Ladder safety devices

[williamwright]

The foot that was badly damaged when a health and safety warning sign fell on it just will not tolerate prolonged ladder work.

Bill

[williamwright]

If the foot of the ladder can't be secured and the surface is unsuitable, the ladder must not be used in that position. It's a complete no-no. No job is worth having a nasty fall.

In extremis there are ways: Drill the concrete or slabs and insert removable anchors. Afterwards make good with concrete. Obviously this is not possible with decorative or prestige surfaces. Drill the wall in front of the ladder and insert removable or permanent anchors. Obviously this is not possible with decorative or prestige surfaces. Park the van so it serves as an anchor. Position the ladder so it can be tied to a substantial fixture such as an iron fall pipe. If the surface is slabs, it's often possible to drive long nails into the cracks and rest a board against them. Remove the nails afterwards.

I should mention that tying back the ladder at a point along its length some distance above the ground to (for instance) a length of timber that is placed across the inside of a window or doorway is risky because when the ladder flexes the effect of the restraint can be to make the foot of the ladder 'walk'. Likewise, never rest a ladder on a protruding part of the building anywhere except at the top. That's really dangerous because once you're above the point where the ladder is resting on the protruding part of the building the foot of the ladder is likely to be lifted off the ground, the midway support acting as a fulcrum. This is good for getting on "You've been Framed" but not otherwise.

Bill

[Rod Speed]

williamwright [e-mail] wrote

We'll see...

Bullshit when the feet are on concrete.

Not always.

Bullshit if the feet move on concrete.

Or out from the wall.

That too and in that case, yes a holder isnt any use. But it isnt the only thing that can happen.

More often when no one is on the ladder.

Yes, that has happened to a mate of mine who did the same work you did.

Yes, when I was up on my flat roof when building the house, I did have a micro tornado we call a whirlywind come thru and take one of the heavy

44 gallon drums I used for when laying and pointing block work right up in the air.

I did the roof structure from a heay welded 25mm RHS trolley with wheels just on the one end. It has a removable 25mm RHS frame that slots into the lower half, but only half the length of the whole thing, with a drop in timber plate on top about 6' from the ground. Easy to climb up on that and do the welding of the vertical angle iron onto the ends of the steel roof beams that the oregon verical facia board is bolted onto witn gutter bolds.

No chance of a wind moving that because the non wheel end has 25mm RHS legs that sit on the dirt and dig in.

[Rod Speed]

williamwright [e-mail] wrote

Thats bullshit when you have the best holder person.

You aren't going to have that when you have the best holder person.

Have the best holder person hold it at the bottom with its feet.

Much easier when you have the best holder person.

But the works fine when you have the best holder person.

But the works fine when you have the best holder person.

Not always possible to get the van there but always is with a holder person.

Nothing like that available with a single story house, what you lot call a bungalow.

Much easier when you have the best holder person.

My aluminium ladder naver flexes, it is in two parts which slide against each other with massive aluminium things that stop it coming apart.

[alan_m]

+1

[Colin Bignell]

When my father re-roofed his house, c 1962, he fitted screw eyes into the soffit board about every six feet and tied the ladder to those. That was, in part, because he rested a roof ladder against the top end of the access ladder and, in part, because very early in the process, he looked down from the roof to see my mother, who was supposed to be footing the ladder, at the bottom of the garden looking up to see how he was getting on.

[williamwright]

I'm not wasting my time dealing with such nonsense.

Bill

[Rod Speed]

williamwright [e-mail] wrote

You never could bullshit your way out of a wet paper bag.

[Paul]

That's funny. I had a maintenance job one summer as a student, and did things like paint houses and repair windows.

I had an ally ladder to work on, and that puppy flexes in and out towards the house, while you climb it.

We would also jump our ladders. If I needed to paint a strip to the left or right of the ladder by a foot or so, I'd jump the ladder (while on it) to the left or right a foot, and paint. I couldn't jump the ladder unless it willingly flexed to transfer my energy input into action.

Wooden ladders flex too, but they don't have the high Q factor of ally. Wood tends to dampen the energy and settle out faster, after energy input.

My favourite wooden ladder, the side pieces are steamed and bent, so that the legs at the bottom have a wider spacing than the rest of the ladder. This was supposed to aid stability. The ladder also had steel guy wires in it, to stiffen the wood and change the dynamics. But the ladder was so heavy (2.5 storey reach), that you needed an assistant to hold the feet, while you walked the ladder into the upright position. That thing was like the QE II, compared to the ally ladders I've worked on, which are the "boing parade".

But after a while, you get used to ally and the "not feeling safe" thing. As a team, we had a pretty good idea of when the wind was getting too high for painting on those things. We had no ladder accidents the whole summer. I nearly fell off a roof... but we can't be blaming that on the ladder used.

