The only things you can do with skylights are
1) Cover then all up
2) Fall Arrest Systems
3) Crash Pads at ground level (big bouncy castles
)
4) Netting.
5) Edge protection / physical barriers
We've used all 5, they all have their merits, and all cost - we have one job cost ÂŁ600 in OSB sheets, we couldn't put up netting or crash pads as there was a false ceiling below and fall arrest was too risky, and too many skylights to put protection around.
Agreed. To add to that, my rough logic on my options here would be...
1) Cover then all up
Someone will still need to be working around them uncovered during the process of covering them up, and I'm not really sure how to go about securing the covers in position without putting holes in the roof, plus I'm not sure how we'd actually get the covers back off again over the panels safely at the end.
2) Fall Arrest Systems
relies on remembering to clip the harness on at all times, and the experience of the worker and ability not to panic if you do find yourself dangling on a harness... as well as a suitably rapid method of rescue being available and someone reliable to implement it, as well as secure fixing points. Not suitable for inexperienced workers, but done right it can be a good option for relatively short duration work (which I personally look at as work that's not significantly longer in total than the time needed for installing and removing full netting).
3) Crash Pads at ground level (big bouncy castles
)
too many fixed fences and the like internally in the barn for this to be an option, plus you'd be talking about an artics worth of the stuff, maybe 2. I'm also not sure what the maximum safe height is for this option?
4) To my mind, netting is an option for longer term works, but I'd expect it'd take about a day to get netting rigged, and most of another day to get it down, all of which with ladders / scaf towers and harnesses. When I only intend to be on the roof in total for 2 days, it doesn't really stack up as a sensible option safety wise in this situation.
5 - similar to 1, someone still has to install and remove them, and how secure are they in reality, plus as you say, there's usually too many separate skylights spread along the roof to make it a sensible option.
I tend towards the view that anything that significantly increases the amount of time spent working at height just to erect and remove the safety kit is actually making the problem worse not better, unless you're planning on using relatively unskilled labour on the job, and employing specialists to put the safety measures in place and remove them. If the work itself is only going to take a couple of days, be carried out by skilled experienced workers only, then roped access / fall arrest harnesses only is arguably the safest option as it minimises the actual time exposed to the danger.
But each situation needs to be assessed separately and the measures put in place accordingly - for example, if we were doing a 100kW job on the same roof I might well think that netting and scaffolding would be the safest option as the additional couple of days of specialist work putting the netting and scaffolding up would make dozens of man days much safer.
I probably ought to just copy this into my risk assessment for the job tbf.
