P.E. vs Standard Lifeline Inspection: What’s the Difference?

Intro: Understanding Standard vs. P.E. Lifeline Inspections

– Fall protection systems need to be inspected. That’s required by law. Mazzella offers two types of lifeline inspections: Standard and a P.E. Lifeline Certification. When is a standard inspection sufficient? When will a professional engineer be required to perform your inspection? What’s the difference? Today, we’re answering all your questions.

My name’s Ben and this is The Lifting & Rigging Channel. Today I’m joined by Mazzella Fall Protection Division Manager, Hillari Frost. We’re going to help you understand the difference between standard visual lifeline inspections versus a P.E. lifeline certification.

Who Is Qualified to Perform Standard vs. P.E. Inspections?

So Hillari, why don’t we start with who performs each type of inspection, and then what makes them competent to do so?

– A competent person can perform a visual inspection on a fall protection lifeline. You’re deemed competent by your employer. Typically, you go through a training, which also requires some OJT, or on-the-job training, as well, years in the field, an understanding of fall protection.

P.E.s are considered qualified persons, someone who has that engineering background.

What’s Included in a Standard Lifeline Inspection (NDT & Visual)?

– What’s the difference between what’s actually included in the two different inspections?

– Standard inspection would include NDT, so non-destructive testing. That would include a full visual inspection of your lifelines, your soft goods, anything attached to that system, anything that’s attached to your body when you’re attaching to that system, and then the reporting that comes after it. And if anything has failed, the remedial action that we would put forth.

What’s Included in a P.E. Lifeline Inspection (Structure & Drawings)?

The P.E. is going to look at your entire structure that your system is attached to. So if it’s being attached directly to supporting beams in your ceiling, they’re going to inspect those beams, and they’re also going to look at any structural drawings that you have to ensure that whoever did originally install that system also ensured that the structure could support the load of that system.

And another difference is the lead time situation. So you can typically get in a lifeline inspection scheduled within three business days, whereas with a P.E., you’re typically looking at a longer lead time.

Why P.E. Lifeline Inspections Cost More and Take Longer

– So when people see the price difference between a standard and a P.E. inspection, they’re going to notice that a P.E. is a lot more expensive. So why is a P.E. inspections so much more money?

– They walk into a facility and they see things completely differently than you and I do, right? We look at a support beam and we’re like, “Okay, cool. it’s a support beam.” They look at a support beam and they’re like, “Oh, this is a W10 that can hold A, B, C, D.” And so their expertise is really what you’re paying for.

Standard vs. P.E.: How to Tell Which Lifeline Inspection You Need

– So, when is a standard sufficient, and then when is a P.E. required?

– Well, a standard inspection, if you start looking into like your temporary lifeline, so your temporary horizontal lifeline, like we have right here, that can be done as a standard inspection. This is a pre-engineered system.

When you want to start looking into whether you need a PE is do you have structural drawings for your building? Have you had your loads verified on that building to show that the structure can support that load?

– Are there any automatic checks that’s going to say, “Yes, you need a PE or no, standard is fine?”

– So if we have continuously done your inspections year over year over year, or we installed that system, you’re more than likely moving into a standard. We like to have those inspections done by a PE every three to five years, especially in natural disaster-prone areas, because structural integrity is difficult to determine visually.

If you can’t provide any drawings of that system, you can’t provide any structural drawings either; we’re going to immediately push you in the direction of a PE.

If you do come to us and tell us, “Hey, we homemade these systems,” we’re going to tell you upfront, “These systems are going to fail.” Let us bring our team out there and try to get you into a state of compliance.

Lifeline Inspections After a Fall on the System (OSHA Rule)

– If a system is being inspected because a fall occurred, does that mean that they automatically need a P.E. inspection?

– We would gear them towards a P.E. inspection. It’s an OSHA rule. If you have a fall on that system, that system immediately comes out of service until it’s reinspected.

Examples of Lifeline Systems That Qualify for Standard Inspections

– So, can you give some examples of systems that are probably going to qualify for a standard lifeline inspection?

– If we do a horizontal lifeline that’s on a bridge crane, that’s going to probably qualify for a standard inspection because you’ve had your engineering done to have that bridge crane put in your facility. A rail system is probably going to push you into that category, but there are dishonest companies out there who will just throw up a system just to make that money off of putting the system into a facility without ensuring that you have the structural load capacity.

Custom-built systems are considered engineered systems, so they would have to have engineering involved in them, which means you would have all that documentation. So if you have that documentation, you can provide it to Mazzella, we’re going to push you towards a standard inspection. We’re here to ensure that your workers go home the same way they came in.

How to Spot Dishonest Lifeline Inspection Providers

– So what’s the best way that a customer can determine which inspection is best for them, regardless of the provider that they decide to go with?

– There are providers out there who really just want to make that dollar, so they’re not even going to offer that service to a customer because maybe they don’t even have the ability to offer that service. They’re going to stick with a standard visual inspection on that system.

When you have the dishonesty, I think that comes with that; you are continuously putting your workers at risk without even knowing.

Questions to Ask Lifeline Inspection Providers

– Are there any questions that they could have in their back pocket to help, you know, weed out those dishonest companies?

– Number one would be to ask them, “Do you offer P.E. inspections or are you only doing standard inspections?”

As secondary to that I would ask them if they offer load testing. So a lot of companies don’t offer load testing on fall protection systems because it’s typically pretty intricate.

A third to that would really just ask them where they’re regionally placed because that’s also going to give you an open window into what their capabilities are nationally, which really starts to begin to tell you where they can go and can’t go.

How Mazzella Supports Lifeline Inspections Nationwide

Mazzella’s fall protection team alone has 75+ years of collective experience. We also have service technicians spread out across the entire country. We have partnerships with P.E.s nationally as well.

We have the ability to give better turnaround times, especially if you do happen to have a fall on that system, because it has to be reinspected before you can put it back into service. We also have partnerships with multiple vendors that supply fall protection systems for a pre-engineered side, and then those partnerships with the engineers will help us and assist when we need to come in and build out an engineered system.

– Hopefully you now understand the difference between the two inspections and you’re able to identify which inspection you need. If you still aren’t sure, or if you’re ready to schedule your inspection, click the link in the description below.

Mazzella’s here to keep you compliant and, more importantly, safe whenever you’re working from height.

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 have a question, drop it in the comments so we can get you an answer. Remember, safe rigging is smart rigging. My name is Ben. Stay safe out there.