This is the steel nobody photographs for the brochure. There’s no glossy hero shot of a roof-access ladder. But every commercial building in Metro Vancouver has rooftop equipment, HVAC units, mechanical, electrical, and that equipment needs servicing, which means people climbing up to it. The moment a worker goes up there, WorkSafeBC’s fall-protection rules apply, and the building owner’s obligation to provide safe access becomes very real.
So while roof access isn’t glamorous, getting it wrong is expensive, in safety violations, in liability, and in maintenance contractors who refuse to go up an unsafe ladder. Here’s what the rules actually require and how the steel gets built to meet them.
The 3-metre line
The number that governs almost everything in this space is three metres. WorkSafeBC’s OHS Regulation requires a fall protection system where a worker could fall 3 metres (about 10 feet) or more, and also where a shorter fall carries a greater injury risk than landing on a flat surface. That threshold is what triggers the need for guards, anchors, cages, and engineered access on a Burnaby or Vancouver rooftop.
Once you’re over that line, and a roof on a single-storey commercial building usually is, the access and the rooftop work areas have to be designed around keeping the worker from falling. That’s the whole game.
Ladders, cages, and the shift in thinking
The classic image is a fixed vertical ladder with a circular safety cage. Cages were the standard answer for tall fixed ladders for decades, and you’ll see them on commercial buildings all over Burnaby and Coquitlam.
The thinking has been shifting, though. Current fall-protection practice increasingly favours ladder safety systems, a climbing attachment that travels with the worker on a rail or cable, over cages alone, because a cage doesn’t actually arrest a fall; it just contains it. The right solution for a given building depends on the height, the standard the ladder is built to, and an honest assessment of the fall risk. We don’t default to “always a cage” or “always a rail system.” We design the access to meet the applicable standard and WorkSafeBC’s requirements for that specific building and that specific climb.
Ships ladders and platforms for routine access
For equipment that needs regular servicing, a vertical ladder isn’t always the best tool. A ships ladder, a steep stair with treads and a handrail, climbed facing forward, is far easier and safer to use repeatedly than a vertical ladder you climb facing the rungs. We specify ships ladders a lot for routine rooftop access where a maintenance tech is going up weekly, not once a year.
And once you’re on the roof, getting to the equipment safely matters too. Where a worker could fall 3 metres or more reaching a rooftop HVAC unit, that path needs a guard or another fall-protection system. We fabricate equipment platforms, walkways, and crossovers with compliant guardrails so staff can reach the equipment without stepping near an unprotected edge or clambering over a parapet. The guard has to meet the height and load requirements for the application, the same engineering discipline we bring to any commercial guard or railing.
Built to a standard, sealed where required
WorkSafeBC requires ladders and work platforms to meet the applicable CSA or other recognized standard in effect when they were made, or, where no standard applies, to be designed by a professional engineer. That’s not a suggestion. When we fabricate a roof-access ladder or platform, it’s built to the relevant standard, and where the situation calls for it, to an engineer’s sealed design, with the documentation a building inspector or safety officer will ask for.
As a C.W.B.-certified shop, the welding behind that steel is done to CSA standards, which is part of what makes the access trustworthy when someone’s life depends on it.
Galvanizing is the default finish
A roof-access ladder lives outdoors in the rain, year-round, on a Vancouver or North Vancouver building. So it gets hot-dip galvanized almost every time. The zinc coating from hot-dip galvanizing is the workhorse that keeps the steel from rusting for decades in this climate, far more durable than paint on a component that’s constantly wet and rarely maintained. Where appearance matters, we can powder-coat over the galvanizing, but the galvanizing does the protective work.
Retrofitting older buildings
A lot of our roof-access work is retrofit. Older commercial buildings around Metro Vancouver frequently have access that doesn’t meet current requirements, a ladder with no fall protection, a sketchy parapet step-over, or no real access at all. When a building changes hands, or a maintenance contractor flags the access as unsafe, the owner needs it brought up to standard.
We assess the height, the access point, and the rooftop layout, then design and fabricate access that meets current WorkSafeBC requirements and mounts to the existing structure, whether that’s an exterior fixed ladder, a ships ladder, a roof-hatch ladder for interior access out of the weather, or a platform system. Older buildings are where the biggest gaps usually are.
The responsibility piece is worth naming. Under the regulation, the employer of the workers doing the work has to ensure fall protection is used, but the building owner has every reason to provide compliant permanent access so that every contractor who shows up isn’t left improvising on an unsafe roof. Permanent engineered access protects the workers, the contractors, and the owner all at once.
If your Burnaby, Vancouver, or Coquitlam building has rooftop equipment and the access is missing, aging, or non-compliant, it’s worth fixing before a safety officer or a refusing contractor forces the issue. Tell us about your building and your rooftop access needs and we’ll design and build access that meets the rules.
