Variable rail safety system

Abstract

A multi-use variable guard rail system for providing a safe working area is mountable on various surfaces, whether sloped (roofs), vertical (walls) or horizontal (floors). A rail support of the system has an upright pivotally engaged with a base, and a brace that locks the upright relative to the base in numerous positions ranging between an acute angle and an obtuse angle where the upright and base are linearly aligned. The upright has openings that hold rails such as various sizes of lumber in a vertically stacked array without the need to cut or fasten the lumber, and which allows for replacement of rails without disassembly of the rest of the system. The base has a tongue particularly suited for roof work, namely it is used to mount the rail support to the roof, yet allows the base to be lifted for placing shingles thereunder.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates to a safety device and more particularly to a temporary, multi-use guard rail system to provide a safe working area for persons on a building under construction. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] When a residential or commercial building is in the various stages of construction, there is a need to have a safe work area. There have been problems providing safety rails to areas under construction such as floor edges, roof edges, and tops of walls as they are being erected prior to the floor being installed, as well as for openings in roofs, floors and stairwells. [0003] The current practice is to merely construct a makeshift guard rail from lumber (such as lumber of a nominal 2″×4″ inch (aprox. 50 mm×100 mm) cross-section, commonly referred to as a “two-by-four” or “2×4”). These types of guard rails, also referred to as fences or railings, are usually not as strong as one would like, and a worker falling against such railing...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0012] an elongate brace member having spaced first and second brace attachment means, said first brace attachment means adaped to be pivotally engaged with said second base attachment means, and said second brace attachment means adapted to be selectively

Problems solved by technology

There have been problems providing safety rails to areas under construction such as floor edges, roof edges, and tops of walls as they are being erected prior to the floor being installed, as well as for openings in roofs, floors and stairwells.

These types of guard rails, also referred to as fences or railings, are usually not as strong as one would like, and a worker falling against such railings can easily dislodge the makeshift railing causing the worker to fall and risk injury or death.

The dislodged makeshift railing may also fall down, creating a falling object hazard for lower levels of the construction site.

These problems are of such a nature that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, in the United States of America and the Occupational Health and Safety Code, or OHS code, in Canada have become alarmed.

However, there are disadvantages to these prior art products.

Some disadvantages of the products of example 1 are that they tend to be heavy units making it very hard for the carpenter to carry the units over the open framing members of a roof and to install the guard rail system.

Further, the design of the support in Canadian patent application 2,162,526 limits the choice of horizontal rail members for installation as railings.

Yet a further disadvantage is that these horizontal rail members, when installed in a fence formed by a series of three or more uprights, are installed butt-end-to-butt-end inside the retaining tubes (of the guard rail attachment elements).

Such confirguration makes removal of one horizontal rail anywhere along the length of the rail system difficult without forcing the adjacent horizontal rail out of the tube, causing another area of the roof to be without fall protection.

A disadvantage of the products of example 2 is that the current practice is to generally use complex and expensive metal systems or a series of brackets in combination with 2×4 lumber fastened together by nailing or screwing the horizontal members to the vertical members.

In most cases such assembly is expensive due to material (lumber and fasteners) and labor costs.

A disadvantage of the systems of example 3 is the excessive time required to install and remove all of the uprights from their proper position and to construct a railing made entirely out of 2×4 lumber.

This is also very costly because the 2×4 lumber is seldom reusable upon disassembly of the railing.

Once this type of railing has been installed it is typically not as secure as one would like, and it can create a falling object hazard to the workers below as noted earlier.

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