Trades / Roofing
Risk assessment and method statement for roofing
Roof work is the single biggest killer in UK construction, and it is the work a principal contractor reads a RAMS for most carefully. A roofing RAMS has to say how the fall is prevented before it says anything about harnesses.
£29 per document. Written for your job in two to three minutes, as an editable Word file and a PDF. Free preview first.
What a roofing RAMS has to cover
Not every job needs all of these, and the document only carries what your job actually involves. These are the ones that come up for roofers.
- Falls from the eaves, the ridge and the scaffold edge, and falls through fragile roof lights and old sheeting
- Materials falling on people below, and the exclusion zone that stops it
- Asbestos in cement sheets, soffits, gutters and bitumen felt on anything pre-2000
- Silica dust from cutting concrete tiles, and the water suppression or RPE that controls it
- Hot works: LPG torches on felt and lead, and the fire watch afterwards
- Manual handling of tiles, slates and lead, and the hoist that avoids carrying them up a ladder
- Weather — wind speed limits, wet or frosted surfaces, and when work stops
Jobs you can pick
Ten common roofing jobs, or describe your own in a sentence or two. Either way the document is written around what you describe, including the site, who else is about and how long it takes.
- Strip and re-tile a pitched roof
- Re-slate a pitched roof
- Replace a flat roof (felt, EPDM or GRP)
- Replace slipped or broken tiles and slates
- Ridge and hip repairs
- Lead work: flashings, valleys and aprons
- Chimney repairs and repointing
- Replace fascias, soffits and guttering
- Fit roof windows
- Roof inspection and small repairs
- Something else — describe it yourself
The legislation cited for roofing
This is the complete list your document may cite — 14 entries, kept by hand for roofers. The system cannot cite anything outside it, and a document that tries is rejected and written again. Each one only appears in your RAMS if it applies to the job you describe.
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974
- General duties on employers and the self-employed to protect workers and anyone else affected by the work (ss.2–3), and on workers to take reasonable care (s.7).
- Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
- Requires a suitable and sufficient risk assessment before work starts (reg 3) and operatives given adequate information and training — this RAMS records the significant findings.
- Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992
- PPE must be suitable for the risk, correctly fitted, maintained and provided free of charge (including to limb (b) workers since the 2022 amendment), and used as the last line of defence.
- Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013
- Deaths, specified injuries, over-seven-day injuries, occupational diseases and dangerous occurrences arising from the work must be reported to HSE.
- Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981
- Adequate first-aid equipment and a trained first-aider or appointed person must be available for the duration of the work.
- Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015
- Roofing is construction work: it must be planned, managed and monitored, with operatives inducted and supervised and welfare facilities provided (Schedule 2).
- Work at Height Regulations 2005
- Roof work is work at height: avoid, prevent, then mitigate falls — edge protection or scaffold before harnesses — and protect against falls through fragile surfaces (reg 9).
- Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998
- Hoists, gin wheels, telehandlers and cranes raising materials to roof level need planned lifts, competent operators and current thorough examinations.
- Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998
- Disc cutters, nail guns, gas torches and other roofing tools must be suitable, guarded, maintained and used only by trained operatives.
- Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992
- Carrying tiles, slates, felt rolls and lead up ladders must be avoided where reasonably practicable (e.g. by hoisting) or assessed and the risk reduced.
- Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002
- Cutting concrete tiles releases respirable crystalline silica; bitumen fumes, primers and adhesives also need assessment and controls such as water suppression and RPE.
- Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012
- Asbestos cement sheets, soffits, gutters and bitumen felts are common on pre-2000 roofs — asbestos must be identified before work starts (reg 5).
- Control of Lead at Work Regulations 2002
- Cutting, dressing and hot-working lead sheet for flashings and valleys needs a lead exposure assessment, washing facilities and no eating or smoking before washing.
- Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002
- LPG cylinders for torch-on felt and lead work are dangerous substances: control storage, leaks and ignition sources, and manage hot-work fire risk.
Why a fixed list instead of asking the model
Ask a language model which regulations apply to roofing and you get a confident list, some of it right and some of it regulations that were replaced, renumbered, or never existed. On a document that reaches a principal contractor, a wrong citation is worse than no citation — it is the first thing a competent reviewer spots.
So the list above is given to the system as the only thing it may cite, and every document is checked against it afterwards.
Other trades
Your roofing RAMS
Pick the job, describe the site, read the free preview. £29 only if you want the rest.
£29 when you unlock it. Nothing to pay until you have read the preview.