Metal Roof Sheeting Installation SWMS

For roofing contractors and builders who install metal roof sheeting, flashings, ridge capping and gutters. It follows the job in order, from planning the fall protection and checking old roofs for asbestos to lifting sheets, laying them in wind, cutting and fixing, and packing up.

Roof sheeting is high risk construction work when a person could fall more than 2 metres (WHS Regulation s 291), so that is the item ticked; you can also tick energised electrical installations if overhead lines are near the roof and powered mobile plant if a crane or forklift lifts the packs.

Learn More: What Is A Safe Work Method Statement?
Have you ever been asked to provide a SWMS on a project in Queensland? Read our guide to what a Safe Work Method Statement is and when you need one.

What Is Covered In Our Metal Roof Sheeting Installation SWMS?

The job steps run in the order the work is done, from pre-start checks to finishing up. The hazards and controls include:

• Falls from the roof edge and from ladders
• Falls through skylights, translucent sheets and fragile roofing
• Slipping on wet, dewy or steeply pitched metal sheets
• Wind catching long sheets
• Cuts from sheet edges and flashings
• Contact with overhead power lines
• Roof frames overloaded by stacked sheet packs
• Being struck by cranes, forklifts and delivery loads
• Fire from sparks and hot swarf near insulation
• Noise from cutting and fixing
• Heat illness and hot metal sheets
• Disturbing asbestos in old roofing
• Falling offcuts and tools

High Risk Construction Work

These high risk construction work items (WHS Regulation 2011 (Qld) s 291) are already ticked because they are part of this work. Tick any others that apply to your job:

• Involves a risk of a person falling more than 2m

Licences, Training and Competency

• General construction induction training card (white card)
• Site induction, including roof access and rescue rules
• Installers trained and experienced in the roofing system and fixing method
• Training in the fall protection used (edge protection, travel restraint or fall arrest) and the rescue plan, for users and rescuers
• Competent person to install travel restraint systems and inspect restraint and fall arrest systems at least every 6 months; engineer or competent person to approve anchors
• Licence for the class of any crane, forklift truck or vehicle loading crane (10 metre tonnes or more) lifting sheet packs; the dogging class or a higher rigging class (Schedule 3) for anyone who slings loads or directs a plant operator in the movement of a load when the load is out of the operator’s view (Schedule 19, dogging work); boom-type elevating work platform class for a boom of 11 m or more
• Scaffolding licence for the class of any scaffold used for access or edge protection, where a person or object could fall more than 4 m (erected under a separate Scaffolding SWMS)
• On existing buildings: workers trained to recognise asbestos and its controls, and a competent person to identify or assume asbestos in old roofing
• Trained first aider on site

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces Code of Practice 2021
• Scaffolding Code of Practice 2021 (where scaffold is used for access or edge protection)
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Mobile Crane Code of Practice 2024 (where a crane lifts sheet packs)
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Noise and Preventing Hearing Loss at Work Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• How to Manage and Control Asbestos in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021 (existing roofs)
• First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): overhead power line exclusion zones
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2020 – Working near overhead and underground electric lines (distances come from the 2026 Regulation)
• AS/NZS 4994.2 Temporary edge protection – Roof edge protection – Installation and dismantling (cited in the Falls Code)
• WorkSafe Queensland guidance: Managing the risk of falls while working on roofs in housing construction (guidance, not a code)
• Safe Work Australia model Code of Practice: Elevating work platforms (guidance)

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (16 pages), laid out on A4 landscape pages
• Business, client, job and document details typed once and filled in on every page, plus a space for your logo
• The high risk construction work checklist, worded as WHS Regulation s 291, and the construction project question (s 292)
• A worker and health and safety representative consultation record
• Qualifications, plant, PPE, hazardous chemicals, safety equipment, permits, references and emergency arrangements filled in for this work
• A 5 x 5 risk matrix, and job steps with initial and residual risk scores and the people responsible
• Implementing, monitoring and review requirements, an additional controls log, revision history and a worker sign-on sheet

Review and adjust it for your site, your plant and the way your crew does the job, and talk it through with your workers before work starts. If you have any trouble downloading this SWMS, you can contact us at any time. Please make sure you read our Disclaimer before downloading this SWMS.