Roof ladders

[Lobster]

Oh, tell me about it...!

As I have two extending ladders now (had to buy the second because the original wasn't long enough fro a long-term project I was working on) I've ended up storing one of the ladders with the roof kit permanently fixed.

My other difficulty is that living in what I've recently discovered is an "arts and crafts"-style property, the roof is very long and steep, which means that the distance between ridge to eaves is longer than the length of any single ladder - therefore I have to use an extension ladder as the roof ladder. That's problematical as it means that as you climb it, the lugs on the upper section which normally hook over and lock the rungs of the lower section are being loaded in the wrong direction (IYSWIM). Furthermore, being two sections, the lower face of the ladder in contact with the tiles is staggered (IYSWIM), so to present a flush face (and therefore even loading) to the roof, I need to attach lengths of timber to each rail of the lower section. Sounds a bit Heath Robinson but all that's achieved with very firm strapping etc, and is as safe as a single-section ladder would be. But takes an age to set up (which is why we had no channel 5 on the TV for most of the winter!)

David

[tony sayer]

Happened once to a mate of mine .. roof ladder went from under him just happened to have a pair of wire cutters in his hand which he "stabbed" the roof with to make a handhold to stop him sliding down the slates on a Four story building!...

Not a lot of fun but back up there as soon as the ladder was patched up!.

Thank god for the 1974 health and safety @ work act!...

[Chris J Dixon]

I once had such a property. I never had to face the roof externally, but going into the loft was quite a shock. Once you went through the trapdoor and stood up, there was nothing at all within reach to grab hold of.

However, there was no need to stuff it full of the usual tqt, as there was a fully-boarded Narnia above the garage, reached through the back of a built-in wardrobe.

Chris

[Lobster]

Not quite like mine then - the 1st floor's kind-of built into the roof space (ie the eaves are at about window-sill level upstairs) so the loft is really pretty tiny - you can't only just stand up at full height.

David

[Dave Osborne]

Why so? Nylocks are reuseable.

[Chris J Dixon]

This was the house, though it has had a bedroom added into "Narnia" above the garage.

roof used to run from the apex right down to the side of the garage,as it still does on the other half of the building.

Chris

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember PJ saying something like:

I've seen which has a pull cord releasing a similar arrangement at the top, which then latches and when you're finished with it, another pull on the cord releases it and pulls it back up to clear the ridge. Perhaps the cord type is no longer approved, for all I know.

[george [dicegeorge]]

if you slip on a rung and grab the cord...

[g]

[Andrew Gabriel]

Whilst working on my chimney a few weeks ago, I dropped a very large adjustable spanner I was using to move some of the scaffold poles. I watched helpless as this large heavy spanner slid slowly away down the roof. Wondering if it's going to stop in the gutter, but no, it slides right over the gutter and vanishes out of sight over the edge of the roof, so I now only get the sound effects. The next sound is that of it bouncing off the top of the wheelie bin, which is where next door's cat was curled up asleep when I walked past it

10 minutes earlier. This was followed by a few more ricochets, mostly which I couldn't identify, but the last one was was the sound of something smashing, I presume the large flower pot down there.

On returning to ground level, I find next door's cat is still curled up on the wheelie bin, not asleep, but not obviously involved in the incident, which is a tremdous relief because a) I'm quite attached to him, and b) the thought of explaining that to the neighbours didn't bare thinking about. I decide that the sound must have been the spanner bouncing off the base of a large upturned bucket I had been using to mix mortar in, and was left upturned drying out after washing.

The flower pot was still in one piece, but the two spare roof tiles I had put aside to replace any the scafolders broke were now themselves in pieces. How ironic that I used up the spares without even fitting them;-) I couldn't identify what the other impacts I heard were, but the spanner was surprisingly OK.

[John Rumm]

Not really - still on the original set (apart from a couple I replaced as a result of losses).

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "george [dicegeorge]" saying something like:

That would be exciting.

[Peter Johnson]

miles from where I live.

[Frank Erskine]

The standoffs also prevent the back face of the ladder from lying against the ridge tiles.

[george [dicegeorge]]

for about 8 seconds.

[tony sayer]

On some high aerial structures nowadays the aerial riggers have to have their tools on retaining straps or "tapes" just in case they drop a spanner..

Sometimes it might not matter but more often than not they'll be someone soft and squidgy around;!..

Apart from a bl^^dy long climb don to retrieve said item;!....

[PeterC]

Andrew, never hit on your neighbour's pussy!

[Steve Walker]

They shouldn't be re-used more than a couple of times though.

SteveW

[Dave Osborne]

Depends whether or not you use a power tool to drive them. If you use a hand operated tool (and consequently they never get hot) then they are re-useable an indefinite number of times. If you power drive them and they get too hot, then the effectiveness can be lost after one 'go'.

[Lobster]

Oh I can better that...

I once had to drill a hole through an upstairs outside wall to take a

15mm overflow pipe. This was a property right on the street, ie pavement directly below. You can guess the rest. Without thinking through the potential consequences, I just attacked the bathroom wall with my SDS, and drilled through no problems; a split-second later I heard a thud from outside. Hmm, what was that? Oh... my... God... I tore downstairs and out the front door, and out there on the pavement below the bathroom window was a bloke standing there eating his chips for lunch looking rather quizzically at the full housebrick which had just landed on the ground inches away from him.

He was surprisingly OK about it actually!

David