Ladder safety

Yup - can second that recommendation. I've been using them for years now and found them superb. Great for slight slopes, soft ground, slippy surfaces etc. I've really put them through their paces.

I prefer the solid type, e.g. Laddermax:

Not only can you lay tools and other items down on it but, more importantly for me given I really don't like heights, once above it you can't see down! This really helps calm the nerves a lot.

As you say though, stand offs really do stabilise the ladder and allow you to work without leaning back. Having both arms firmly *around* the ladder whilst working definitely gives confidence, nevermind being physically safer.

Mathew

found them superb. Great for slight slopes, soft ground, slippy surfaces etc. I've really put them through their paces.

Thirded! Rarely go up a ladder without using it.

On Friday 24 May 2013 18:25 Mathew Newton wrote in uk.d-i-y:

I did notice those....

I did not realise until I went up to mark datum lines, then realised I'd have to lean back at a bugger of an angle to work on the gutter.

It only affects one side where the ground is low - the other 3 sides are easy - pretty much stand on a chair...

I tend to pile up some spare paving slabs behind the feet of the ladder.

I've got one of those, but it's not proved as useful as I hoped. I have the situation shown in the pic on ebay where it needs to be able to bridge over a downpipe... but the downpipe is - like the one in the pic - close to the corner of the house. The righthand leg of the standoff ends up only just still on the house wall. Worse, for me the lefthand leg at that point is perilously close to a window opening. It doesn't look or feel safe.

I have wondered about trying to make a 90-degree insert for the standoff so the ladder could be leant against the corner of the house, and hopefully it wouldn't then slip either way. I'm not sure that I'd be confident to climb that though.

One of the pictures on that website shows someone using it with a ladder that's set so steeply against the wall that it must surely be unsafe!