Fragile Roofs – RIDBA Guidance Note Released

Roof

What Building Occupiers, Owners and Managing Agents Need to Know About Their Responsibilities

Definition of a Fragile Roof

  • A roof must be considered fragile if it, or the materials forming it, will not take a person’s weight.
  • This includes, old roof lights (possibly over painted), fibre and asbestos cement sheets, old or thin metal sheets, all glass panels, slates and tiles in poor condition.
  • If you are unsure then you must always treat a roof as thought it is a fragile roof.

Steps to Take to Meet Your Responsibilities

  • Assume any roof is fragile unless you can prove it is not.
  • Do not go onto a roof or allow anyone else onto the roof without the correct training, experience, and suitable safety equipment.
  • Engage a specialist roofing company who have the training, experience, and correct equipment to access the roof safely. The RIDBA website charlesd133.sg-host.com offers a direct link to such specialists near you.
  • Tasks such as clearing low level gutters, and unblocking downpipes can be done from the ground level, from a Mobile Elevated Work Platform (MEWP) or, for very short duration work (30 mins max), a properly secured, footed and tied-off well-maintained ladder.
  • Ultimately, it is your responsibility to ensure that only fully trained and experienced people who understand the risks go onto a roof of any type and only then with suitable safety equipment for the task.

Preparation for Maintenance

  • Do not wait until your roof leaks or gutter overflows – plan maintenance to be carried out before problems arise and preferably during better weather in the summer. This not only is safer but quicker and more efficiently undertaken on the longer, dry days in summer.
  • Allow sufficient time to plan the works.
  • Check the contractor has produced a method statement and risk assessment for the whole works and that this is available on location before works commence and for the full duration of those works.
  • Monitor the progress of the works and that the contractor is working in line with the method statement and risk assessment. If there is any doubt, cease works at once and review accordingly.

Employing a Recognised and Competent Contractor

  • Ensure you are clear about the works that you want done and when you want them done.
  • If possible, specify non-fragile assemblies.
  • Only consider contractors that have the necessary training and experience. Once again, reference to the RIDBA website will put you in touch with suitable contractors near you.
  • Ensure the quotation for the works is written, includes everything you have asked for and includes provision for safety equipment suitable for the task as well as the provision of a method statement and risk assessment.
  • Ask for references and follow them up.
  • Allow the contractor enough time to carry out the works safely.
  • Always challenge and stop works that do not comply with the method statement or seem unsafe.Â

Further Information

Health and safety in roof work HSG33 (fifth edition) HSE Books 2020
https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/hsg33.pdf
Safe working on fragile roofs or roofs with fragile elements ACR (CP) 002: 2017 (third edition) The Green Book) Advisory Committee for Roofsafety
https://www.the-acr.org/publications/the-green-book/
Planning minor works Information Sheet No 3: 2017 Advisory Committee for Roofsafety
https://www.the-acr.org/publications/is3-minor-roof-works/ (aimed at clients and building owners).

DISCLAIMER
Although care has been taken to ensure, to the best of our knowledge, that all data and information contained herein are accurate to
the extent that they relate to either matters of fact or accepted practice or matters of opinion at the time of publication, RIDBA, the
authors and the reviewers assume no responsibility for any errors in or misrepresentations of such data and/or information or any loss
or damage arising from or related to their use.

Download Guidance Note

The Farm Buildings Handbook – An Invaluable Source of Information for Anyone Involved in Farm Construction

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If there was a shortlist of books that contain enough hard data and guidance to save the UK agricultural industry millions of pounds per annum, this 192-page volume would be on it. The Farm Buildings Handbook, in its third edition edited by Jim Loynes BSc, CEng, MIAgrE, is a reference volume that guides us through the preparations of a build project, the law and regulations, and into construction technology. Thereafter, the book tackles specific building design details for livestock and crop storage and finishes with a comprehensive list of sources of useful information.

Whilst the introduction states that the information in the handbook does not seek to replace the advice from specialist advisers, the current situation in UK agriculture is that independent advice on buildings is very hard to find. The attraction of this guide is that all the information contained is provided by individuals who have contributed to British Standards over the years and /or have years of experience from the now defunct R&D sector that supported the evolution of design for farm buildings.

The Farm Buildings Handbook is sufficiently clipped in its language to be suitable for producers who require to know what questions to ask the planners and builders before they start a project. There is also a myriad of design details, including 78 tables, that are useful to the generalist at all levels from adviser, builder, planner, architect, QA assessor and finance manager. The handbook should be on the shelf of every large animal veterinary practice in the country, so that they can compare the built environment on clients’ farms with how the target building ‘should’ be if constructed and maintained according to good practice.

The impact of poor building design, construction and maintenance on the efficiency of crop storage and livestock production is massive. Engineering technology has advanced so that, for example, remote sensors in buildings can pass live information on the CO2 content of a store, ambient temperature alarms, individual data on feed intakes from individual animals, and hormone concentrations of milk from individual cows. On the other hand, a ball-park of 50% of all new livestock buildings do not have competent ventilation capacity due to ignorance of design guidance published over 30 years and accepted around the world. Respiratory disease in UK livestock inflicts millions of pounds of losses per annum. Similar associations can be made between the contribution of poor flooring and the cost of foot problems.

An agricultural building is an investment for a generation of use. It will often be the single largest investment a producer has to decide upon. But, unlike the purchase of a piece of field machinery where all the technology is put together by experts before purchase, the producer is often left to choose elements of building design with minimal or conflicting guidance. The Farm Buildings Handbook is a sub-£20 investment that is good for the next decade.

Written by Jamie F. Robertson BSc., MSc., MIAgrE