This Montreal building has integrated snow chutes into its fall protection system.
The risks of falling from heights on roofs are numerous – servicing HVAC units, cleaning drains, checking surveillance cameras. Among all these tasks, snow removal from the roof is among the most dangerous. This operation, often planned as an emergency and carried out by workers who sometimes have no experience at height, brings its share of risks. Those responsible for this building have fully understood the issues and have chosen to install a perimeter of fall protection designed to ensure the safety of visitors to the roof, regardless of the task at hand.
A complete perimeter of non-penetrating guardrail
The building managers took advantage of the replacement of the roof membrane to install a complete fall protection system. With 7 different roof levels, traffic on this building was tricky. The specified system, the VSS Compact non-penetrating guardrail, now protects the entire exterior perimeter as well as the edges of the interior roof levels exposing the visitor to a fall of more than 3 m (10 feet). A design that takes into consideration the unique architecture of this building, with several angled corners and level changes between the roof areas.
Roof snow removal: 9 engineered snow chutes
On almost every section of non-penetrating guardrail in this project, there is a snow chute integrated into the perimeter. Several design criteria had been defined in the specifications, making the design of these snow chutes unique to this building. Because a ramp would be installed to facilitate the pushing of snow in winter, the snow chute had to offer workers a guardrail meeting the standards while they are on the ramp, several centimeters from the roof surface. In addition, a removable mid-rail had to be integrated to facilitate the evacuation of the snow. With a total of 9 snow chutes on the building, snow removal operations can be carried out according to the safety guidelines for years to come.
This impressive non-penetrating guardrail installation project demonstrates that roof snow removal can be planned and seamlessly integrated into the fall protection perimeter. If you are planning a roof replacement, it would be wise to plan to add such a perimeter to ensure the safety of visitors to the roof. Contact us today to speak with our team.