HVAC repair and maintenance is a continual process for college and university campuses. Whether it's dormitories trying to keep up with the demands of hundreds of residents per building or old and historic buildings where even cutting-edge HVAC struggles to keep up, your school likely contracts with an HVAC repair service so you can have dedicated on-site support for servicing, upgrades, and fast responses to repair tickets—for larger campuses, it might even be multiple contractors. And with that kind of relationship, you share joint responsibility for safety. The HVAC specialists wear fall protection equipment and maintain best practices to protect themselves, the equipment, the buildings, and the students milling below. However, your school has a responsibility to install sturdy rail systems and machine guard rails around potentially hazardous rooftop areas.
This HVAC roof repair safety guide zeroes in on the university's responsibility to protect against workers' falls by purchasing and putting up the right permanent installations. Then, you can more efficiently and knowledgeably audit your facility for potential gaps, adherence to OSHA or CCOHS and local safety standards, and opportunities to improve so your campus is safer from top to bottom.
Identifying the unique hazards HVAC service contractors face when they're performing services at your college offers several different benefits, and it's a worthy starting point for any improvements project. By assessing your buildings and rooftop HVACs, you can:
Tailor your OSHA compliance efforts for maximum efficiency and effect
Guarantee your facilities comply with roof fall protection requirements
Preserve a good relationship with your preferred HVAC company by tangibly increasing HVAC roof repair safety
Increase your facility's safety record and support your university's reputation
Protect your students from dropped equipment and building closures
With that in mind, carefully survey each of your buildings with rooftop HVACs or HVAC equipment for the following common hazards.
While scheduled repairs and upgrades may take place during the summers when student and visitor populations are low, many HVAC repair calls are going to happen during periods with bad weather: seasonal transitions to cold weather, as winter turns to spring, and when the heaters malfunction during winter proper. This means the building exterior will be slick, and the chilly temperatures may present additional challenges. Opt for very grippy flooring along safe paths, secure guardrails that can fully support 200 pounds or more of force, and even lights so heavy cloud coverage won't be a problem.
Access panels along the roof present their own hazards. If they don't sit properly in place, they can let moisture and condensation into the building, making surfaces slippery. When they don't align with the floor, the raised edges can also act as a trip hazard. Good maintenance and prompt adjustment are the solutions here, but having guardrails so technicians can securely catch themselves is a complementary precaution.
Even in ideal conditions, traversing rooftops is challenging. HVAC technicians can be surprised by an active bird nest, be distracted dismantling the HVAC access panels, lose their footing when climbing over equipment, or simply miss a handhold that's slightly out of reach as they climb. None of these incidents are 100% preventable. But by installing secure railings and OSHA flat roof fall protection in these areas, you give technicians additional support and more options, so a minor incident doesn't become a major one.
Finally, most older campuses have unique buildings. Each one will have a distinct architectural style—and unique adaptations and retrofitted safety measures to keep the buildings up to date. Because of this, HVAC technicians will have less practice navigating similar surfaces and layouts. That unfamiliarity makes it more likely they can make a misstep or become distracted.
HVAC companies bring diverse safety elements to the table: shoes with industrial-grade traction, fall protection harnesses, PPE, and training. But your buildings also have to comply with OSHA standards and regulatory roof fall protection requirements so the infrastructure is safe. Fixtures like rooftop rails, stable platforms, and rooftop machine guarding rails all play a vital role in this. The railings you install can:
Rails create highly visible borders that are tall enough and strong enough to support the weight of technicians working on the rooftop. You can use them to either block off the roofline or to enclose specific machinery or work areas. When technicians are within those boundaries, they know they can operate more safely and focus on the tasks at hand. Along with the static, modular railings themselves that can be customized to suit any layout, add a self-closing safety gate. The mechanism guarantees gates don't stay ajar and won't swing outward if someone needs to catch their weight against them.
To be OSHA-compliant, guardrail systems must reach approximately 42 inches high, must have mid rails, and must handle 200 pounds.
Every building's rooftop has multiple different zones. There will be the areas around the HVAC, electrical control systems, vents, potential solar panels, and so on—and the safe paths between the access point and each of those zones. Brightly painted rails indicate to people where the zones are and the right way to reach them, while also providing OSHA flat roof fall protection from slippery footing and trips along the way.
Large-scale HVACs aren't like residential HVACs or even small commercial HVACs—they often need to be climbed on for components to be accessed and work to be done. Consider investing in rail-based enclosures and rooftop machine guarding systems so technicians can climb up the equipment without climbing the equipment itself. Not only does this protect the units, but it makes work safer.
But keep in mind that it's not enough to have railings or rooftop machine guarding installations—universities must have the right railings installed the right way so they meet roof fall protection requirements. This means choosing railing solutions that:
Can adequately support the weight of someone leaning on them, without any slack or shifting
Have surfaces that are easy to grip, meaning they're the right diameter for grabbing onto and the right coefficient of friction so they aren't slick or icy in bad weather
Are brightly colored and labeled with the appropriate safety symbols and signage so workers can find them and trust them
Choosing sturdy, OSHA-compliant railings and other HVAC roof repair safety equipment is an essential course of action in OSHA flat roof fall protection. At Bluewater, we develop protective hardware and solutions such as building rails, equipment enclosures, self-closing safety gates, and even fall protection systems. Reach out today to learn more about our fall protection solutions for colleges and universities, which local and federal regulations apply to your buildings, and developing news that applies to your facility management responsibilities.
