I just thought I’d pass on some information and knowledge about ladder use. So if you’re thinking about a bit of DIY work, no problem at all, but do it safely. If you need to do work with a ladder, there’s a few things you should do.
If you’ve got a stepladder, make sure the stepladder side clips are engaged properly and make sure you put it on good even footing. You need the whole four feet on the same plane, the same level. You shouldn’t really have a step ladder elevated to two different levels.
Ensure you don’t go past where it says, “Don’t go past this point”. All ladders have got this written on them. So don’t go past this point and that means you feet. You should never go up to the top few rungs on a step ladder. They’re just not designed for it. There’s a real chance you will fall.
Using extension ladders. If using this ladder you’re probably going up to two story on buildings, which is not a great idea. The thing about that is that you have got to have the footing of the ladder secured and you’ve got to make sure it’s on firm level ground and the top of the ladder should be secured also. It should be fixed to the guttering or fixed to the roof. So there’s lots of ways of doing that with straps and hooks and then there’s lots of equipment that you can buy to do that. It’s very important that you have your ladder in a secure position, so it can’t go sideways and it can’t come back. Most accidents on ladders are not when you’re on the ladder or when you’re on the roof, most accidents happen going from the ladder to the roof or from the roof to the ladder.
They say are “People fell off a roof”, but in a lot of cases, they didn’t . It was where they are going from one to the other, but you know what, quite frankly, why would you do any of this stuff yourself? Why would you get on a roof? A two story roof when you don’t do it for a living or you don’t have the safety equipment that you should use – you’re much better off getting a professional involved. So unless it’s an emergency, I would always recommend that you contact somebody in the industry or does it for a living and get them to come out and do whatever you want done on the roof or off a ladder.
Stay safe.
