walking steep metal building roof

[newbury]

In a "prior life" I worked as a roofer for several years. We did primarily hot tar and slate. Hot tar was ok, except for the coating of tar on my clothes and body.
Slate was down right scary at first, all steep, slippery as heck, and subject to cracking and sliding down. Taught me to use the "rope over the ridge" approach.

Sneakers with a good grip, a STOUT rope (not so much for my weight but for my hands to hold easily), and adequate notification of any body who can find my body are what I use now for most of my roofs.

For steep roofs I use plastic, usually Visa.

 

[chado613]

I need to climb onto my barn and am dreading it. There are a lot of leaks and I think it is because the rubber grommets are all gone. My plan is to go up with some leak seal or caulking and seal them all up. I am considering renting a boom though.

 

[newbury]

I need to climb onto my barn and am dreading it. There are a lot of leaks and I think it is because the rubber grommets are all gone. My plan is to go up with some leak seal or caulking and seal them all up. I am considering renting a boom though.

I've been slowly caulking all the nails on my 30x60 workshop. I go up with a bucket of water, a scrub brush, and a tube of Henry caulk. Brush a bunch of nails down, when the first one drys start caulking. Repeat until the end of the tube.

 

[BHD]

A tower climbing harness, has a front center ring in the chest area, and they make a short Lanyards with a rope grip and one can slide it up and down a rope, also there are temporary or permanent roof anchors,

rope grabs
rope grabs - Google Search

tower harness
safety harness tower - Google Search

Roof anchors,
roof safety anchors - Google Search

 

[PILOON]

I found that crepe soled shoes gripped very well on metal roofing up to 4/12 slopes. (dry)
I also only walk on screw heads as they grip plus they are always on the furring strips.
Most roofing guys I know always have a 'ripping' hammer on hand as they can plunge it in like a climbing ice axe to stop their descent.

 

[handirifle]

A friend recently put a metal roof on a remote cabin he built. Pretty steep pitch and very slick. I have a Hunter Safety Systems (HSS) tree stand harness I use for hunting, sometimes. I loaned it to him and showed how to use it. I had him secure true climbing ropes from front of the house, over the roof, and at the back. He placed several along the length of the house. Then he used a prussik knot (I showed him how to tie it) and that allowed complete safety, complete freedom of movement along the roof. The only "iffy" time is unhooking from one rope to the other, and he did that at the ridge where he could sit.

Not sure how that differs from a roof harness but they are safe and secure.

 

[Jim Timber]

I found it easiest to work with a 3' extension from the harness to the prussic and 'biner. That put the slip connection at arms length when walking down grade and kept good tension on it until I was ready to move. Then I'd hold the tail of my lifeline with my other hand and push the prussic up to ascend. If I was to slip when adjusting, the prussic would be in a good position to lock. It's not always a positive grip when you have it so close to your waist.

 

[ETpilot]

I built this shed 20x20x10 by myself. With the help of my tractor and my roll about scaffold. When working topside I would clamp the scaffold to the building and always felt safe. Yet for some reason I alway felt unsafe standing on this building. It is a 5/12. My main workshop is 4/12 and I've never has a problem standing on that one.

I have a metal hangar at the airport. When I work on that one I don't trust the metal panels. They need replacing. For that roof I work off a plywood sheet that I tie to the hangar. On the plywood I can distribute the weight. I never stand straight up on that roof. Maybe with roof replacement it will be different. Age is a factor also.

 

[Deere Dude]

I was washing a 4/12 pitch metal roof pole shed with 14' sidewall because it was dirty and had some chalking on it which made it way to slippery to walk on. Once clean even walking on it wasn't a problem. My problem came when I had one side done and was walking to the other end along the peak. I walked on the dirty side but hit a spot of water and chalk and I dropped like a sack of potatoes. I slid slow motion toward the edge while doing everything I could think of to slow down but kept on sliding and thinking about how to land and hoping there wasn't hard stuff underneath. I stopped from friction about 3 foot from the edge. I gingerly tried backing up the hill and took a while because it was so slippery. Once up to the top I still had to go to the other end to retrieve some stuff I had tied down. I fell again but I was right next to an antennae tripod and I just grabbed that and climbed back up. I came down on the clean side.

My wife was out for her walk and just got in and was relaxing sitting in our two man swing. I shuffled over there and just took a breather, She asked me what happened to my legs and my side because of all the screw head tears, I said, Oh I must have got caught on something. But now I had to go up and finish the job.

Fortunately I remembered I had a camper that sits 13' high, so I slid that next to the pole shed and stood on the roof and cleaned it with a long swimming pool brush and chemical.

Since then we bought a house that has a 10/12 pitch metal roof. I put a 30' addition on with the same pitch roof and there was no way I could even stand on one spot on a pitch like that.

What I did was but a bucket like someone else mentioned with lanyard, harness, rope and a mechanism that you can keep the rope tight very easily. Then for working on the roof I had a 24' scaffolding ladder that I wrapped with carpet on the bottom so it wouldn't scratch the paint. I could walk up and down on that but still had the harness and rope tight at all times, I had it hooked on the other side of the roof to my tractor.

We have a dormer on the 10/12 pitch roof section with a 6/12 pitch just below that which I was able to walk on but that was about the limit and my wife won't let me go up there unless I have the harness all hooked up. The harness that came with the kit was for little fellas though and I had to get a larger one that I could breathe in.

 

[tow653]

We have a 8/12 pitch standing seam roof. Roofers had shoes that were a flat foam,replaceable,that almost worked like the foam pads mentioned. They also used some foam pads,and always carried a rag and were constantly wiping where they were going to walk. I had to go up and drill a hole in it for a plumbing vent,and swore I would never get on it again.