Ihab Saad – Stairways and Ladders
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the issues of construction and maintenance related to portable ladders, including violations for the misuse of ladders and the lack of training programs. They provide examples of violations and instructions for fixing them. The speakers also discuss the installation of a stair rail and handrail for a construction project, emphasizing the importance of proper safety and health reasons. The speakers emphasize the need for proper installation and stairway design for safety and health reasons, as well as the importance of avoiding hazards and avoidance of dangerous accidents.
AI: Summary ©
Music.
Hello again to another safety class, and today we're going to
talk about stairways and ladders, which are part of either temporary
construction or part of permanent construction. So we're going to
talk about some of the issues related to their installation,
their use and their maintenance as well.
First of all, we're going to talk about the most cited violations,
or the most frequent citations
that happened in the industry over the past year. For example,
1007
violations were reported related to the misuse of portable ladders
three feet above landing surface,
which is clause 1053, b1, under subpart x, which is ladders in our
codebook, 310, violations were related to improper installation
of C rails and handrails, which is clause 1052, c1,
294, violations for the lack of a training program, clause 1060, a,
221, violations related to misuse of ladders. 1053, before and 220,
violations related to stairways, the absence of stairways or
ladders when 19 inches or more break in elevation, which is
clause 1051, a now you should be able to extract these from the
code book. You should know how to read the code book and read these
different violations,
some facts about stairways and ladders as part of temporary
construction and maintenance work. Ladders are used extensively on
construction sites, so both during construction and after
construction as well for maintenance work, stairways and
ladders may cause injuries and fatalities among construction
workers, which are mostly due to falls, trips or slips.
About half the injuries caused by slips, trips and falls from
ladders and stairways require time off the job for people to recover,
because you might have broken limbs, for example, of severe
injuries that require some time off the job. The
learning objectives from this lecture. By the end of this
presentation, you should be able to recognize the importance of
ladders and stairways in construction. Identify ladders and
stairways main design and installation criteria. There are
certain numbers that you have to remember, and certain slopes and
so on,
and visually identify and list violations from pictures. This, by
the way, could be part of your photo case study, which is the
project for this, course, you can go to construction sites and start
documenting issues related to stairways and ladders whether they
are installed properly. You're gonna say that this is installed
properly, and you're gonna cite the clause that shows that this is
a proper installation or that this should be a citation or a
violation. And again, you're gonna cite the the clause that shows
that this is a violation. So whether it's correct, you're gonna
comment on it, or if it's done improperly, you're also going to
comment on it. And what should the correction be?
Where should we have stairways or ladders? There must be a stairway
or ladder at points of access where there's an elevation break
of 19 inches or more, at least one point of access must be kept
clear. So this is the minimum requirement here. If you have a
difference in elevation of 19 inches or more, you must have a
step you must have a stairway or a ladder leading to that difference
in elevation,
a distinction between stair rails and handrails. Sometimes stair
rails could be also called guard rails versus hand rails, as you
can see here from this picture, the stair rail is going to be
installed on the outside of the stairs towards the open area,
whereas the handrail is going to be installed or mounted on a wall,
so this is away from the open side of the stairs.
The minimum strength required for these hand rails, or the top rail
or the guardrails is going to be to resist a force of 200 pounds a
person leaning on that guardrail or handrail, that handrail should
stop that person from falling, or stop the handrail itself from
breaking. It should resist that force of at least 200 pounds.
Here is a picture, for example, that shows a violation. Why is
there a violation here? Because there's a requirement stairways
with four or more risers or higher than 30 inches must be equipped
with at least one handrail. So if the difference in elevation is
more than 30 inches, of course, if it's more than 19 inches, then
we're gonna need.
A stair or a ladder. Now this is if it's more than 30 inches, and
if it has more than four stairs, not only are we gonna need a stair
or a ladder, but we're also gonna need handrails or guardrails on
both sides of these stairs. As you can see also this platform, which
is open from three sides should have also guardrails to protect
from falling from this platform. So the stairway to this platform
has more than four risers, is not guarded. The platform also
requires guarding.
Another picture, stairways, the same clause here, the same
condition we have here, more than four four steps, and it's open
from both sides, the difference in elevation definitely is more than
30 inches. So again, there's a hazard of falling and tripping and
slipping on this stair the landing as well.
When we talk about stairs design, you're going to find that
sometimes you feel comfortable going up some stairs, and
sometimes you'd feel uncomfortable. On the other hand,
also you'd feel the motion of going mechanically downstairs. You
do that sometimes very quickly. If there's any non uniformity between
the height of the different risers, that, again, might cause
some issues with tripping and falling and so on. So about the
installation of the stairs? It has to be installed between 30 and 50
degrees with the horizontal so the slope is going to be anywhere
between 30 to 50 degrees. Of course, the lower the angle, the
more comfortable the stairs are going to be, the less effort
you're going to exert trying to get up these stairs, and they must
have a uniform riser height and tread depth with less than a
quarter of an inch variation. So the quarter of inch here, this is
the maximum variation between the heights of the different risers or
the depths of the different threads, if you have more than one
quarter of an inch, that definitely causes some hazards and
cause people to trip and fall.
