Roof ladders

[Cursitor Doom]

I see a lot of tradespeople using roof ladders these days (the ones with little wheels where you hook that end over the roof's ridge). What is the point of these? Is it some healfnsafety requirement now, or is it merely to protect the tiles? I'm going to have to get up on the roof shortly to sort out some issues and do have one of these ladders which the previous owners left behind, but unless I'm likely to damage the tiles in some way, I'd sooner just scramble about on the roof without it for the extra freedom. My roof is tiled with Rosemarys at an angle of a about 35 degress, so not too steep, fortunately. What do you think? cheers.

[Richard]

Whatever you decide, don't forget the video...

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Cursitor Doom writes

I use one over our aged slates. Usually with some PIR foam softening to spread the load at the contact points.

For shallow pitch (12.5-15 deg.) farm metal roofing, I feel safe to walk about unsecured. Anything steeper I would have a rope over the ridge and secured to something the other side.

[Charles Hope]

The wheels protect the tiles, the hook over th ridge protects the user in that the ladder won't slip.

Stay safe. Recently the husband of a friend died beause "he fell from a great height in the garden".

[Bill Wright]

I can't possibly advise you in detail without being on site, but I beseech you to be very careful. Over the years I have known of many roof fall accidents. They tend to be fatal.

Bill

Aerial installer since the mid 60s.

[Chris Hogg]

As did Rod Hull...

[michael adams]

The wheels are for manoeuvrability. When you're already at the top of one ladder its easier to push the extension up to the ridge one handed if its on wheels, than if it isn't. Then its just flipped over. Once its safely over the ridge then there's no problem with lining it up, take as much time as is needed while keeping the other hand on the ladder.However as others have already suggested if you need to ask then you should maybe leave it to others.

There are indeed some people who can scramble about on roofs and enjoy the extra freedom without a care in the world. But if on stepping off the top rung of the ladder onto the roof you suddenly discover that you're not one of them then what happens then ? A brown trousers job perhaps? With the Fire Brigade having to be called to get you down. And all in front of the neighbours. You might even make the local paper. Again, if you need to ask....

michael adams

...

[Cursitor Doom]

Well at least I won't be doing that. It's a bungalow. ;-)

[Cursitor Doom]

Oh I know. I've known a few in my time.

I already know I'm not one of them. But it's not quite that bad in this case. It's a bungalow and on the easiest side, the worst that can happen is I roll down a few meters into the flat roof section and that's all. If I come off the other side (9' drop), then I'll probably just break my neck and end up in a wheelchair for the rest of my life. But at least I'll survive. ;-) Seriously, I've been on roofs before; scarier ones than this. But it's not my natural environment. Roofs are something I'll avoid if poss. I don't have the supreme confidence that some people enjoy.

[harry]

You'll find it's quite easy to walk up a 35deg roof. Coming back down is a far greater problem.

Roof ladders are safe and tiles don't get broken by getting walked on

BTW, yo can buy a bolt on device to convert a standard ladder.

[Andy Burns]

Though if the ladder being converted is an extending one, you need to give some though to how to stop it separating ...

[Kipper at sea]

The idea of the wheels is to help push the crawler, as it's called in the r oofing trade, up the roof slope without catching the bottom edge of the roo f covering pushing against the tiles or slates. The hooks are used to go ov er the ridge to stop the crawler from sliding down the roof slope. The old way of doing this was to have a block of 3"x2" or 75mm x 50mm of timber fix ed across the bottom of the crawler and this was put into the cast iron gut ter with far better support. But since plastic gutter is more used, this wo n't support the crawler. On a tiled roof it's best to take a few tile out a t the bottom and tie the crawler to the tile battens and then to the ladder . Walking about on a roof not a good idea no matter what the degree pitch is, step on a loose tile or slate and down you go.

[John Rumm]

What is the point of the roof ladder or the little wheels?

The ladder - safe access up the roof - which depending on the roof angle will make the job anything from marginally safer to doable. They also protect the roof somewhat.

The wheels, make it easy to get the ladder into place.

Depends on the state of the roof, and how heavy you are. You only need to stand on one tile that is cracked (or hooked over a rotten batten) so the bottom of it just pulls off and slides down the roof, and things can unravel very quickly.

Your call. Personally I never go on a tiles roof without a roof ladder, but then again roofs have a habit of crumbling under my weight otherwise. If you are built like a whippet, you may get away with it better.

[Cursitor Doom]

Hmm. I starting to build up a picture that scrambling around on this roof is not a great idea - if for no better reason than the fragility of the Rosemary tile. One final question: can you use a roof ladder as a conventional ladder (ie, close to vertical) or is that going to damage it, given the rungs will not be supported in this mode?

[tony sayer]

Sod that!, seeing the poor state of the nations guttering!...

Many years ago I used to have to do some aerial work and we used a crawler with wheels and hooks and that tied to the ladder coming up to the gutter worked very well with no adverse accidents:)

In fact once I had to carry a work mate down from a three and a half story building when he collapsed, in the manner of a fireman. That was using a hook and wheeled crawler and triple ladders.

Only shat myself when we were on the ground and the ambulance was taking him away, had a collapsed lung poor sod!...

[Tim Lamb]

Fine by me:-)

The idea of putting something soft under the ladder on the roof is to spread the load so the ladder plus you is not resting on a couple of tiles. As I said up the thread, a couple of bits of softening lashed to what will be the underside when you turn it over will do the job.

I used a couple of plastic bags filled with straw before they invented PIR foam insulation:-)

>

[John Rumm]

The rungs will be strong enough (they take your full weight in normal use), but the stiles probably won't - since they expect to be supported on the roof stays every few feet.

[John Rumm]

Something else you have to watch on slate roofs I discovered to my cost recently - the slate angle "flares" shallower slightly at the eves where they go over the top of the facia. This means they are not supported in the middle by the battens or planking behind. Stick the roof ladder bearer on that exact point and you will end up replacing best part of half a dozen slates after they explode when you get on the roof ladder!

(DAMHIK)

[Chris French]

I've got an attachment (wheels and hook arrangement) to convert a standard ladder to a roof ladder.

A slight fiddle to fit/remove as it has U bolts to secure it. But it's not like I'm up on the roof very often (twice in the last few years). Obviously you need a 'spare ' ladder to fit them to. I was only using them on a single storey roof, so had the other half of a double ladder to use. And since we moved I had to buy a longer ladder as well.

Probably not expensive to hire though.

[John Rumm]

I started with a set of those... the problems I found were, as you say, it takes a fair amount of time to fix or remove. A multipart ladder does not have a flat bottom all the way along (you get steps at each joint), and you also have to tie the bits together.

I bought a "proper" extended roof ladder a few years back - probably paid for itself doing small jobs for folks, and its quite handy to have about if you need it.