Well it had to happen eventually didn't it? My father, who is now retired, owns a building company, after I had told him of the fact that if you do not have someone footing your ladder, you can be liable for prosecution and a fine of up to £5000! He told me it didn't surprise him, his Company are doing a large job at a local school and apparently on new buildings, roofers are no longer allowed to use ladders to get onto the roof! It's too dangerous apparently :-/
They have to use lifts or hoists of one description or another.
Depressing isn't it?
On thinking of how many men it should take to extend and take down an extension ladder for it to be a safe risk free operation gave me pause for thought...
It is obvious of course that you must by health and safety laws have someone footing the ladder whist you are working atop it, but first you have to get it extended.
Up till now I have always done this completely by myself, but I have been blind to the horrible risk of accident or injury to myself or others.
Now we all know that while you have two feet on the ground it is quite safe to lift and extend said ladder to arms length above your head, but there then comes the point when you must start to climb up the ladder to continue extending it, and the higher you go, the more fraught with danger it becomes.
Obviously you need someone stood at the base footing the ladder, but this will still leave you precariously lifting or bouncing the ladder of the wall to enable you to further extend it.
Can you imagine the carnage should you lift it too far or lose control as you bounce it? Apart from the physical risk of injury to yourself, you are almost certainly putting the guy footing the ladder for you at grave risk of injury also, and what of members of the public within a possible radius of whatever height the ladder is? Doesn't the thought of this just make you shudder with horror?
So for safety's sake you also need a third man to stand under the ladder to carefully lift it from the wall to enable you to safely extend said ladder.
Are you aware of how dangerous it actually is to simply climb a ladder? I am no longer sure if anyone should ever consider using a ladder where the rungs are wet, missing your footing when the ladder is dry is something that will have happened to many of us, but when the conditions are wet the risks are magnified ten fold!
Obviously we should always wear a safety harness as we climb our ladders, clipping it onto the ladder as we climb so that should we fall we shall not plunge to the ground possibly killing ourselves, or worse, hurting someone else as they break our fall.
But to counter the risk of falling as we unclip and re-clip our harness, there needs to be a pulley at the top of the ladder with a rope attached to you. As you climb, you will of course need someone at the bottom of the ladder taking the strain.
Your ladder should of course also be clipped to the wall beneath the window to eyelets. This will of course prevent the ladder sliding sidewise and causing carnage to those clustered below helping you extend your ladder.
Come to think of it, you should also rope off the ground below to the eventual radius of the fully extended height of the ladder.
We should not in this case forget those with partial sight, so someone is also needed either side to inform the public that a dangerous operation is in progress and to guide them safely around the potential hazard.
All involved will of course have had to undergo rigorous training and to have at least yearly, stamped certification as proof of this.
So, in closing……er, that is a total of yourself (1), the ladder footer (2), the ladder bracer (3) man on pulley (4) and the two guides for the public (6)
This of course would probably only be the minimum required.
Hope that some of you have at least smiled at my tongue in cheek posting, and yes, I know that you can get ladders that you can extend with ropes and pulleys, they are a nightmare! (well, some of them are!)
Ian