How Much Does a Fall Protection Lifeline Inspection Cost?

Intro: What You’ll Learn About Lifeline Inspection Costs

– How much does a fall protection lifeline inspection really cost? How can you estimate what you’ll pay to have the lifelines inspected at your facility? Today, we’ll break down exactly what you can expect to pay, what’s included, what can increase or decrease the price, and how to estimate your budget based on your fall protection systems.

My name is Ben and this is The Lifting & Rigging channel. And today, Mazzella Fall Protection Division Manager, Hillari Frost, joins us to help break down inspection pricing for engineered fall protection systems and lifelines.

Why Costs Vary for Lifeline Inspections

– It’s a varied expense. So it’s hard to give you a full driven number that says this is exactly how much it’s going to cost. So there’s multiple different factors that go into it. The number of systems you have, the length of those systems, the type of the system, the aerial lift needed or not needed or supplied by the customer or supplied by Mazzella, whether you have soft goods that also need to be inspected, has the system been inspected prior? Do you have the engineering documentation that shows that the structure can support the load of the system and a downward force if someone were to fall?

So super varied can go anywhere from a very small amount to a very large amount.

Standard Inspection Pricing: Typical Range and Drivers

If you’re looking at a standard inspection and you’re saying it’s just one system with a couple of soft goods, you’re probably looking somewhere in the range of $400 to $500.

P.E. Inspection Pricing: When an Engineer Is Required

If you start moving into a P.E. where an actual engineer has to come out and they inspect the structure and they do the documentation and do the actual visual inspection themselves, then you’re looking anywhere from the range of $2000 up to $10,000 based on all those factors that we said previously.

What Factors Increase Lifeline Inspection Price?

On a standard inspection, what would drive that cost up would be the number of systems that you have that need to be inspected, the length of those systems, whether we’re going to be supplying the man lift, if necessary, or whether the customer is going to be supplying the man lift.

And then when you go to the P.E. side, it really depends on if you have structural drawings of that building and they’re current. A million things that could be going on behind the scenes. So what those engineers come out and do is they really look at the structure and inspect, you know, supporting beams that are holding it up, look for cracks in your foundation, because all of those things can cause your system to have a loss of integrity.

How Can You Reduce Lifeline Inspection Cost?

So number one is, if we’re looking from a standard inspection side, is that if the customer’s supplying the aerial lift, that’s going to be a huge cost savings to them. If we have free and clear access, which means we are not delayed waiting for things to be moved out of the way for us to do these inspections, that drives the cost down as well ’cause those costs are typically based on an hourly rate.

So when you go to the P.E. side, it’s almost the exact same. The only difference where you would have a cost drive down that is not based on what we talked about in standard is if you have structural drawings. And if that system was installed within the past couple years and there’s been no huge natural disasters.

Can Bundling Inspections (Rigging/Crane/Rack) Lower Your Cost?

– Anything, like, could you bundle your rigging inspections, crane inspections, does that help drive the price down at all?

– Yes, absolutely. On a standard side. So on a P.E. side, that wouldn’t really drive any of that down. So, from a standard size, if you want to bundle your crane and hoist with your rigging, with your rack and fall protection, your cost is driven down because you’re having it all bundled together, and it’s all being done at the same time.

Inspection Approach: Mazzella’s Hands‑On Method

A lot of companies take the term visual inspection to be just that, “visual” inspection, whereas Mazzella will take the time to run an entire line, both visually, but by hand as well.

So there’s sometimes, especially on wire rope, where if you’re doing a visual inspection and you’re really not really taking the time to touch that line and feel that line, there’s a possibility for you to miss bird caging on the other side of it. It’s possible for you to be missing nicks in that line. So we take the time not only to visually look at the line, but we also feel the components.

Standard Lifeline vs. P.E. Certification Inspections

The major difference is if it’s going to be a standard inspection, it will be one of Mazzella’s technicians. If it’s going to be a P.E. inspection, that’s typically outsourced with one of our partners.

If you’re looking at which one you might need or which one is best for you, Mazzella typically will guide you in the direction of which one you need especially, ’cause one of the first questions that we’re going to ask when you come to us asking for us to quote you an inspection is, when was the last time the system was inspected? Has the system ever been inspected? When was it installed? And do you have structural drawings that show that your structure can support the load of a downward fall on that system?

We’re going to guide you one way or the other. And again, I mean our suggestion really is about every three years to have a P.E. do that inspection.

What’s Included in a Lifeline Inspection?

You get our certified inspection team comes out and does those inspections for you, which is inclusive of the systems, any soft goods associated with those systems. And then after that, you’re going to get a report. Our reporting is done digitally and those reports can be given to you in two hours.

How To Prepare for a Lifeline Inspection

Free and clear access. That will drive not only drive your costs down, but it makes those inspections go smoother. Also, if you can bring all of your soft goods to one central location, or at least, all the ones not in use, that assists with getting those inspections done quicker.

Why Choose Mazzella for Lifeline Inspections?

We have our specialists who have well over 75 years of experience among us, and we do inspections when we deem it necessary. And we bring in our service team. Now we have service technicians across every location who are competent and can do these inspections. And we also can bundle those inspections. So you’re not just getting fall protection, you’re going to get your fall protection, you’re rigging, you’re racking. We’re more of a one-stop shop.

What Are the Risks of Skipping Lifeline Inspections?

OSHA, it would be your biggest one, right? If you don’t have those systems inspected annually or more based on manufacturer spec, you run the risk of OSHA fines. You run the risk of somebody getting hurt.

I mean, so, a lot of these systems that we have, have tension indicators on them and they have tensioners. Those tensioners, over time, can loosen and loosen and lines become slack. And what you originally calculated as your fall clearance is now no longer your fall clearance. So if you didn’t put a safety zone in place that was large enough, you’re potentially putting your workers at risk.

You add on top of that lost time, over time, because now you have to pay other workers to make up for that worker, medical bills, I mean, the list goes on. From a direct cost that you can visually see would be really your OSHA fines, right? And whatever that medical cost is. When you start looking at indirect glitches, loss of production, and those factors, I mean, you’re looking at needing to regain $3 million plus in revenue on top of what your revenue goal already was.

How to Schedule a Lifeline Inspection and Next Steps

– Now hopefully you have an idea about how much a fall protection lifeline inspection costs, and you can estimate approximately how much you can expect to pay for your company. If you’re ready to schedule your inspection or if you want more details, click the link in the description below.

Mazzella can help with all your inspections, whether that’s pallet racking, rigging, overhead cranes, or engineered lifeline systems.

If you found this video useful, informative, entertaining, or you just feel like being friendly, then hit that like button so we can get this information out to everyone who needs it. If you’ve got a question, drop it in the comments, so we can get you an answer. And remember, safe rigging is smart rigging. My name is Ben, stay safe out there.