Debris and Nail Sweep Closeout SOP

Purpose

The closeout sweep is the last thing the crew does and the first thing the customer judges. It is also the only part of a reroof whose failure shows up weeks later, in a tire, a lawnmower blade, a dog's paw or a child's foot, at which point the shop is arguing about a job it thought was finished.

This procedure produces a swept perimeter with a stated number of passes in stated directions, a count per pass, and a written note of anything that could not be reached. It exists because two beliefs cause almost every nail callback: that one lap with a rolling magnet is a sweep, and that a magnet picks up what is out there. It picks up ferrous fasteners only. Aluminum nails, copper nails, plastic cap nails and aluminum flashing offcuts go straight past it.

Scope

Covers the closeout of steep-slope tear-off and reroof work on occupied residential and light-commercial property: roof surface, gutters, the ground perimeter, drives and walks, and the customer handover walk.

It does not cover the debris haul contract, dumpster placement or disposal manifests. It does not cover repair of damage found during the sweep - that goes on a punch item with a photograph and a named owner. It does not cover the material delivery protection that precedes it, which the rooftop loading SOP owns and which determines how much this sweep has to recover.

Roles and responsibilities

Procedure

1. Tarp and protect before the first shingle comes off. Run tarps from the wall line out past the drip line on every elevation being torn, cover shrubs and beds, board or cover the condenser, and protect the drive where debris will land. Acceptance: continuous coverage with no gap at the wall, edges weighted, and a photo of each elevation before tear-off begins. Wrong: tarps laid only where the crew expects debris to fall, which is never where it actually lands. Stop rule: a slope without protection below it does not get torn until it has some, because everything skipped here comes back as sweep labor at three times the cost. Hazard: tarps catch wind, so place them from upslope and keep hands off the eave edge in gusts, and never tie a tarp to anything a person could trip into on the ground.

2. Define the sweep perimeter in writing before the crew starts. The perimeter is the full drip line plus 10 ft out on every elevation, plus the driveway and every walk path, plus the ground under the chute or dump trailer, plus any neighbor's ground where a slope faces a property line. Acceptance: a marked sketch with the perimeter drawn and the beds, gravel and mulch areas shaded, since those need hand work and not a magnet. Wrong: sweeping only the elevations that were torn, when debris travels around corners. Stop rule: if the perimeter crosses a property line, get the neighbor's permission before work starts, and if it is refused, record it as an unreachable area on the walk sheet. Hazard: walking the perimeter means finding the dog, the sprinkler heads and the service drop before the crew does.

3. Clear the roof surface, valleys and gutters before descending. Sweep the finished roof from ridge to eave, clear valleys, behind chimneys and around every penetration, then clean the gutters of granules, offcuts and fasteners, and run water to confirm the downspouts pass. Acceptance: no loose fastener visible on the field, valleys clear to the metal, and each downspout discharging. Wrong: leaving cut nails in a valley, where the next rain moves them to the gutter and the one after that puts them on the drive. Stop rule: a blocked downspout is a punch item with a photograph, not something to leave for the customer to find. Hazard: anyone on the roof stays anchored to a structural anchor at 6 ft or more above a lower level, the construction trigger at 29 CFR 1926.501(b)(13), and debris goes down a chute or in a bucket with a spotter at the bottom, never thrown.

4. Remove gross debris by hand before any magnet touches the ground. Pick up shingle pieces, felt, wrappers, offcuts and flashing scrap across the whole perimeter, and hand rake beds, mulch and gravel where a magnet cannot reach through the depth. Acceptance: no debris larger than a hand visible anywhere inside the perimeter. Wrong: dragging a magnet across a bed full of shingle scrap, which loads the magnet and drops its pickup for the rest of the pass. Stop rule: a bed too deep to hand rake gets its own line on the walk sheet as an unreachable area, disclosed to the customer rather than quietly skipped. Hazard: nails come up point first, so this is puncture-resistant soles and cut-resistant gloves, debris goes into a bucket with a scoop and not a bare hand, and anyone taking a puncture stops and gets it seen the same day.

5. Run magnet pass one along the length of each elevation. Walk the rolling magnet parallel to the wall line, overlapping each lane by about a third of the head width, keeping the head low over the surface. Release and clear the magnet at the end of each lane and count what comes off. Acceptance: a recorded count per elevation for pass one. Wrong: dragging a fully loaded magnet, which stops picking up long before it looks full, and running it over tall grass, where the standoff kills the pickup. Stop rule: grass or ground cover that holds the head off the soil gets mowed or raked first and the pass is re-run. Hazard: a rolling magnet is a strong permanent magnet, so it is kept clear of anyone with a pacemaker or implanted defibrillator and away from phones, hearing aids and card readers set down on the tailgate.