While we are building the project, we're gonna use temporary stairs
that are not complete or not finished yet, but the condition to
use them is only use pan stairs, if filled with filler material, at
least to the top edge of each pan. So here we have a metal set of
stairs, and this is called the pan, which is basically hollow or
empty. On the inside, you must put some filler material, whether it's
wood or something else. So again, this set of stairs should not be
used until the filler material has been installed to the top edge of
each pad.
When we talk about landings,
stairway landings must be at least 30 inches deep and 22 inches wide
at every 12 feet or less of a vertical rise, because you don't
want someone going down a long set of stairs without any stopping
point or breaking point to break the fall if someone trips and
falls. So we're going to limit that fall to a maximum of 12 feet.
Therefore, if you have a difference of more than 12 feet,
you must have a landing, and the minimum dimensions of that
landing, as mentioned here, are going to be 30 inches by 22
inches.
Unprotected sides of landings must have standard 42 inch guard rail
systems like this one here, for example, this is a guardrail,
although it's not complete, it's missing something here, which is
the mid rail, but the maximum height here is going to be 42
inches,
where doors or gates Open directly on a stairway provide a platform
that extends at least 20 inches beyond the swing of the door. So
this door, when it opens, is going to swing this way. So the door is
going to be up to this point, therefore the landing should
extend at least 20 inches beyond the edge of the door.
Remember these numbers. So here we're talking about 30 inches, 22
inches, 12 feet, 42 inches. There are lots of numbers to remember
from this presentation. And here we're talking about the 20 inches
as well.
If you have any oils or any grease or any slippery material, you have
to fix that before someone uses these stairs, because, again, if
someone slips, that might lead to a fall, causing some injuries. So
fix slippery conditions before using using stairway parts must be
free of projections which may cause injuries or snag.
Well, like this one here, we have a cage and multiple ladder
sections, each section not exceeding 50 feet.
So these are three means of protection from falling, using
fixed ladders if they are 24 feet or longer.
Also, since we're going to be working at a higher level, we
might get close to power lines. So if you're going to work near
energized electrical equipment, if using ladders, where the employee
or the or the ladder could contact exposed energized electrical
equipment, they must have non conductive side rails, such as
wood or fiberglass, to break the circuit and not allow for the
current to flow through the body of the person working on this
ladder. So here we show here a an aluminum or a metal ladder, so and
working very close to power line or a energized electrical line,
this is definitely a very unsafe practice. We I don't think we have
the three foot extension either here at the top. So there are
multiple, multiple violations here,
the top step never, ever use the top step or the top of the ladder.
So the top step should not be used as a step, nor the top of the
ladder these you should not use. So here we have a violation.
This is a well designed ladder. It shows here the sticker that has
the information about its design and about the maximum load and
about its compliance with the codes and so on. It has the cross
bracing, so the back rungs, as the front trunks are used for, are
designed for use. So you can use it from either side. Don't use
cross bracing on the rear of a step ladder for climbing, unless
the ladder is designed for that. This is designed for that.
How to maintain and inspect ladders. We learned before in
another presentation about something called a competent
person. So a competent person is someone who has the proper
training, who can recognize the hazards and who can change the
hazardous condition and correct it. So a competent person must
inspect ladders for visible defects, like broken or missing
rungs. Here, for example, we have a missing run,
and it seems so rusty that's that does not seem to be very well
maintained. If a defective ladder is found, immediately, mark it
defective or tag it. Do not use and withdraw defective ladders
from service until repaired, because again, they are going to
remain a falling hazard until they are corrected.
The correct way for climbing the ladder, believe it or not, there's
a correct way for climbing a ladder, which is basically
something called the three contact points. So face the ladder when
going up or down, use at least one hand to grab the ladder when going
up or down. So you're gonna have two hands and one foot, or one
hand and your two feet. So three points of contact between your
body and the ladder. Do not carry any object or load that could
cause you to lose balance. So again, lift the load first using
the proper lifting method, and you as you can see here, if this is
that that does not seem like a landing surface, that's why we do
not have the three foot extension, and we have it tied off properly
here, and he seems to be maintaining the three point
contact with the ladder.
The slope seems to be okay as well. The four to one that we
talked about.
What kind of training since we mentioned that one of the
violations is not providing a training program. So what kind of
training should we have? A competent person must train each
employee in the following areas as applicable,
the nature of fall hazards in the work area, so they should know
about the hazards of falling and what are the different elevations
where they should be tied and so on. The correct procedures for
erecting the ladders,
maintaining and disassembling them,
and the fall protection systems to be used
the proper construction use, placement and care in handling of
all stairways and ladders,
and the maximum intended load carrying capacities of ladders,
which, again, is going to be four times the weight of the person or
the load that's going to be put on this ladder.
So some of the major reasons for slips and falls common causes
here, and how can you help prevent these?
Some cases, fatalities. Imagine if this line is activated, or imagine
if that person falls from this ladder, that can lead to a huge
injury. So I hope that you've learned something about stairways
and ladders in this lecture, and you're going to have the proper
practice on your construction sites, and you can use some
pictures from your construction site to document either proper or
improper use of stairways and ladders, and I'll see you in
another lecture. Applause.