All provinces and territories · Editable Word template

Roofing safety manual template

A complete written health and safety program for roofing contractors doing residential re-roofing and new construction, commercial and industrial low-slope roofing, sheet metal and flashing, repairs and eavestroughs, wherever in Canada the roof is. It is laid out on the 14 national COR elements and written for the work: fall protection planning, anchors, brackets and slide guards on steep roofs, guardrails, warning lines and monitors on low-slope roofs, skylights and openings, ladders and roof access, hoists, conveyors and boom trucks, tear-off and chutes, torch-applied membranes and fire watch, asphalt kettles and propane, adhesives and spray foam, asbestos roofing, power lines, heat and UV and the people below. Section 15 sets out the law of every province and territory, and federal workplaces, side by side, with each jurisdiction’s fall protection heights and slopes, low-slope rules, written plan and rescue, kettle and torch rules, hoists and asbestos roofing. It arrives as an editable Word file you make your own.

A look inside

Sample pages from the manual, marked and cut short. Your copy has no watermark.

Cover with room for your logo and company name

Linked table of contents, laid out on the 14 national COR elements plus a section on working across Canada

Section 3: twenty safe work practices written for roofing crews, low-slope fall protection shown

Section 15: each jurisdiction's fall protection rules for roofs, warning lines, monitors, kettles and asbestos

Appendix A: all 74 documentation questions of the national COR elements mapped

Print-ready plans and forms: the fall protection plan for the roof shown

What’s in the manual

1. Safety and health policy

A signed, dated policy, the written program, and responsibilities for management, foremen, roofers, apprentices, kettle and torch operators, sheet metal workers and hoist operators.

2. Hazard assessment, analysis and control

Formal hazard assessments by type of roof and roofing system, the 5 × 5 risk matrix, a critical task inventory, and the roof hazard assessment done before every job.

3. Safe work practices

Twenty practices for roofers: the client’s property, fall protection planning, steep and low-slope roofs, skylights, ladders, hoists and conveyors, tear-off, torch-on, kettles, propane, adhesives and spray foam, asbestos, nail guns, power lines, manual handling, heat, weather, the people below and young workers.

4. Safe job procedures

Step-by-step procedures for working from a roof anchor, a warning line system, torch-on with a fire watch, running an asphalt kettle, loading the roof, tear-off into a chute, guarding a skylight and rescuing a roofer suspended in a harness.

5. Company safety rules

Life-saving rules for roofing (tied off or protected above the trigger height, nobody on a roof alone, a fire watch after every torch, nothing thrown off the roof), and a progressive discipline process applied the same way every time.

6. Personal protective equipment

Harnesses, lanyards and self-retracting devices and their inspection, footwear for the roof, burn protection for hot work, respirators, and sun protection.

7. Preventative maintenance program

Anchors and fall protection, ladders, hoists and conveyors, kettles, torches, hoses and regulators, and trucks.

8. Training and communication

Fall protection and rescue, torch and kettle training, hoists, heat stress, asbestos awareness, and orientation for every new and seasonal roofer.

9. Inspections

Roof inspections, harnesses checked before use, kettles, torches and hoists checked before each shift, and a daily heat check.

10. Investigations and reporting

Falls and arrested falls, burns, roof fires, dropped materials and heat illness reported and investigated.

11. Emergency preparedness

A suspended worker, a fall, a roof or kettle fire, heat stroke, a power line contact, and first aid on every crew.

12. Statistics, records and document control

Fall protection plans, hot work permits, kettle and hoist inspections and heat logs, kept for the longest period any jurisdiction requires.

13. Legislation

OHS law and its fall protection rules, the CSA fall protection and ladder standards, the fire code’s hot work rules, roofing association guidance as guidance, and the right to refuse.

14. Procurement and contractor management

Working for builders and owners, crane and boom truck suppliers, and buying fall protection, torches and kettles.

15. Working across Canada

Whose law applies, then every province and territory and federal workplaces side by side: the act and regulation, the regulator, fall protection heights and slopes, warning lines, monitors and control zones, the written plan and rescue, kettles, torches and propane, hoists, asbestos roofing, and serious incidents to report and how fast.

Appendix A. COR cross-reference

Every one of the 74 documentation questions in the 14 national COR elements, what it looks for in plain words, the section that answers it, and whether the auditor will also want your records.

Appendix B. Forms

37 print-ready forms that match the manual, each with a form code: among them the roof hazard assessment, fall protection plan for the roof, hot work permit and fire watch record, kettle and torch inspection, hoist and conveyor inspection and heat stress log.

Written for the work, not just the province

Roofers fall. They are also burned by torches and kettles, struck by heat on a black roof in July, and drop things on the people below. This manual is written around them, practice by practice and procedure by procedure.

Warning lines and safety monitors are used only where the law where you work allows them, and every roof gets a written plan and a way to bring down a worker who falls.

One program for every province you work in

Your crews follow the occupational health and safety law of the province or territory where the roof is, not where your office is. The manual sets your company’s rules once and gathers what changes at each border into section 15, so a supervisor starting work in a new province looks up what applies there.

It is laid out on the 14 national COR elements, so it suits a COR audit wherever you certify. Each certifying partner uses its own audit tool, so check it against yours; our provincial manuals follow each province’s audit exactly. No template can guarantee a certificate on its own, and we don’t claim to.

Who it is for

Residential and commercial roofing contractors: shingles, metal, cedar, built-up, modified bitumen, single-ply and spray foam, sheet metal and flashing, repairs and eavestroughs.

A template is a starting point, not legal or engineering advice: a qualified person must adapt it to your work and the provinces you work in before you issue it.

Lifetime updates

When the law changes, we publish a new edition and email everyone who bought the template. Every update is free, for as long as we publish it.

Version 1.0 October 29, 2026
- First edition, written for roofing contractors and laid out on the 14 national elements of the harmonized COR audit.
- Section 15 sets out the law and the fall protection, low-slope, hot work, kettle, hoist and asbestos roofing rules of every province and territory and federal workplaces, checked against the legislation in force on 29 October 2026.