Skylight safety making news

As I was compiling industry news this morning, I noticed at least four articles on falls through skylights. Skylights in this country go through rigorous testing, and meet and exceed the minimum AAMA and ASTM guidelines before hitting the market. So, why so many accidents?

Product engineering of skylights demands that proper fall prevention glazing materials be used in the skylights to prevent people from falling through the skylights when they decide to walk on them, says Ron Palombo, president, Acurlite Structural Skylights, Berwick, Pa.   

The skylight accidents happening today are mainly from skylights that are either old or simply outdated, Palombo says. Skylights built in the late '50s through the '60s utilized glazing materials such as wired glass in an attempt to prevent fallout in case the glass broke. In most cases, annealed wired glass was used. "Many of the accidents you read about today are of skylights that were not designed to carry an active load or that [suffered a] catastrophic collapse due to inadequate engineering and/or poor installation practices," he says. "It is very rare that a report of someone falling through a modern engineered monolithic or insulated glass type skylight occurs today."

Product testing does not focus on the ability of the skylight to prevent fall through but focuses on long-term structural integrity and performance, Palombo says. "Our building code is very clear as to what loading requirements the skylight must be capable of withstanding," he says.  "Practically all building codes require that the skylight take a 250-pound concentrated load at any framing member that produces the most stress. Further, the code is now requiring that a glazing analysis be completed with the structural analysis to assure the glass is capable of taking the specified loads and transferring them back to their supporting members without breakage or failure," he says.

To avoid accidents, Palombo says:

  • Factory pre-assembling or unitizing of the main skylight components/frame definitely assures that no short cuts will be taken in the field during erection.
  • Transporting assembled components on a dedicated carrier is the only way to assure the assembled frames and material will arrive safely and intact. "Manufacturing the material, packaging it and sending it via a common carrier is suicidal."
  • Having factory trained erectors who are dedicated to erecting the structures correctly is monumental to the long-term stability, integrity and performance of the skylight unit. "You can cover all your bases, have a state-of-the-art skylight system with state-of-the-art engineering and manufacturing, but if you don't have the right erectors putting it together ...  what are you left with?"

What are your thoughts on the issue?

Sahely Mukerji is senior editor of Glass Magazine. Write her at smukerji@glass.org.

Comments

While in complete agreement that attention must be paid to the issue of skylight safety and fall prevention, the AAMA Skylight Council feels that several details in this article are in need of clarification. In the article, when Mr. Palombo refers to “skylights,” he is referring to only “sloped glazing” and “monumental skylight” systems, and the comments are largely inapplicable for unit skylights, which have different requirements. It should be noted that skylight manufacturers do not condone walking on skylight surfaces, especially the glazing material, as the skylight is not designed for this purpose. The responsibility for fall protection must be shared amongst the many parties involved with the design, construction and maintenance of roofs. A distinction should also be made between the design of the skylight framing for concentrated loads and the glazing design, which are designed to resist the applicable environmental load requirements such as snow loads, wind loads, dead loads, and in some cases hurricane-induced wind-borne debris impact loads. Standard design practices do not dictate that they are to be manufactured for human impact or point loads. Warning labels on skylights indicate this, as required by the building codes since 1986. In some cases signage properly placed at roof access points has been employed to communicate this as well. Fall protection solutions must not be focused on product design, as suggested in the article, but rather through a comprehensive approach which takes into account the many critical factors which bear on fall safety. Please see the AAMA Skylight Council Fall Protection Position Paper for more information: http://www.aamanet.org/upload/file/Skylight_Council_Position_Paper_rev_D.... This white paper provides five safety considerations for minimizing risk. These should be implemented and followed first as a strong foundation for mitigating the occurrence of all falls from roofs and roof openings. In special circumstances the use of railings, grids, external or internal screens, or specially designed products meeting a fall protection standard have been employed.

Angela Dickson
January 18, 2011 - 3:41pm

Dave,Why don't you install a theerometmr connected to a small solar powered motor, one that can detect both indoor and outdoor ambience and it could then open and close the window for you?I'm sure there is such a thing in existence - if not invent it!Skylight is better - now you have more wall space for hanging and storage.CheersKevin

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October 3, 2012 - 3:31am

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Vielfigo
October 28, 2012 - 9:21pm

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