Climbing kit for a homeowner

[MittensKitten]

I'm curious about putting together a climbing/ fall protection kit for roofing repairs and possibly tree pruning.

From what I've read, the typical roofing fall protection kit "compliance in a can" is meant to be anchored to rafters over top of the ridge beam. I'm not sure why this system is used considering you are climbing off your ladder and up the roof without anything protecting you and then doing the same thing after you remove your anchor and descend. I'm still wondering if I'm missing something?

Running a rope over your roof to an anchor on the ground makes more sense to me because you can be protected from the ground up. I understand that this would put a lot of wear and tear on your rope, but I don't see many other negative aspects about it. I've seen some rope access guys using this technique on youtube.

A stack exhange thread addressed this question and the answer was:

"If you're not a climber, then don't buy a climbing rope for doing roof repairs. If you're going to buy a rope for a very specific job, then you should get the right equipment for the job.

For about the same cost as a climbing rope you could get a full roofers kit that comes with a:

• 5 point safety harness
• 50ft lifeline
• anchor plate
• 3' shock absorbing lanyard:

A couple reasons why you shouldn't use climbing gear for roof repairs: If you slip, you are most likely going to end up upside down as soon as you slide off the roof if you're wearing a climbing harness instead of a body harness; You put your expensive climbing rope at risk of damage that will make it useless for climbing (nails, saws, getting stepped on, sharp edges, etc.) You risk overloading the rope with more shock when you take a fall on a short length, the dynamic qualities of a rope are most effective if you have a good length of rope to absorb the shock.

Unless your plan is to use repairing your roof as an excuse to invest in some climbing gear so you can get into climbing after, then I would recommend buying a roofers kit, and asking your roofing questions on this SE site.

If you are using the roof as an excuse to buy climbing gear (I come up with any excuse I can), then what you want to do is get a good single rope that's >10mm of whatever length you want, a chest harness, a personal anchor (lanyard/sling) and a mechanical ascender. Anchor one end of the rope to the ground on the opposite side of the house you're working on, either to a tree or your truck or something that's a lot heavier than you, then simply throw the rope all the way over the top of the house. Don't tie into the rope, instead put the ascender on the rope and tie into your harness with your personal anchor, then run it through a biner on your chest harness and clip it into the ascender. Voila, you've just rigged your own roofers kit out of climbing gear."

I work doing maintenance at a school and old church and I climb ladders all the time. I'm on roofs and in bell towers pretty frequently. This is an old school sort of environment and there is an old school approach to safety. I wouldn't necessarily use my equipment at work, I'm just saying that I spend time in high places and work with ladders frequently. I've never climbed before, but I'm that sort of person. I only weigh 145 and can pull up my body weight do a lot of mountain biking (that sort of person).

So I'm not a climber but I would prefer fall protection from the ground up. Do you guys have any solutions? Could I use the roofers kit with a longer length of rope and achieve the over the roof technique? Could a tree climbing saddle double as roof fall protection with the chest harness as suggested in the forum post I copied?

Thanks for any help.

 

[just Dave]

True fall protection is reserved for people who are not climbers but forced to do work at height. A fall protection harness attaches to your back at the shoulder blades. That is the only good way to catch someone truly falling it should be attached to a shock absorbing lanyard of 4 foot length rigged to an anchor rated for 4000 pounds. You can fall in various climbing harnesses but it will not be fun and could cause serious injury. You can use a climbing harness to catch your self in a little slip and support you while you work or play. It sounds like you have to decide how much safety gear you need to feel safe. Regulation and standards for working at height (by the book) cover various industries differently but they always include redundancy to account for mistakes, inattention and acts of god. I'm older now and like to have two things supporting me almost always. I feel safe when I am supported without a bunch of slack to allow a fall to begin. I have threaded well de burred PVC on a rope over a roof ridge to prevent chaffing. There are a ton of climbing videos on the net and everyone has there own methods watch a lot of them and decide for your self the level of safety for you job. Once you decide the gear you want to go with practice climb up and down 4 or 5 feet until you feel it fits you.

If it doesn't feel good take a good long look.

 

[MittensKitten]

Thanks for the reply! I posted these same questions and got a pretty good answer from a rope access technician on a mountain climbing site. As you said, there are many ways to climb.

After researching climbing equipment for rope access and tree climbing, I realized that I don't want expensive ropes and belay devices in front of me while doing roofing or painting. I'm going to stick the with poly rope roofers kit for that task and build another kit for tree climbing and rope access.

The PVC rope protector is a good idea.

 

[Honyuk96]

I have a ton of experience roof framing high end, complicated stuff. The ridge tie in system is a heavy moveable strap that has an o ring at the top. The strapping is designed to go over any roof pitch, because it moves. They are pre drilled for nailing, which you do directly into the ridge beam And get as much rafter, both sides as possible. We always used 30 penny nails. You tie into the o ring. The system works just fine and IMO the key is to always keep a tight rope. I’ve been in many precarious situations using just a good climbing harness and never had an issue. keeping a tight rope and using an ascender and a bunch of common sense always worked for me.