How not to use a Ladder;!....

[Andy Hall]

Lord, thou art an all round family entertainer.

[Owain]

It could, it could fall off the roofrack and go flying into the rear window of the vehicle in front.

Owain

[Si]

I see no roofrack on the Handyvan - must be a small ladder?

[The Medway Handyman]

The photo has been doctored :-)

I usually carry one. Two mishaps.

One when I had a grey moment & drove into the local 'pikey proof' car park with height barriers. Saw the ladder clear the barrier & accelerated, forgetting the ladder clamps - both of which bent so badly I had to cut them off with a dangle grinder.

Being essencially mean, I decided to use a ratchet strap instead - until the ladder slipped sideways almost coming off the roof. I relented & bought a new set of clamps :-)

[nightjar]

The ladder is on a good, solid base, with the legs away from the edge. The risk of falling is no more than if it were at ground level, even if the potential consequences of doing so are much more serious. It is how the workman is using it that is dangerous.

Colin Bignell

[Lobster]

So out of interest, would that arrangement pass a UK H&S assessment (providing the workman doesn't stand up on the apex on his tippy toes?) Doesn't seem likely to me...

David

[nightjar]

The balcony meets the requirement that: "Any surface upon which a ladder rests shall be stable, firm, of sufficient strength and of suitable composition safely to support the ladder so that its rungs or steps remain horizontal, and any loading intended to be placed on it". We don't know what is on the ground floor, but even if you could get them in, an extending tower won't work, because of the depth of the balcony and that and the height might well defeat a cherry-picker, so there may be no safer method of work. The main thing it would fail on is the lack of provision for 'minimising the consequences' of a fall. However, I don't see anything to attach fall arrest equipment to, so there would need to be an industrial bouncy castle on the floor below or a safety net fitted at balcony level and they might not be 'reasonably practical' answers for a short term job.

Colin Bignell

[tony sayer]

In article , nightjar scribeth thus

Well I'm buggered if I'd do it!...

[Ian White]

Attach the safety rope to a suitable 'dead-man' anchor... for example, the architect.

[Si]

In message , tony sayer writes

I guess any form of additional support would help.

[Mary Fisher]

There are limits though ...

Mary

[nightjar]

I can't say I would be bothered, provided the job did not require me to lean outside the ladder base and I could maintain three points of contact with the step ladder, unlike the bloke photographed. Its a bit like walking along a 4" wide beam. The chances of falling off are minimal and most people would be happy to do it when it is laid on the ground. However, not many would like to walk across between two high buildings on the same beam.

Colin Bignell

[tony sayer]

Well the way I see it is that if I fell off that the chances are that I'd be seriously injured and possibly killed and therefore not able to work for some period if I were to be injured, and that could lead to an unnecessary long term disability..

Just not worth the risk IMHO..

Now as part of work related activities I do climb structures much higher than those in the picture, but I'm very closely harnessed to the structure I'm climbing, and I doubt I'd fall more than a couple of feet, less in fact than what you would get of the usual stepladder!.

So that to me is an OK risk but the job there doing isn't....

[nightjar]

A properly structured risk assessment takes into account not only the potential consequences, but also the frequency with which someone is exposed to those consequences and the probability that they will occur. Never having fallen of a step ladder in my life, I would rate the probability of that happening as extremeley low. I can't see the windows needing to be cleaned more than once a week, which gives the frequency of exposure to the risk. Using a numerical risk assessment rating suggested by RoSPA, the probability ranks 1 out of 10. The frequency IIRC is about 3 out of 10, although it could be higher without really affecting the final outcome, while the consequence ranks 10 out of 10. Multiplying the three factors gives a risk rating of 30 out of a possible 1000, with 200 being the minimum rank where any action might need to be conssidered.

Colin Bignell

[tony sayer]

In article , nightjar scribeth thus

Fine....

You go first then Colin;)....

[Si]

In message , tony sayer writes

& you'll support him by following up be....

Tony, please stop feeding me these lines. :)

[Si]

In message , Si writes

Apologies to all.

Posting to usenet while listening to QI after a sleepless night & slightly drunk to compensate is nay a good idea.