Woodworm in rungs?

I worked extensively with ladders all my life and to be honest your post worries me. Certain elements seem to add to a disaster scenario. You are obviously working very high if your other ladder won't reach. Sounds like you might be struggling to reach even with the wooden ladder.

"Old extension ladder rarely used" Alarm bells!

"Woodworm? The rungs seem robust enough at the moment." Yes they will. They snap suddenly, even though they seem OK.

You're struggling with a rusted screw at the top of a dodgy ladder. Alarm bells!

Regarding the light, rip it down and fit a new LED one. They cost about £25 for a top quality one. 30W is the equivalent of 100W!

One last thing. A bloke in the next village to here had his feet no more than four feet off the ground to change the tube in a halogen flood. He slipped over, hit his head, and died the next day.

Bill

I inherited one of those when my mother died: rungs full of woodworm holes. I doubt that it would have creaked, just snapped at a critical point, probably when I was at the top, and then unzipped all the way down. Wasn't prepared to risk it, and as I had an aluminium one I just dumped it.

I inherited one with my house, it was ok for a few years, but when it started getting ropey I put a circular saw through the rungs so I wouldn't be tempted to use it "just once more"

snipped-for-privacy@please.invalid (AnthonyL) wrote in news:5f32858d.14382093 @news.eternal-september.org:

Change to LED.

Dad was helping an old friend who was living on a boat on the East coast. He was a few rungs up the (wooden) ratlines and sort of testing how sound they were [1] as he went when one snapped and he did exactly as you said and came back down through the rest like a zip.

Luckily he was wearing gloves, holding onto the shrouds and didn't hurt himself outside a few scratches.

Cheers, T i m

Burn it. The damage is hidden and the rungs may fail without warning.

Exactly look what happened to Rod Hull, messing about untethered on a roof.

Ally ladders are not that expensive and usually lighter and more stable. I remember my old wood ladder it had tie pieces below the rungs to hold it together, made of metal, but the rungs can still break and tip you off. Brian

You've had a unanimous answer!

Bill

Possibly 10W or 20W LED flood will give adequate light levels. Most halogen floods are a social nuisance by illumination half the houses in a street.

We have a 10 W one, enables you to put the rubbish out without falling over the car. Nearest street lights are over a mile away and on cloudy moonless night it is dark out there, disturbingly dark.

Not helped by the majority of fittings having huge beam angles and people installing them without checking where the spill is going. Ours is as close to horizontal/pointing at the wall it is on as it'll go and it still spills direct light further than I'd like.

IMHO Domestic flood lights should be limited to 60 degree beam width and be constructed so they can't be tilted up very far.

Re screws in outdoor lights, if you fit them they will rust. Ali + steel screw + water = major corrosion. Other fixings can be used in lieu.

NT

But it isn't that fact that they are screws! Stainless is somewhat better. But ali will corrode almost whatever you do.

Mine are 120 deg. R63 LED pointing straight down. Can be seen from just above horizontal but there's no dazzle from well below that. I could fit GU10 120 deg - 60 deg. would be far too narrow and I'd need 2 in place of 1 to for the same area. An R63 is very easy to limit by simple adding a 'skirt' if necessary.

Yes it's done for.

A firm near Billingshurt made wooden ladders for scaffolders, the softwood poles arrived from abroad with bark on so the local forestry officer would undertake a phytosanitary check at the dock. The poles were then turned and split to form the two rails. Ash rungs from local wood were turned from quarter cleft wood and every 4th IIRC rung had a wire reinforcement underneath. I guess they went out of business in the late 70s though I did supply some ash prior to that.

Ash borer is active above 17% moisture content but survives in the wood down to 12% so the wood is never resistant to attack.

mmm - electrics, top of ladder. Wood sounds better.

I used a GRP ladder when working near enough to overhead wires for there to be a risk I might touch them when moving the ladder. However, for an outside light, the circuit should be isolated before you start working on it.