My name is Mike Pelky, I've worked in construction for 20 plus years. I've been here with LeBlanc
for 10 years, going on 11 and I'm a carpentry rough framer.
Full fall protection means anything like over 6 feet you need to be tied off, or working
on a ladder, or on scaffold.
Sometimes we use ropes, and then we use the PSFAs, or personal fall safety arrest systems.
They are kind of like a yo-yo, that cable
that comes out. and it retracts and goes back and forth.
I was telling the guys earlier, we try to do a lot of work on the ground because its
a lot easier than when you are up in the air. Anytime you are up in the air it is harder work,
on a ladder, scaffold, on the roof, anything. It's always harder and more difficult
to navigate through things and do things. So its better to do, like try to figure out
where your swing fall is going to be, build your trusses on the ground, and then try to
get your anchor points on those, so when you send them up in the air you have a good anchor
point already there and you're not fumbling with it, with the ladder and trying to get
to it and figure out how to get to it.
Gearing up is not too bad, once you already
have the fall protection in place and the anchors in place, its not to bad.
Getting to that point takes a couple of hours, and then the harnessing is not that bad, I mean
to put on a harness only takes maybe 5 minutes at the most, and then there is checking all
of your equipment, and making sure everything is in good working condition. So it's not
really that much of a time, once you get into a habit of doing it, it's not that bad.
My experience is, it was rough, very rough at the first time, very hard to get used to
and it's a little complicated to figure it out. But we got through it, we figured out
easier ways how to do it, and we're doing it, and it's working out.
I fell a couple of times, when I was working for another company. I broke 3 ribs, and that
wasn't fun, that was hard. Because I was out of work for 4 months, with 3 broken ribs it
was, it was not a good thing. If I'd have had fall protection, it would have never happened.
They have to wear it, but I, if you ask those guys, I don't know how they feel about it
but I think they should wear it, especially on tall roofs, when they're working 20 feet
plus above, I mean even 10 feet is a good fall, so, they should be wearing it then.
Go into it with an open mind and say look, we can make this work, these guys are making it work
so, it works.