i work in construction, mostly in copper fabrication and seamless gutters, but also a bit of everything, anyways, on with the story !
last friday, was helping a co-worker do some roofing, we were installing permaclad sheets, a very typical roof setup here, galvanized 26 guage steel sheets with a U panel design the roof was somewhat steep, but it was dry and we had decent traction, the sheets were 18 feet long x 3 feet wide, i was about 14 feet up from the edge marking out screw lines, when someone on the other side of the house, on a balcony, sprayed water over the roof
nobody will admit to it, but a wet permaclad sheet can be like ice.. anyways this house was built backing a gully, and from the front of the house, only 10 feet to the roof, back of the house where i was, about 35 feet drop to the ground, anyways, i started to slip, couldnt get up to the ridgecap, and nothing behind me to stop me.
Luckily i remembered my 551 grip, yanked it out my pocket, flicked it open as i slammed it as hard as i could into the sheet, the blade went through right to the thumb stud, and held my weight :thumbup: i spent about 2 minutes trying to remember how to breathe (well, maybe 20 seconds, but it seemed like forever) and my heart was beating like mad, when i looked behind me, i only had about 4 foot of panel before a long fall. thank god for having a good knife in my pocket, my only other tool was a 18v cordless drill for driving home, no harness stupidly, as usually it becomes more of a nuisance due to lack of anchoring points on the roof..
all i kept thinking was thank god for a strong knife
last friday, was helping a co-worker do some roofing, we were installing permaclad sheets, a very typical roof setup here, galvanized 26 guage steel sheets with a U panel design the roof was somewhat steep, but it was dry and we had decent traction, the sheets were 18 feet long x 3 feet wide, i was about 14 feet up from the edge marking out screw lines, when someone on the other side of the house, on a balcony, sprayed water over the roof
nobody will admit to it, but a wet permaclad sheet can be like ice.. anyways this house was built backing a gully, and from the front of the house, only 10 feet to the roof, back of the house where i was, about 35 feet drop to the ground, anyways, i started to slip, couldnt get up to the ridgecap, and nothing behind me to stop me. Luckily i remembered my 551 grip, yanked it out my pocket, flicked it open as i slammed it as hard as i could into the sheet, the blade went through right to the thumb stud, and held my weight :thumbup: i spent about 2 minutes trying to remember how to breathe (well, maybe 20 seconds, but it seemed like forever) and my heart was beating like mad, when i looked behind me, i only had about 4 foot of panel before a long fall. thank god for having a good knife in my pocket, my only other tool was a 18v cordless drill for driving home, no harness stupidly, as usually it becomes more of a nuisance due to lack of anchoring points on the roof..
all i kept thinking was thank god for a strong knife
).
