Improving Roofing Safety: Practical Steps to Protect Workers on the Job

Roofing remains one of the most hazardous professions in the U.S., with 110 fatal falls in 2023 alone. Regular training, teamwork, inspections, and open communication can help prevent future tragedies.

• By Tyler Johnson
• Sep 24, 2025

Roofing contractors will always provide an essential service for real estate owners because no real estate can function without a roof. Residents in states across the country are demanding a larger supply of housing, and more homes being built means more roofers are needed to build those new roofs and fix the older ones. Roofing contractors are going to need to put their boots on roofs to meet demand, and while they do that, it is important to recognize the dangers that inherently exist in the industry and remind our colleagues always to put roofer safety in the forefront of our minds. Roofing contractors continue to occupy one of the most hazardous professions in the United States. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Roofing contractors accounted for 26 percent of fatalities due to falls, slips, and trips. This means that 110 roofers died in 2023 due to falls while working on a roof. The safety of our colleagues is essential, and we don’t need to be passive about safety standards. There are things we can do today. Here are a few practical ways we can improve job-site safety for our roofing contractors.

Never stop educating your team

A commitment to continued learning is paramount to maintaining good safety standards, and many people in the industry don’t educate their roofers on safety standards enough. Roofing companies must do more than a brief safety chat before work. Safety meetings should be held regularly, ideally on a weekly or biweekly basis. The safety meeting should cover topics that are relevant for the job, and the season contractors are working in.

For example, during the summer, roofing contractors should be talking about safety issues regarding heat management. How to avoid heat exhaustion and how to safely work on a hot roof.  If there is a big storm, the safety meeting should discuss the dangers that are prevalent after a storm and how to inspect and repair a storm-damaged roof safely. Involve everyone in safety meetings. You don’t just want a supervisor to recite a speech; you want to engage in open dialogue with your team and ask them questions to ensure they are absorbing the discussion.

You should constantly revisit and reteach basic safety standards and equipment use. Repetition is the most effective path to retention, so if you consistently reaffirm your safety standards to your team, they will remember and follow them. Don’t let team members miss meetings. Take the time to go through the content of the safety meeting with anyone who misses it later. Things happen, and a roofer may have a good reason to miss a meeting, but you and they must make a good-faith effort to reschedule and ensure they are getting the same message as the rest of your team.

It takes two

Roofing is never a solo job. Always have your roofing contractors working in pairs. No one should ever be on a roof alone. This simple fix would go a long way in reducing roofing injuries and fatalities because it would give roofers someone to hold them accountable and someone who can call for help right away if something happens. A roofer who works alone has no idea when help is going to come if they fall off a roof. Always work in at least two teams, no matter how quick or small the job is.

Conduct thorough pre-job inspections

Jobsite safety begins before you start working on a roof. Roofers must conduct thorough inspections of a job site before working on it. Walk the job site and identify any potential hazards before getting on the roof. Conduct a job hazard analysis to identify any risks associated with completing a specific task. Lastly, play it safe when it comes to the weather. Never let roofers get on a wet roof, and postpone work during high winds, lightning, or icy conditions. If temps are projected to be high, then start work early, provide easy access to water, and end before temps reach their peak.

Encourage open communication

You need to make it easy for roofers to express safety concerns. Supervisors should lead by example. They should point out potential hazards when they see them, so that roofers feel comfortable voicing concerns when they identify hazards. Every roofing company should have a no-retaliation policy for addressing safety concerns. Make it crystal clear that no one will get in trouble for reporting safety incidents or near-miss incidents. This policy should be reinforced at every safety meeting. Always remind your team that no one will get in trouble for simply reporting safety hazards.

Establish clear communication channels for reporting and promote open and direct communication with supervisors.

When accidents or near misses occur, don’t just move on from them, but learn from them. Bring them up at the next safety meeting and talk about why they happened and how to prevent them from happening again.

Safely drive to job sites

Safety on the drive to a job site is also essential. Roofers transport a lot of materials to a job site using company trucks, so it is critical that your team safely transports materials and crew to and from a site. Ensure tools, materials, and debris are safely secured in any vehicle, and have multiple people check and see if the load you are transporting is secure. Drive the speed limit to the job site and install GPS tracking devices on all company trucks to ensure the vehicles are only traveling to approved destinations and adhering to the speed limit.

Roofers work a dangerous job, and they must always keep safety at the forefront of their minds. Continue to educate your team on proper safety standards, and they will prevent accidents.