Ihab Saad – Stairways and Ladders

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.