So, we have a nice big 2 story house of ~4000 sq feet. High ceilings, sloped roofs on 3 levels, with the highest roof gutters about 30 feet off the ground.
My (in the process of becoming an ex) decided it would be a good idea to have my son clean the gutters. Ya know, just climb out the master bedroom window, walk around on the roof with garbage bags, and scoop the gutters. Kidlet didn’t have any safety gear, and wasn’t cautiously making sure to at least have 3 points of contact with the roof. Nope, just walk around. Evidently he has done it before.
First, he went out the window of my study. ex was in the room and his boyfriend. I was very calm but requested that he please come inside. And he came inside.
And about 10 minutes later I hear the unmistakable sounds of someone walking on the roof. So, I go outside to see my son and his boyfriend standing upright on the roof with garbage sacks. My ex had kindly told them not to worry and then opened up the master bedroom window to climb out on the roof. I went outside, asked very nicely if the two 18 year old boys would come back inside. And they did.
Oh, and I should mention, I took a tumble backpacking 2 years ago, lost my balance, rolled over backwards over a rock, and ended up with 8 staples. Fresh reminder that gravity sucks and if you misjudge then you fall.
Mao on a pogo stick. We lost his twin in a tragic household accident in January. I’m trying very hard to not lose my shit at my ex.
My coworker fell off a roof in a similar situation. Cleaning gutters. Landed on his feet on the concrete driveway. Multiple surgeries, lots of metal. Wasn’t sure if he would walk again. Is going for surgery again in January, three years later.
This is an experienced carpenter that has worked in residential construction most of his life. Being careless at home in a way he would not at a job site.
Its easy to walk around on a roof. Your chances of falling any particular time isn’t that high. The consequences of a fall are enormous. We tend to bevvery bad at evaluating that kind of risk.
I don’t think you’re the jerk, in the least. I won’t even go up onto my roof to clear leaves, and that’s only about 12’ above ground level. What you describe is a job for a professional, with safety equipment.
The OP’s ex sounds like my sister’s ex. He would do stuff like carelessly work on 2nd floor siding on a long ladder with no spotting, lean waaay over without bothering to climb down and move the ladder over, fall and snap his femur just below the hip socket. He was lucky he didn’t lose his leg because his blood supply to his leg was cut off, and the docs didn’t know if they could adequately fix it. Another time he was running a dune buggy on a trail, took a corner too fast, and put his arm through the roll bar cage to try to stop from flipping. Snapped his arm bones like a twig in several places. Damaged his nerves to the point his hand didn’t work properly.
It’s never the wrong thing to encourage those you love to be safe. At least, take basic damn precautions.
Nope. My father fell off a roof two stories and change and shattered the right side of his body. He’s alive, but had a long hospital stay, has metal in his shoulder and somewhere in his leg, and still has no feeling after twenty years in two of his fingers. An 18-year-old kid, especially with no experience, no safety equipment doing this kind of work? Hell the fuck no. It’s so outside the bounds of what I consider common sense that I can barely believe anyone would think this is an acceptable idea.
Falls off roofs are pretty common and very serious. No, you weren’t being a jerk. Yes, your ex was being a jerk. Your son was being an overconfident 18 year old.
Yes, I’m older, and don’t recover or have the balance I did at 18. but an 8 foot fall can kill you. Not likely to ever get out of the hospital from a 30 foot fall. Bad idea China Guy.
I used to be a climber. Search and Rescue. When I needed to put a Starlink dish on my house I had the harness, ascenders and descender.
With out the knowledge and rope skills, you may be roped in from a fall, but you are going to hang there until someone rescues you.
There are ways out of it with proper rope skills, experience and the proper rope. - Prussic knot.
I used to work with a guy who fell off his third story roof, recovered, and then fell off again…and didn’t. I also worked roofing in college; I only witnessed one serious fall but saw a number of near misses. You can work on roofs without fall protection if you have the right footwear and know how to move safely, but with gutters you’re standing at the edge of the roof with essentially no opportunity for recovery if you slip. If I couldn’t get to the gutters with a securely braced ladder, I’d rig a rappel line and anchor as @enipla suggests, or hire someone to do it.
Also, gutters aren’t just full of leaves and twigs; the wet material that may have been sitting there for months is often full of fungal spores and potentially rodent and squirrel droppings, so you really should wear gloves and a respirator when cleaning them.
My father was the same way for many years. What it finally took to convince my dad to put away the ladder, and stay off the roof, was this: a guy named Max McGee, who had been a star wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers (my dad’s favorite team) in the 1960s, and who was about my father’s age, died at age 75 in 2007, when he fell off the roof of his home while clearing leaves.
Well, that’s a screw-in crown anchor; you still need all the fall protection gear, and you’ll probably need several of those to reach all of the gutters on your roof. But the essential point—that all of this protection is still cheaper than tens of thousands of dollars of medical bills and lost time at work, possible permanent impairment, and death. So is just hiring a roofer to take care of this for you. Sending an 18 year old out to do with with no protection and no experience is pretty much the worst decision one could make.
I’m mis-reading that I suppose. The opening question did not parse well for me. I thought China Guy suggested suggested going out on the roof. But I guess it was his to be ex.