Paul

[Robin]

I grew up on tales of what could be done with similar ladders from an uncle who served in the London Fire Brigade (though he was silent about the war years he spent stationed in Docklands). If he were around today I suspect he might - with good humour - suggest "try this if you think you're hard enough" :)

[Rod Speed]

Mine doesnt and I still use it to get onto the roof with to clean out the gutters while walking on the flat metal decking roof and to get to the swamp cooler that sits on the flat roof.

[Theo]

I imagine your uses was mostly 'get up to the roof', whereas mine might be 'get on the flat roof', 'fix the gutter', 'paint the stairs', 'pick the apples from the tree'... more varied uses, not just a basic extension ladder. I don't actually imagine I'd often use the full length of the extension ladder, given a bungalow.

I inspected my existing ladder and it's an 'Abru Starmaster DIY' rated at

95kg, so probably fairly bottom end for its day. I found an advert online: £54.99 in 1993. 'Texas Tom guarantees every single price', apparently.

Anyone have opinions on this variety:

This is one of those that contains two telescopic sections that can make a stepladder, a bigger extension ladder, or two trestles to take a scaffolding plank. That would allow me to get rid of the extension ladder and a wooden stepladder too, saving some space.

Theo

[Rod Speed]

I have never been keen on any ladder with a joint in it, too easy for the joint to be poorly designed or fail.

I have two quite separate ladders, a very solid aluminium extension ladder which has two separate sections which slide over each other with massive thick aluminium things the sliding section slices in and massive steel thick things that hook over the rung on the lower section as you slide the sliding section up as you extend it.

No rope or cables, the sliding section is light enough so that there is no need for anything like that.

I have separate step ladders mostly used for changing bulbs inside the house.

[williamwright]

Do you use a macro for that phrase?

Bill

[Rod Speed]

williamwright [e-mail] wrote

Nope, dope. And its a sentence, not a phrase. dope.

[Vir Campestris]

My 4 joint ladder is my ladder of choice. It's stiff enough to not feel bad, and will allow me to go into the loft, reach 1st floor level, etc - and light enough to be really easily portable.

I'm painting windows ATM, and the proper extension ladder is a pain to move around. Especially as it lives in the garage on hooks next to my car.

Andy

[John Rumm]

Yup there is always a trade off between light weight/handy, and solid/heavy.

I have a lightish set of steps that can function as a free standing set of steps, or a short double extension ladder (can reach ~8'). Very handy, and given their small size, just about sturdy enough.

However if I am getting on for 30' up the side of a house at the tip of a gable wall, I am very glad to be on my 'kin heavy 150kg 3x 4m section extension ladder!

[tony sayer]

Bloody brave men there!...

Remember when i started work i had to assist the TV aerial rigger on a Four story house so got the triple extension ladders, just made it to the guttering the roof ladder was just long enough to reach the apex then chimney was around 6 foot by 8 or so!

Matey i was with just started to lash the chimney where you get the lashing wire over the pots and down the other side, gives you something to hang onto!, when he started looking very ill and collapsed on the other roof so i had to creep round the chimney and drag him unconscious he was, no mobiles in those days so couldn't leave him up there poor sod so tried a fireman's lift which did work very well was really scary transitioning from the roof ladder to the triple one, they should have been tied together but was fun trying to do that whilst not pushing that ladder along the guttering! but got him down, took ages to find someone with a phone to call the ambulance!

Never did find out what was wrong with him seemed he had something like a collapsed lung. He never came back to work.

The next hero they employed was prone to epileptic attacks!, one of them occurred whilst he was driving, good job the van's handbrake worked OK managed to get the van onto the verge in a ditch, lesser evil than the road junction we were coming up to!!!

[Mark]

Had hook ladder training every week when I was in the LFB but never used one on a shout

[SH]

While on the topic of safety advice, where can I buy a fall arrest harness that has the rope and hook IN FRONT of me rather than on my back?

I've been looking everywhere but can't find one as described.

The scenario is if I am on the top of the ladder, I would hook the fall arrest harness to one of the ladder rungs. This is in case if i faint, pass out, feel dizzy or have a heart attack or lose my grip/balance, I remain on the ladder rather than fall 8 m onto the patio below.

I've only seen this type of harness being worn by someone on YouTube to climb a TV transmitter to replace the red aircraft warning lamps.

Many years ago I used to see BT engineers climb up a pole using shoes with spikes and when at the top, used a belt to secure their waist to the wood pole.

I already have a pair of out riggers, a top ladder stand off and a bottom ladder stabiliser and also eye hooks in said wall that has frequent access requirements