Ladder safety month is coming up, just a reminder. OUCH

Mainia

Mainia

Joined
Apr 6, 2015
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Upper midwest
When I was 12, I was getting some stuff from the garage attic with a small aluminum sliding ladder with the ladder rung spring loaded wedge stops. I was young and dumb and did not get them placed right as I was never shown how they worked. So I got all the way up and as soon as I hit the back slider part of the ladder step it went down one rung and the ladder was then in a free fall with me at top onto the concrete floor. I saw this video and it all came back in my minds eye, almost to the exact slow motion event. I can't imagine the same fall at age 63 and 125lbs heavier. Some of these guys had to have been screwed up bad. Most of these accidents are from stupidity placements of the ladder, IE on a roller scaffolding, Smart move there. You buy a longer ladder cheapskate. Since that day I always triple check everything and take my time and I sure LOVE the scissor jack at work.:). To this day I won't go up on a slider ladder over 10ft unless someone is standing on the bottom rung with full weight.

 
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I have three ladders for the four corners of the new LARGER shade sail

I need a safety dude to yell at me

What a hassle pulling it taut enough to have the turn buckles do the work-,yet have space for the turnbuckles

I’ve about got it, but up and down ladders. Wow This is an 8 foot ladder

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Yea, I don't mind those 4 legged ladders, pretty stable if they a fiberglass. We have 12 ft and 16 fters. Not much need for those anymore with a scissor lift.
 
KevinMalone said:
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I was freaking out when I saw this in M539's video
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The first rule for extension ladders is "Toes and hands." Actually, that's the second rule. The first is, "Stay off extension ladders."

When setting a typical 10 to 12 foot extension ladder, it's at about the right angle when your toes touch the foot of the ladder and your hands can grip the sides when reaching straight ahead. This gives you the proper 1 foot of lean for every four feet in height. That's about 75 degrees of slope off of the vertical for the mathematically non-challenged.

Ladders are no joke. My father in law shattered his ankle falling off a 3 foot step ladder.
 
Pablo said:
I have three ladders for the four corners of the new LARGER shade sail

I need a safety dude to yell at me

What a hassle pulling it taut enough to have the turn buckles do the work-,yet have space for the turnbuckles

I’ve about got it, but up and down ladders. Wow This is an 8 foot ladder

View attachment 287383View attachment 287384View attachment 287385
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What are you using to get it taught?
I once walked past a professional company putting one up so that makes me a borderline expert on the internet or something :ROFLMAO:
They had one corner mounted and used large ratchet straps on the other corners to get the sail tight and then just gave the turnbuckles a few twists.
 
Pterostylis said:
What are you using to get it taught?
I once walked past a professional company putting one up so that makes me a borderline expert on the internet or something :ROFLMAO:
They had one corner mounted and used large ratchet straps on the other corners to get the sail tight and then just gave the turnbuckles a few twists.
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I thought about that basically thought I could muscle it like I did the smaller one we had previously but this one is substantially heavier

Needs to stretch and set in the sun then it tightens up. If this go doesn’t work then I will use a tensioner
 
ripcord said:
My father in law shattered his ankle falling off a 3 foot step ladder.
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1) I used a 2-footer [call it a kitchen step ladder, if you want] to reach a common outside light.
My neighbor across the street was looking at me with a motionless, ghosty weirdness.

When I was done, I walked over to him, still in his trance, and said, "Hi Larry, howzit goin'?"
He said, "My brother died doing what you were doing."
Insensitive me had to verify he was using a 2 foot ladder.

2) I was assigned an air-headed female helper how had no business being on-site.
She was a boss's fiancé.
I had to go up a ladder and showed her how to "foot a ladder". I'd start to climb, and she'd walk away.
This and other occurrences got back to her squeeze, and she departed.
 
My ladder story: some Yellow Jackets started to build a nest under the eve near my front door, and of course they went as high up as they could on a two-story house. Grabbed my ladder and the garden hose and blasted the demons out of there. Started to climb down and as I neared the bottom I realized I missed the last rung. With the momentum I had going I could either try to catch that step and probably wind up landing on my back with the ladder on me, or keep going and pray for a soft landing. The latter seemed the lesser of two evils so I did that. Left foot landed and I felt a pop in my calf that I was sure was something breaking.

Hobbled to the ER and fortunately it was diagnosed as a bad sprain and/or slight tear in the calf. I got lucky there.
 


Many years ago in my academy we did the Auditorium Raise with a 50' pole/bangor ladder. {The ladder in the video is a 30'} The requirement was to climb to the top, lock in with your leg, let go with your hands and lean back. It was optional if you wanted to climb over and descend the opposite side. Fun times.

Never once used this raise in my 30 year career.
 
Mainia said:
Yea, I don't mind those 4 legged ladders, pretty stable if they a fiberglass. We have 12 ft and 16 fters. Not much need for those anymore with a scissor lift.
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16fter stepfather sure has me nervous when not near a wall. Like ceiling work in the middle of a shop.
 
Sumboodie said:
16fter stepfather sure has me nervous when not near a wall. Like ceiling work in the middle of a shop.
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12 fter not a issue at all, Yep the 16fter my adrenaline is up and I would rather not, but had to. I never have to use them anymore but a rare case as we have had a scissors lift now for 15 years. I don't know at 63 and being away from ladders for so long if I could handle the 16ft in my head. I know I was tree climber as a kid and would go up 2-3 stories, I tried getting past 1 story in a tree 2 years ago to do some trimming and couldn't, my brain said nope.
 
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