Carabiners are a common piece of equipment used by workers accessing fall protection systems. But how many should you keep in your kit?
Roof anchor points are the most common type of fall protection system installed on a building’s roof and carabiners are the most common way a worker will connect their rope line to one.
While sport climbers are known for having carabiners in abundance, the same is not entirely true for workers accessing rooftop fall protection systems.
Most workers that infrequently access fall protection systems will have what is generally referred as a “roofers’ kit”. This kit is a basic, entry-level set of PPE that allows a worker to use most permanent fall protection systems.
These kits generally contain a basic fall arrest harness, a rope line and adjuster, an anchor strap and a carabiner or two. The idea behind these kits are they allow a worker to safely access a roof and connect to an anchor point or two in order to access the spot where work need to be completed.
Three is the recommended minimum
Height Safety Engineers recommend that a worker have at least three (3) carabiners in their PPE kit to use when accessing a rooftop fall protection system that has fixed anchor points installed.
These three are in addition to any that might be placed at the end of the rope line, on a personal shock absorber. In many cases, these items will have permanently attached snap hooks rather than the removable carabiner.
By having at least three carabiners available, a worker is able to easily move their way through the anchor point system, complete their work and return.
This number of carabiners will cover the vast majority of situations the vast majority of tradespeople are likely to come across. Naturally, workers involved in more complex work, for example rope access, will have different needs.
But what if, for some reason, you have less than three?
Alpine butterflies and lateral thinking
Mistakes happen. We have all been there. And the nature of a carabiner is that they can be easily misplaced, or lost, or fall out of a bag. In this regard they are a lot like an earbud or a bobby pin.
It is not unreasonable to think that, at least once in someone’s working life, they are going to arrive on site and discover they do not have enough carabiners to get to where they need to go on a roof.
What can you do?
If you have at least one carabiner with you, it may be possible to safely access the system and complete your work. This is going to depend on the system, the roof, and the layout of the anchor points.
It is not going to be an efficient or timely way to do it but, in a pinch, it can be done.
Getting around a roof anchor point system with only a single carabiner requires a measure of lateral thinking, and the ability to tie and untie alpine butterfly (or equivalent) knots. Here’s how you can do it.
Using a leap-frog technique, the user and move along the system by connecting their carabiner to an anchor, tying an alpine butterfly then returning to the previous anchor, disconnecting the rope line, attaching it to the anchor with the alpine butterfly on it, untying the knot, disconnecting the carabiner and moving to the next anchor.
It would be a time consuming, and impractical, process. But that is a method that could be implemented in a fall restraint technique situation to remain protected against the risks of a fall.
Partners in protecting people
Understanding how to correctly and efficiently utilise fall protection systems to safely work at height is a key skill every tradesperson, maintenance technician, builder should have. Height Safety Engineers can provide your team with the comprehensive safety training for working at height.
Our team don’t just know the height safety book inside and out; we have helped write it. Start your safety journey. Call us on 1300 884 978, email us at enquiries@heightsafety.net or jump over to this page and drop us a line.
