Fall protection

The 6-foot rule

In residential construction, each employee working 6 feet or more above a lower level must be protected by a guardrail system, a safety net system or a personal fall arrest system, unless another part of the rule allows an alternative ¹.

Measure from where a worker would land, not by counting stories. The eave of a one-story house can sit well above 6 feet, so a ranch re-roof is covered just like a two-story job.

The way out is narrow. If an employer can show those systems are infeasible or would create a greater hazard, it must write and follow a fall protection plan that meets OSHA's requirements for such plans ¹. That's an exception you have to prove, not a choice. OSHA has also cancelled the interim residential guidelines that once allowed other methods, so residential employers have to meet the current rule ².

Inspectors look for this. In fiscal year 2025 (October 2024 to September 2025), fall protection general requirements topped OSHA's list of most frequently cited standards, and fall protection training for construction was seventh ³.

The main systems

• Guardrail systems put a barrier along an open edge, such as a roof edge or a floor opening, so nobody can fall past it.
• Safety net systems catch a worker who falls, below the work area.
• Personal fall arrest systems stop a fall after it starts: a full-body harness, a connector such as a lanyard or a rope grab on a lifeline, and an anchor that can hold the fall. On a pitched house roof, this is often the practical choice.

OSHA's roofing booklet also covers fall restraint, which keeps a worker from reaching the edge at all, and rescue after a fall ⁴. Decide how you'd get a fallen worker down before anyone climbs.

Slope changes the options. OSHA defines a low-slope roof as 4 in 12 or less and a steep roof as anything steeper ⁵, and the rule treats each separately ¹. See roof pitch for how slope is measured.

Training and gear

Each employee who might be exposed to fall hazards must be trained by a competent person, and you certify it in writing with the employee's name, the training dates and the signature of the trainer or employer ⁶. Retrain when changes in the work or equipment make earlier training obsolete, or when someone's work shows it didn't stick ⁶. Protective equipment used to meet OSHA's construction rules must be provided at no cost to employees, with narrow exceptions ⁷, so the harness is on you.

Example: A two-person crew is booked to re-roof a one-story ranch whose eave sits 10 feet above the patio, so the 6-foot trigger applies. Setting anchors, rigging lifelines and taking everything down adds about an hour for each worker. At a made-up labor cost of $60 an hour per worker, that's $120 the estimate has to carry. Leave it out of the price, and the pressure to skip the setup shows up on the roof.

Common mistakes

• Gear without a system. A harness with nothing sound to tie off to, or an anchor nobody inspected, isn't protection.
• Training on paper only. Train on the anchors and harnesses your crew actually uses, and update the record when you switch equipment.
• Assuming the federal rule is the whole story. Some states run their own OSHA-approved programs with rules that can differ, and maintenance or cleaning work at height may fall under different OSHA rules than construction. Confirm which rules cover your work.

Who it applies to

The rule is written as a duty owed to each employee ¹, so it becomes your legal obligation once someone you employ works at height. Working alone, a fall does the same damage. Calling a worker a subcontractor doesn't settle the question; see independent contractor. Injuries to your employees are a workers' compensation matter, not a general liability one.