Ladder safety

[JohnMo]

Practical exercise in what can go wrong with ladders, if you don't listen to your head telling you it's stupid to do something.

 

Yesterday my wife was out and it was raining, so decided to clean the inside of the upper windows of our lounge, approx 6m high.  Our flooring is down and it's a waxed finished oak.  So moved chairs and nest of glass side tables out of the way of the ladder.  The glass table were still under the ladder.  Cleaned the upper part of the windows ok and reduced the ladder height to approx 2.0m, proceeded to climb ladder no problems, when at the top, the feet of the ladder slipped on the wooden floor, me and the ladder came crashing down one the glass side tables.  The tables broke in  thousand pieces, but many large shards of glass remained.  Lucky for me I only had small cuts all over my legs and quite a few bruises, it could have been a lot worse if I had landed differently. Back to working today, so can't be too bad.

 

Learning of the story

1. Think, if it all goes wrong where will I land.

2. Ladders and waxed surfaces do not mix.

3. If your head says it's not a good idea - it may not be.

4. It maybe a good idea to have someone around when you are up a ladder, in case it all goes badly and they can call for help.

5. Think can I use an extension pole and not a ladder.

 

Edited October 27, 2021 by JohnMo
Corrected grammar

[markc]

Great advice, we all get complacent at times. Tall windows inside is when an A frame style ladder comes in, self supporting and cannot slip! … you can reach too far and get them to fall over tho …. 

[dpmiller]

BTDT. No teeshirt, but a broken wrist and femur, 20 years ago now. Freshly epoxied concrete...

[ProDave]

I use (usually short) ladders almost daily in my work, and the worst floor for a ladder is any smooth hard surface like wood, laminate, even some smooth tiles.  Just think yourself lucky the ladder did not slip when up a 6 metres.

 

In that situation don't be afraid to get a long length of rope and tie the base of the ladder back to something solid like a door frame so it can't slip, or at the very least don't do it alone and have a (preferably heavy) person to foot the ladder for you.

[SteamyTea]

I was painting a ceiling on an A Frame ladder.

The clip that holds the horizontal part of the A failed.

The fall was not far, trouble was, my left arm was under the ladder, and my right foot was trapped between two rungs.  Luckily there were other on site that disentangled me.

Only a fractured left arm and broken ribs.

Carried on the next day.

After throwing that ladder away and buying a decent one.

https://www.wickes.co.uk/Werner-Aluminium-12-in-1-Multi-Purpose-Ladder-with-Platform/p/250167

Only paid £40 for mine.

 

[Ferdinand]

An important thread.  Thank-you.

 

I try to treat it as a hierarchy like the Remove -> Reduce -> Recycle one for greenery.

 

1 - Design in access so no need for a ladder. eg near a balcony or bridge, or even an internal window or opening opposite the big window.

2 - Make it accessible from the ground for regular tasks eg use an extendy-window-cleaning-pole, if necessary from a 

3 - Work platform or scaffold tower.

4 - Ladder with appropriate measures to make use safe.

 

Plus wheezes such as self-cleaning glass.

 

I learnt my lesson about thinking about access early on when dad installed a mezzanine and some high level lights in their bedroom - at opposite ends. The way it ended up, rather than changing the bulbs from the mezzanine, you had to dismantle the bed and put a ladder inside the bed frame to access them.

 

Again thanks for posting the account.

 

Ferdinand

[SteamyTea]

1 minute ago, Ferdinand said:

rather than changing the bulbs from the mezzanine, you had to dismantle the bed and put a ladder inside the bed frame to access them.

Or just use table lamps.

[ToughButterCup]

Those who use ladders the most safely have already fallen off at least once.

For me, both times were when I was BOTH tired and in a rush.