6. Run magnet pass two across the first, then apply the pass ratio. Sweep the same ground perpendicular to pass one and count again. The rule: per elevation, compare the latest pass count against the previous pass count, and where the latest returns more than 25 percent of the previous, that ground is not swept - hand rake it and run another pass, repeating until the ratio falls under 25 percent. That is a starting default, tune it to what your crews actually see. Acceptance: a ratio under 25 percent on the final pass for every elevation, with all counts recorded. Wrong: running two passes as a ritual and never comparing them, which is how a bad elevation passes on the same paperwork as a good one. Stop rule: the ratio governs, not the pass count. Hazard: the same magnet cautions apply, and the release lever is a pinch point that takes a finger when the head is loaded.

7. Run a visual grid pass for what the magnet cannot return. Walk each elevation in lanes on foot, looking for plastic cap nails, aluminum and copper fasteners, aluminum drip edge and flashing offcuts, and staples, all of which are non-ferrous and invisible to a magnet. Acceptance: a completed visual pass per elevation, recorded separately from the magnet counts, with the non-ferrous items counted. Wrong: assuming the magnet counts describe the site, when on an aluminum drip edge job the magnet may return nothing from the very area with the most sharp material in it. Stop rule: any non-ferrous item found on an elevation that already passed the ratio triggers a repeat visual pass of that elevation. Hazard: crouching to pick items out of a bed puts knees and hands where fasteners are, so use a scoop and a light and keep off the ground on all fours.

8. Walk the site with the customer, then book the return sweep. Walk the perimeter with the customer, hand over the punch list and the unreachable-areas note, and tell them plainly that buried fasteners work upward with rain and frost and that the return sweep is why it is booked. Acceptance: a signed walk sheet, the unreachable list acknowledged, and a return sweep on the calendar 7 days out or after the first mow, whichever is sooner. Wrong: a verbal "we got it all," which is the sentence every nail callback quotes back. Stop rule: a customer who declines the return sweep gets that decline written on the walk sheet and signed. Hazard: the walk goes at the customer's pace and never onto the roof or a ladder, and children and pets stay indoors until the walk is finished and the last bucket is on the truck.

The record this produces

The closeout walk sheet: address, date, crew lead, a perimeter sketch, a table with one row per elevation carrying pass one count, pass two count, any further pass counts, the final ratio, and the visual pass result including non-ferrous items. Under it, the unreachable-areas note, the punch list with owners, the return sweep date, and the customer's signature. Before and after photos of every elevation attach alongside it.

The office reads the return sweep date and books it. The salesperson reads the unreachable list before the next job on that street. And if a nail turns up in a tire five weeks later, the shop answers with a dated sheet showing counts, passes and a signed acknowledgement rather than with a memory, which is the difference between a goodwill repair and an argument.

Worked pass

A tear-off and reroof on a two-elevation ranch with aluminum drip edge, mulch beds along the rear wall, and a gravel drive.

Front elevation: pass one returned 47 fasteners, pass two returned 9. Nine against 47 is 19 percent, under the 25 percent gate, so the front was accepted at two passes.

Rear elevation: pass one returned 62, pass two returned 24. Twenty-four against 62 is 39 percent, over the gate, so step 6's stop rule fired. The mulch beds along the rear wall were hand raked, the magnet re-run, and pass three returned 5. Five against 24 is 21 percent, under the gate, and the rear was accepted at three passes. Total ferrous recovery across both elevations came to 147 fasteners, 56 at the front and 91 at the rear.

Step 7 then earned its place. The visual pass on the rear turned up three plastic cap nails in the mulch and an aluminum drip edge offcut about the length of a hand lying under the downspout, none of which any magnet on the truck would ever have returned. That offcut is the item that would have found a bare foot, and it was recovered by somebody walking lanes and looking, not by a tool.

The walk sheet went out with one unreachable area recorded - a gravel bed on the rear corner too deep to rake without lifting the stone - disclosed to the customer at the walk, initialled, and re-swept at the 7 day return visit, which returned two more fasteners from that bed and nothing else on either elevation.

References

• 29 CFR 1926.501(b)(13) for the 6 ft residential fall protection trigger during roof-surface cleanup; 29 CFR 1926 Subpart M generally.
• 29 CFR 1926.95 for personal protective equipment selection, including puncture-resistant footwear and cut-resistant gloves for handling tear-off debris.
• The magnet manufacturer's instructions for sweep height, lane overlap and release, and the implanted-device cautions that ship with strong permanent magnets.
• See related: roofing-material-delivery-and-rooftop-loading for the property protection set up before tear-off, and roofing-roof-warranty-registration-and-handover for the paperwork half of the same handover.