Many in the residential construction
industry believe that fall protection for
workers adds unacceptable costs to the
job. Some suggest providing fall protection could
cost $5,000 or more per structure, but this is an
arbitrary number that the authors’ research and
real-world experience could not reconcile. Another
prevailing idea is that fall protection always requires
modifying and reinforcing structures prior to
use, which requires the services of an engineer who
must also validate and certify the fall protection
system. Others have voiced concerns that there
is not enough ground
clearance on typical
single-family structures
for workers to
use fall arrest systems
(Home Builders
of Central Arizona;
NAHB, 2000).