Four decades of insight into roofing safety

By Emma Peterson. 

The hidden dangers of roof degradation and the importance of building awareness, prevention and safety culture. 

In one of our newest episodes of Roofing Road Trips®, Megan Ellsworth hosted Gary Walpole from National Federation of Roofing Contractors (NFRC) for a discussion about safety in the roofing trade. Gary’s career in the roofing trade extends over four decades, “I did all my academic learning whilst working on the tools, which is great in construction and certainly in the roofing sector. I've worked at every level in the contracting element of the roofing sector, predominantly focusing on flat roofing.”  

Today, he is NFRC’s technical safety, health and environment officer. What does he do in this role? He leverages his years of experience to help promote safe practices in the roofing trade. One of the ways he does this is by helping run NFRC’S safety campaigns, such as the new Don’t Fall for Fragile campaign.  

This new campaign aims to address one of the biggest safety challenges facing the roofing industry – aging, fragile roofs. Gary explained why this is such a big safety issue:  

We're seeing on average about seven to eight deaths a year from falls through fragile elements. Then if you times that by ten, that's probably where we are with specified injuries. And those injuries aren’t just a bruise, they’re life-changing injuries that put people in wheelchairs and end their careers.   

Why has this grown into such a big issue? Gary points to a “lack of awareness of the actual roof aging process.” UV exposure is a huge part of roof aging and makes roofs incredibly fragile. Exacerbating the danger is the fact that UV degradation is not always obvious at first glance – leading to tradespeople climbing on roofs that they think are safe and finding out they are actually fragile when they collapse.  

What the Don’t Fall for Fragile campaign does is educate about this issue and offer recommendations on ways to better assess a roof’s condition. As Gary put it, "It's quite straightforward. It focuses on leadership, culture change and prevention.”  

Listen to the podcast with Gary or Watch the recording on YouTube to learn more about NFRC’s Don’t Fall for Fragile campaign.