Those who conduct roof repairs open themselves up to a series of unique overhead conditions and occupational hazards. However, they have absolutely nothing to do with falling off of roofs. In fact, even roofers who pride themselves on being on top of industry trends will be shocked to read about the hazards involved in the top terms referring to the tools of this tenuous trade Roof and gutter contractor.
Those who make a living doing roof repairs take on a ridiculous amount of risk. Falling off a roof may be the most obvious boo-boo-causing blunder for those who make their livings atop perspicuous peaks. However, that obvious pitfall could apply to other rooftop-based professions, too. Picture Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins, with his dancing band of chimney sweeps. That kind of rooftop pageantry is safe, however, when you compare it to the truly at-risk rooftop workers. The tipsy fiddler in his namesake musical has it safer, too.
These many dangers go over even the tallest people’s heads. Even OSHA experts fail to consider these potential mishaps plaguing those that climb up the corporate ladder within this top-notch profession.
Have you ever thought about the materials involved in roofing? Their names bear uncanny connections to conditions that can be much more dangerous than falling off a roof.
- Truss
This collection of “structural frames based on the geometric rigidity of the triangle . . . [that] functions as a [support] beam” for a roof may not seem all that bad, but did you know that the term truss can also refer to “an apparatus consisting of a pad usually supported by a belt for maintaining a hernia in a reduced state.” Even in a “reduced state,” a hernia is painful!
- Shingles
While “thin pieces of wood, slate, . . . or the like, . . . laid in overlapping rows” may seem fairly innocuous, this term can also refer to a painful disease “caused by the varicella-zoster virus, . . . characterized by skin eruptions and pain along the course of involved sensory nerves.” If that makes your skin crawl, you may not want to keep reading. Perhaps the next exhibit was a flawed attempt to cover the said “skin eruptions” or perhaps try to sooth them.
- Tar paper
The “heavy, tar-coated paper used as a waterproofing material” usually precedes the shingles, but in this case, the phrase “tar and feather” nearly rhymes with it and would have to be done over the skin that shows the signs of Shingles: “to coat a person with tar and feathers as a punishment or humiliation.” As an alternative, the phrase has come to more generically refer to any severe punishment. Wouldn’t having Shingles be punishment enough?
- Staple gun
While a “hand-powered tool used for driving heavy-duty wire staples into wood and other materials” could be used to affix the tar paper to the trusses, staples are also used by doctors to close up wounds. And guns are clearly dangerous, at least in some people’s hands.
It’s high time that OSHA started manning up to these implicit dangers that are part of roof repairs. The rest of us should applaud these workers loudly enough to raise the roof, but not until they’ve come back down to earth. If a roofing professional takes these terms and their second meanings seriously, it could make him think he’s better off playing a fiddle while he’s up there or, worse, jump right off that roof.