Make Sure Safety Railing Meets OSHA Guidelines and Requirements

Safety railing is required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to be installed in specific locations throughout your facility. Any area that is raised over a predetermined and specified height off the ground has to have railings in place in order to prevent accidental falls. This includes locations like loading docks, mezzanines, roofs and cross over ladders. Additionally, railings may need to be installed at the ground level, when it is used as a barrier around equipment and machinery, in order to prevent and lower the likelihood of accidents in the workplace. It is worth your time to review the current OSHA guidelines on a regular basis, to ensure your facility is compliant. It would be a waste of previous corporate resources, to purchase the wrong size railing and discover later it did not meet the minimum OSHA requirements, and then had to be replaced.

Some Organizations Were Provided a Grandfather Clause with Their Safety Railing

OSHA has made allowances in certain situations in regards to safety railing. When they changed the height requirements of the railings and made them taller, some industries were grandfathered in at the previous requirements. This was done to prevent these businesses from having the expense of replacing all of their, then current, guard rails. However, these companies have to follow the new guidelines for any new railing installations within their facility. They also have to install new guard rails, in the event they have to remove and replace old railings covered under the grandfather clause.