Safety is a State of Mind

RCS Influencer Mike Pickel says that safety is always at the forefront on every job.

Safety is a state of mind for us at Texas Traditions Roofing. Every minute my supervisor and I spend on a jobsite, we are always doing safety inspections. Are the workers working safely, are the ladders tied off correctly and securely, are the ladders at the proper angles?

From the time we hit the ground to go visit a jobsite until the time we get back in the truck, we are always looking for proper safety practices and if we see something not being done right, we use it as a teachable moment. We want our guys going home every night, so we are always looking for ways that we can increase safety.

Years ago, in roofing, safety didn’t always come first. There are old photos of workers standing on roofs without any safety gear – and in some cases shirtless! RoofersCoffeeShop® has a great photo gallery on the history of roofing and the pictures show very few safety measures in place. That may have been the way back then, but our team now understands that safety is first on every job.

There are some challenges that come with tying off on a steep slope, such as possibly stepping on a rope line and rolling it, leading to a fall. We are sure to incorporate that awareness into our weekly safety talks. On the low-slope side, we use a safety barrier and have a Raptor cart for the crew to tie off to when they need to work outside the perimeter. 

We get a lot of our information from the National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA). They provide toolbox talks on just about every safety topic you can think of from fall protection, nail gun safety, preventing back injuries and more. They provide them in both English and Spanish so everyone can benefit from the education.

Mike Pickel is co-founder of Texas Traditions Roofing. See his full bio here.