I think it's time to look for a harness.

[Jstpssng]

Does it really matter? At least falling from that height you get the privilege of dying vs being paralyzed. Another thing that I haven’t seen mentioned here is you need to use a towel or some other protective cover for the rope at the peak. A shingle peak will wear a rope pretty quick.

That's one of the benefits of a discussion; people raise points like that which some of us were unaware of. As for your first point; I still won't go up there.
I've come off a second floor roof onto a shed, then slid down that roof and landed on the ground in a bad position. I got up and drove myself 50 miles to the hospital where they didn't believe me because "I hadn't bitten my tongue"... I think that I used up 8 of my 9 lives that day.

 

[Diggin It]

Didn't have time to wait for shipping because the weather has been so screwey, but I did what I needed to finish this section this morning. Used a belt and a webbed strap secured to three lengths of tow/recovery strap anchored to a fence post set in concrete. No movement of the strap system but I wasn't the least bit comfortable. It was as safe as I could jury rig and I'm here to type about it, but I'll need to order something before the next phase begins.

 

[4570Man]

If you’d have ordered from your favorite retailer it would be there already. I order from them a lot a high percentage of for my work. Over 300 orders last year and probably more this year. They’ve only been late a few times and every time it was a 3rd party retailer.

 

[Motorboatin]

We need fall protection when field measuring and a quality harness is way more comfortable than a cheap one but the cheap one will keep you from falling just as well. Home Depot has the roofers bucket that has everything you need for $100 or you can pick and choose what you want from Amazon. Just do a search for "fall protection"

 

[goeduck]

When working on the roof, don't tie your harness to a vehicle on the other side of the house without having ALL the keys in your pocket!

Another great point! :thumbsup:

 

[Richard]

Yeah, I don't need a high dollar certified model.

Irrespective of what it might cost....it will still likely be cheaper than a blue light trip to the emergency room.

I realize you probably know this....but always nice to be reminded.

 

[RjCorazza]

I'm usually not a fan of thrown together safety setups, but when I was working on my steep roof I tied a web harness called a Swiss seat and clipped in to a roof ladder. The roof ladder has large metal hooks that bolt onto the last rung and hook over the peak.

 

[tradosaurus]

Back in 2009 my 75 y.o. father in law decided to trim a few branches in a small tree. An extension ladder, one foot on a branch using a wood saw was not a good idea.

A 15 ft fall on his back put him in a coma for one month until he died.

He had the money to hire someone or buy the proper equipment.

 

[downsizingnow48]

Timely thread for me. Putting the roof on the new generator shed soon. Never used a harness in all my life and was not intending to start now. But it is true that my balance and strength are not what they used to be. I did not know about the HD kit, that makes it easy. One of my uncles used to say, there is not much difference between confident and stupid, make sure you know which is which.

 

[goeduck]

Back in 2009 my 75 y.o. father in law decided to trim a few branches in a small tree. An extension ladder, one foot on a branch using a wood saw was not a good idea.

A 15 ft fall on his back put him in a coma for one month until he died.

He had the money to hire someone or buy the proper equipment.

Excellent reminder. Thank you for posted such a real world situation and I am sorry your father went in such a way.