am here. No, I wouldn't do it without a scaffolding. I purchased a harrness and lanyard, and read lots of instructions as how to use them.
I was also thinking to take a course but nobody offers around here. In our town there are only one person does roof work and he doesn't want to go up to the roof just for anchors, and have never done it before.

I read just small notes here and there that anchors can be installed/attached to the beams of exterior walls, of course, everything is in wood in this house.

[superbeetle]

This site has a few anchors for pitched roofs at the top of the page:

http://simplifiedsafety.com/store/fall- ... orage.html

You mention that you can't use it on the roof? Why not?

[SkipW]

Where do you live?

Why is it that your roofer doesn't want to go up on the roof?

Maybe you live near someone on the board who has a contact.

[shazapple]

If you have an energy absorbing lanyard, check out the specs. Typically they are 6 feet and elongate to 10 feet. These are designed for a maximum free fall of 6 feet, meaning the anchor point has to be above your harness attachment. Add another 6 feet so your legs don't hit the ground and your anchor point is now 16 feet off the ground, minimum. What I am trying to say here is that your roof is the best spot for an anchor in terms of installation and usefulness. Anchors I see are typically through bolted with metal plates to tie them to the structural member.

Once your fall has happened you've basically received 900 lb to the groin, and unless you have someone else around you are probably stuck like that. Even if you do have someone else around how are they going to get you down? What if you are unconscious after beating your head off the wall? Not to be dramatic, but hanging in a harness too long can kill you (suspension trauma, you see it in military parades; blood pools in their legs, they pass out and hit the floor, which allows the blood to flow back up to their head. Hanging in a harness the same thing will happen but you won't fall over to allow blood to go back up to your brain).

These are the kind of things that you have to think about when you tie yourself to something. I can assure you that it would be much simpler and safer just to have scaffolding with a good guardrail, or to work off of a ladder.

[chooseopen]

Shazapple,
I am with the original poster here... I want a harness to catch me in case I fall off the 30ft ladder or somehow slip off my scaffold. It sounds like you think that the harness is unnecessary when using a ladder or scaffold. Is there some other method of protecting yourself from falling all the way to the ground when using a ladder/scaffold?