Property Protection Before a Tear-Off

Purpose

A tear-off is demolition over somebody's house while they live in it. Before the first shingle moves, this fixes how far protection runs and what condition the property was in. Skip it and the shop pays twice: to make the damage good, then to argue over who gouged the siding.

Scope

Covers pre-tear-off protection of occupied residential and small commercial property, ground line to the attic under the work, plus the vehicle and occupant plan and the condition record. Plantings, the outdoor unit, the container and the drive under it, and the closeout sweep are siblings in References.

Roles and responsibilities

Procedure

1. Photograph existing condition with the customer, before anything is staged. Shoot every elevation, the drive, walks, gutters, siding, trim, glass and fencing, then close-ups of each crack, dent or stain with a scale object in frame. Acceptance: all four elevations plus every hard surface inside the line, same day, time-stamped. Wrong looks like six wide shots proving nothing about Friday's crack. Stop rule: an elevation a locked gate or a dog blocks is not started. Hazard: on a storm job loose material already sits at the eave, so shoot up from a stand-off of the eave height, never under a lifted course or hanging gutter.

2. Settle the age and the coating question before anything painted is disturbed. Get the year built from the permit or county record and measure the painted exterior the job disturbs: fascia, soffit, siding under the drip edge. Acceptance: a stated year, a square footage, and a written lead presumption or an existing report, in the crew lead's hands before material is ordered. Wrong looks like "it was repainted at some point", which is not a determination. Stop rule: on pre-1978 target housing, exterior work above the 20 sq ft minor repair amount at 40 CFR 745.82 needs a certified firm and renovator, so an uncertified shop hands the job over. Hazard: sampling is itself a disturbance, so nobody scrapes a coating to check - a chip or felt sample is taken to protocol with respiratory protection under a written 29 CFR 1910.134 program. The lung is not lead's only route: hand-to-mouth ingestion and dust carried home on clothes dose a tech's own children, so nobody eats, drinks or smokes in the work area, hands and face are washed before every break, and work clothes and boots are changed and bagged on site rather than worn home - 29 CFR 1926.62 puts that, the exposure assessment and hygiene facilities on the employer. Pre-1980 felts, mastics and cement shingles can carry asbestos, a 29 CFR 1926.1101 question on the worker side. If suspect material is already broken open, everyone leaves, nothing is swept or blown, and a licensed inspector is called - confirmed asbestos roofing is removed and disposed of under 40 CFR Part 61 Subpart M through your air authority, not by this crew.

3. Set and mark the protection line. Debris does not fall off a roof, it leaves the eave with horizontal speed, so the higher the eave the further it travels and a drip-line boundary protects the one strip debris clears. Shop default: run protection from each wall to the greater of 10 ft past the drip line or the eave height above grade. A chute or dump trailer concentrates the fall, so the ground under it is covered whatever the eave height; on a covered lead job the 40 CFR 745.85 ground-cover distances govern instead. Mark it with paint, stakes or cones. Acceptance: a marked line on every torn elevation with its distance on the site sketch, and the available distance recorded wherever the full one cannot be reached. Wrong looks like a line re-guessed each morning, which shrinks daily. Stop rule: where a fence blocks the full distance, take the neighbor route first - written permission to protect and sweep across, or vertical containment on your own side, which 40 CFR 745.85 requires on a covered lead job within 10 ft of a property line. Hazard: stakes go in by hand, never driven blind, because irrigation and pet-fence wire sit inches under grade, and anything deeper than a shovel blade takes an 811 locate. A cut low-voltage or pet-fence wire is killed at its transformer or charger before the ends are touched; a struck gas service means everyone walks upwind off the property, no engine started and no phone used at the stake, then the utility and 911 called from a distance; a struck electrical service means nobody touches the stake or the ground around it, and the utility is called from well back.

4. Cover the ground inside the line. Lay covering wall to line with no gap at the foundation, lap sheets upslope so debris cannot enter a seam, weight every edge, and leave the occupants an uncovered path. Acceptance: continuous coverage wall to marked line on every torn elevation, edges secured, one photo per elevation before the first shingle moves. Wrong looks like covering only where the crew expects debris. Stop rule: covering that tears or lifts is repaired before work resumes above it, not at lunch. Hazard: sheeting is a slip surface wet and a trip edge dry, so it never crosses a step or an occupant path; a path that must be crossed is closed and the alternative walked with the occupant.

5. Protect glass and wall, and close what the rule says to close. Panel windows and glass doors under the drop zone with a rigid sheet standing clear of the glass, hang wall protection where gutter and flashing come off, and close doors and windows on the working elevations - on a covered lead job 40 CFR 745.85 reaches openings within 20 ft, adjacent units of a multi-family building included. Acceptance: no exposed glass under a drop zone, no bare siding under a gutter run being pulled, every required opening closed, walked, and reopened at closeout. Wrong looks like plywood leaned on the glass, which is then what breaks it. Stop rule: a window that will not close goes on the sheet, and an occupant left without ventilation in heat is a reason to reschedule that elevation. Hazard: panels go up off a ladder set to the roof access standard, two people on anything above head height.

