The six-foot fall rule

You are on the open side of a second-floor deck. The walls are not up yet. The plywood ends, and the next thing under your boots is the floor below, more than 6 feet down. The same open side shows up at a stair hole, along a ramp, and at the end of a form deck. Someone walks that line with a sheet in both hands. Someone else steps back to let a bundle swing past. There is nothing between that person and the drop. Look at every open side before the first load lands there today. The quiet edge is still a fall.

In construction, fall protection is required when a worker can fall 6 feet or more to a lower level. The usual choices are a guardrail, a safety net, or a personal fall arrest system. A guardrail stops you at the edge. A net catches you if you go over. A personal fall arrest system holds you when you are tied off. One of those has to be in place before you work that side. An open edge with nothing there is not a plan. This talk is the basic rule for open sides and edges. The special choices used on some low-slope roofs belong in another talk. If the drop is 6 feet or more, use a guardrail, a net, or fall arrest.

Walk today's open sides before the crew starts. Point out each place where a person can fall 6 feet or more. Put the guardrail up, set the net, or get people into fall arrest before anyone works there. If the rail is still down, stay back from that edge. Do not lean over to grab a cord or a tool. Do not send a person out to set one board with no protection because the job is short. If you cannot tell whether the drop is 6 feet, stop and ask the foreman. When a rail comes off so a load can pass, people stay back until that rail is back in place. Tell the foreman as soon as a rail is missing.