[SherwoodCleaningSe]

I admit it I have twice in ten years, both times because the floor was slippery.  Once I broke my arm and the other time I cracked my head open.

However I've been accident free over 6 years now.

How about the rest of you, come on tell about your war wounds.

Simon.

[tacky]

same here told wife i was learning to sky dive   both times in winter   cleaned front on grass by time i went round back  bottom of ladders iced up causing slip   lucky no dam to me or prop

[Llaaww]

the only time I fell off was with a small pointer. I was trying to get through a lot of work one morning and was in a real hurry. I landed on my backside, lucky I only dented my pride.

over the years I have done some silly things with ladders, but luckily never came unstuck. Probably the worst thing I did was to tie two old ladders together so I could reach one high window. At the top I promised myself that If I got down in one piece I would buy a new ladder. The next day I spent £200 on a smart tripple 15 alloy pro.

I changed to wfp this year and the ladder never seems to come off the van now.

[Sir Squeaky]

Nope, not even close.

[Paul Coleman]

I admit it I have twice in ten years, both times because the floor was slippery.  Once I broke my arm and the other time I cracked my head open.

However I've been accident free over 6 years now.

How about the rest of you, come on tell about your war wounds.

Simon.

Twice for me as well.  Once I came off it low down, the other time I went down with it when it slid.  Just minor scrapes both times but either time could have killed me if I had landed badly.

[M & C Window Cleaning]

When I was 20, I'd been wc-ning 4yrs part time 2 story only. Needing a little more income due to my upcomming wedding, I helped a friend out with his decorating business for one year working one day a week as well as my wc-ning. He hated heights. I had no problem as long as I had the right equipment, so I got all the 3rd floor work. So it wasn't long b4 yours truly, having completed painting a 3rd floor window climbs down one floor, as I was used to with my wc-ning round and looking up at my work, steps off the ladder and fell 8' to the floor. How I got away with it I'll never know. Probably partly due to having an ex-army man as a father who had taught me how to fall as a youngster.
However, 20 yrs on and priding myself on no further incident working from ladders 3-5 days a week wc-ning, I find myself stranded on a balcony over someone's front door. (Ladders blown down)
A late start and a little impatience causes me to think: "no problem, I've fallen from this height b4 and didn't hurt myself. I'll just hop down there into the grass."

Massive error of judgement!!!

I shattered my left ankle. Cost me 6 months off work and now, 7yrs later I've just had to have it fused.
When I saw the dammage that was done on the ex-rays from just dropping 7'6" in what I thought was a controlled manner I quit all my 3 storey work. (Fortunately I didn't have a lot)

I'm only thankful I didn't do both ankles or something more serious.
I can only hope my experience will help prevent someone else making a similar mistake.

If you work with ladders or at height don't ever allow yourself to become complacent or overconfident when it comes to safety.

I think that if you can make wfp work for you, then it's the way to go.

Regards to all,

Mark

[Cleaner Windows]

as most of you here know, last year I was cleaning on a hot summers morning, put my ladder up to do the 1st floor at the rear of a house without really checking the angle of the ladder, ran up the ladder and started to clean when all of a sudden the ladder slipped out at the bottom. I came flying down and landed feet first (luckily) onto some concrete steps.  My left foot was caught between the ladder and one of the steps  and my right one i think was still on one of the rungs of my ladder! basically broke my feet and was off work for weeks.............. I'm a tad more carefull now!! LOL

[LWC]

yup, twice in 3 years, last time i said im going wfp...so i did 

[Biscute]

i thought everyone would have fallen, its like being a moter bike rider, you aint a real rider till you have came off. i came off once on decking, only to hold on to the sill and one foot on the sink waste outlet.

[SherwoodCleaningSe]

Posted by: Biscute    Posted on: Today at 07:38:34am
Insert Quote
i thought everyone would have fallen, its like being a moter bike rider, you aint a real rider till you have came off. i came off once on decking, only to hold on to the sill and one foot on the sink waste outlet.

Now thats clever

Simon

[Sir Squeaky]

I can't believe it's 18-13 in favour of falling off!
I thought it would be about 1 in 5!

User name..."Frank Spencer"
You clumsy sods.

[ronaldo]

Nope, not even close.

Same as squeaks 9 years on ladders and no accidents, ladders are as safe as you want them to be, i have no problems in working of them 

[M & C Window Cleaning]

Personally I find decking to be highly unstable in that it is different one day to the next. As soon as a customer puts deckng down I get them to purchase a coconut hair mat and stand my ladder on that. they seem to grip no matter what.

On the accident issue, I worked with a pal some years ago who had a couple of falls. He was always a bit carefree which worried me. Once he fell off an extension roof after rain had wet it and the algae on it  became slippery. He landed in a bush and thought it was funny. He moved away shortly after that and a couple of years later he came off a ladder, landed flat on a small step and broke his back. He was paralised for a week but miraculously made a full recovery and was back at work a few months later. Although to my knowledge I believe he's given up window cleaning now.

[Paul Coleman]

I can't believe it's 18-13 in favour of falling off!
I thought it would be about 1 in 5!

User name..."Frank Spencer"
You clumsy sods.

I suppose that someone who hasn't had a fall is less likely to post on this thread though.

[Central Window Cleaners]

Once while i was topping my trees at home my ladder slipped by luck I had hold of the tree at the time.

[AuRavelling79]

I put no but I was very lucky once - my ladder slipped and fortunately the transom window was open and so I gripped that and the ladder caught on the drainpipe so i was able to kick it back into place.

WFP NOW - YIPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEE! 

[tacky]

confucus said leave ladder work on wet decking  for dry day   

[EasyClean]

An old window cleaner working traditional was killed a couple of weeks ago working an old patch I use to clean with WFP because I classed it as too dangerous for taditional work and very sad to say i was right!

[M & C Window Cleaning]

An elderly nieghbour to one of my customers was cleaning his sills upstairs whilst I was working next door. He'd leaned his ladders on his front porch and then promply climbed beyond the fulcrum point. You can guess what happened. The whole lot slid down with him on it and dropped off the end of the porch. He landed flat on his face on the ladder. He broke his elbow.

[SherwoodCleaningSe]

Some of these stories just make me wince.