6. Protect the interior and the attic under the work. Walk inside with the customer, take down wall- and ceiling-hung items on the working elevations, cover stored contents in the garage and any floored attic, and say plainly that tear-off shakes fine grit through the deck joints. Acceptance: nothing hanging under a torn slope, attic contents covered or moved, and the customer's decision recorded for anything left. Wrong looks like perfect outside protection and felt grit over stored contents. Stop rule: an attic holding loose granular fill nobody can identify is not entered, nothing in it is moved or covered, and tear-off over the slope above that bay does not start either - vermiculite can be asbestos-bearing, and the deck-joint shake this step warns the customer about is itself the disturbance, opening an inhalation route no glove addresses. That bay stays closed, the occupant stays out of the rooms under it, and only bays an accredited inspector has sampled and cleared go to the strip crew. Hazard: weight on framing only, never the ceiling plane; fiberglass and cellulose are inhalation and skin routes, so long sleeves and at minimum an N95 under a 1910.134 program; hands stay off knob-and-tube, which is ungrounded open conductor, so nothing is stacked against it and no covering goes over it, and where a run crosses the only route to the contents a qualified person de-energizes and locks that circuit at the panel under 29 CFR 1910.333(b)(2) first. If that cannot be arranged, the contents in that bay stay where they are, the customer is told in writing, and nobody reaches over the run.

7. Settle vehicles, access and the occupant plan in writing. Ask the customer to move every vehicle clear of the line and the container approach, agree the crew's door and parking, and agree children and pets stay indoors while work is overhead. Acceptance: a sheet line naming the parking arrangement, the crew door and the occupant's agreement on children and pets, initialled. Wrong looks like a verbal "we will move it shortly", which puts a car under the eave when the first bundle goes. Stop rule: a vehicle left inside the line is not moved by the crew and work above it does not start, because moving a customer's car puts the shop on the hook for it. Hazard: the occupant is not an employee and the crew's duty to them is ordinary care, so the drop zone is coned and taped rather than announced, and anyone crossing the tape stops the work above.

8. Photograph the finished protection, take the signature, then release the strip crew slope by slope. Sign the condition record and protection plan with the customer. Acceptance: a signed sheet, a second photo set of protection in place, and a spoken confirmation naming which slopes are released and which are held under step 6. Wrong looks like a blanket "we are good" that puts a strip crew over a held bay. Stop rule: no signature means the lead calls the office before starting, because an unsigned condition record is the same as none. Hazard: the photographer walks the perimeter from outside the tape, not under an eave where bundles are stacked.

The record this produces

One site protection sheet: year built, the coating presumption and its basis, painted square footage disturbed, line distance and shortfall per elevation, openings closed, interior items secured or declined, slopes held, the vehicle and occupant agreement, two signatures. Both photo sets attach, filed the day they are taken, and the office reads them back on a damage claim.

Worked pass: 1972 two-story colonial, rear slope tight to a fence

Rear eave 18 ft above grade, front eave over the garage 9 ft, so the rear line is 18 ft and the front 10 ft. Built 1972, so pre-1978 target housing: painted fascia runs 130 ft at a 6 in face, and 130 times 0.5 ft is 65 sq ft disturbed when gutter and drip edge come off, over the 20 sq ft amount at 40 CFR 745.82, so it runs as a covered renovation with a certified renovator.

Step 3 fails on the rear. The fence sits 14 ft from the rear drip line against the 18 ft required, short by 4 ft, and the work is inside 10 ft of the property line, so the stop rule fires: vertical containment goes up on the customer's side, with written permission taken the day before to sweep 4 ft onto the neighbor's grass. The front passed at 10 ft, and step 5's 11 openings on the two elevations were closed and walked, one rear bedroom window that would not latch written on the sheet.

Step 6 holds the strip crew, not just the hatch. Loose gray granular fill sat over the main ceiling and nobody could identify it. Nothing in that bay was touched, the attic was closed, and because stripping the slope above shakes that same fill through the deck joints the main roof was held too, the two bedrooms under it emptied and the family agreeing to stay out of them. Step 8 released the garage slope, over a bay with no fill, and named the main roof as held; that slope was stripped the same day, the main roof waiting on an accredited inspector's sample.

References

• 40 CFR Part 745 Subpart E, the EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting rule: 745.82 for the minor repair amounts, 745.85 for exterior and vertical containment near a property line. Many states run stricter programs.
• 29 CFR 1926.1101, asbestos in construction, including its roofing provisions; 40 CFR Part 61 Subpart M on the disposal side, through your state or local air authority.
• 29 CFR 1926.62, lead in construction, for step 2's exposure assessment, hygiene and change-out duties; 29 CFR 1910.134 for the written respiratory program any respirator use sits under; 29 CFR 1910.333(b)(2) for the de-energize-and-lock step 6 requires past knob-and-tube.
• See related: roofing-landscaping-and-condenser-protection-on-a-reroof, roofing-dumpster-placement-and-driveway-protection, roofing-debris-and-nail-sweep-closeout, roofing-neighbor-and-hoa-notification-before-a-reroof.