OT: maybe the roof ladder is broken

[Bill Wright]

Bill

[dennis]

You wouldn't think much about walking up a hill that steep.

[Martin Brown]

I saw a guy installing a satellite aerial get himself into trouble on the cottages adjoining our village hall. He went up with no bother at all but when he turned around at the chimney he lost his nerve and his mate had to put a proper roof ladder over the eves. It was a much taller building than a normal house about 30' to the eves and a deceptive roof that started shallow but got steeper part way up.

Had he been working alone I suspect the fire brigade would have had to get him down or the ambulance service scrape him up off the path.

Indeed. Going *up* is easy but coming back down under control is not and a vertical fall of 20' or so onto concrete could be life changing.

[spuorgelgoog]

Maybe his mate borrowed it to fix a garage door with.

Owain

[Woody]

Ah but a hill is far less likely to give way under your foot!

[Martin]

That's what she thought

[Nightjar]

Were I the house owner, I would be far more worried about the potential damage to the tiles.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Well, I've done that too, but only when there's a scaffolding platform all around the eaves.

A few years ago when my brother was getting quotes for replacing his roof, all the roofers who came merrily just walked over the roof, and that was when it had loads of cracked tiles on it too.

[NY]

The house opposite suffered some broken tiles (roof and ridge) in recent high wind and I was watching the guys who came to fix it. They used a proper roof ladder, but the guy quite happily sauntered tightrope-style along the ridge tiles (including on the broken tiles) from where he'd put the roof ladder to where he was working.

Some people seem to be completely fearless of heights and to have a perfect sense of balance. I get vertigo climbing a ladder to clear moss out of the gutters, let alone carrying on past the gutters onto a 45-degree roof ladder.

[nemo]

I notice the van is advertising for staff. Perhaps they have had a few drop out?

Incidentally what does a 'satellite installer' actually do? I've never seen one in action, but then I've never been in orbit.

[John Rumm]

You might if it was 4m away from a cliff with a shear drop, and also tiled - any one of which may break and slide out from under your feet without warning.

[Another John]

No - it's on the van!

Yeah - musta been just a quick job - not worth buggering about with the roof ladder. And by the time the owner finds all the broken tiles we'll be long gone...

[Another John]

Time to dig out the ol' Fred Dibnah video ... hold on to your tea ...

John

[NY]

Very informative video. The guy was a legend when it came to communicating his enthusiasm and his experience. I wish I'd met him. I like his laconic comment about drilling the holes to take the dogs that support the ladder: "As you get a bit higher up, the holes have a tendency to get a bit deeper. I think it's called 'fear'!"

I like the story he tells in one of his books about how he persuaded a newspaper photographer to come up to the top of a chimney to take a photo of him and his new wife, but the poor guy's hands were shaking so much that all his photos were too blurred to print in the newspaper.

[ss]

I have watched that clip a few times and I still shake in my shoes at the thought of it.

[Mike Barnes]

I also take my hat off to John Noakes. The climb isn't quite so high, but he was just a children's TV presenter who was asked to do various things to amuse the kids...

[NY]

John Noakes *appeared* to be utterly fearless and game to try anything - and he didn't always emerge unscathed, as witnessed when he did the Cresa Run in a toboggan and "by a thousand to one chance" the toboggan hit a hole in the ice and ran amok. He pulled up his shirt and dropped his trousers back in the studio to reveal huge bruises. Apparently (so the story goes) he only realised when he was doing this live on air that he'd accidentally put on his wife's knickers instead of his y-fronts when he was getting dressed that morning - and that's God's honest truth, honest m'Lord.

[Andrew Gabriel]

This one is worse in a way, but it doesn't cover erecting the ladders.

[Sam Plusnet]

But you might have seen their Obit.

[tony sayer]

Well thats another half an hour wasted;) as if!..

Fantastic character can spend hours watching those old vids and they never age he still seems as fresh as ever!...

Wot was she up there !with! him?..