Very tall ladders - what's the use?

[Donkmeister]

I'm shopping for a ladder so I can get some jobs done on my house without always borrowing my FIL's extension set.

Whilst looking at 5-6m jobbies on a ladder-selling website I saw that they do triple-extension ladders up to 15-16m. 50 feet! What sort of job requires a 50 foot ladder in this age of easily-erected scaffold and cherry pickers? How forgiving is a 50 foot ladder vs a 15 foot ladder in terms of of the angles and what it bears on at both ends?

(Fred Dibnah used to climb much higher on old ladders lashed together but the last time I saw proper steeple jack ladders was probably 20+ years ago, all seems to be scaffold now.)

 

[SammyInnit]

Occasionally you'll have to get somewhere a tower or articulated boom can't. I've had to use on in the 12m religion to pressure test a set of discharge stacks for a cabinet ventilation system I was installing, couldn't get a tower or boom up there as it was on a flat roof of a 7 storey building.

 

[bernardgreen]

What sort of job requires a 50 foot ladder

Thatching requires a lot of ( sometimes ) very long ladders as well as scaffolding.

 

[^woody^]

Back garden of a four-story maisonette where you have a job for a missing roof tile and 20 minutes before dinner time, comes to mind.

 

[mattylad]

My roof.
By the time I get to the top of the ladder I'm in the clouds.

Only right nutters go on my roof.

 

[Notch7]

Sometimes you just need a bit more height

 

[SammyInnit]

Sometimes you just need a bit more height

I'm afraid he's got nothing on Fred Dibnah.

 

[cdbe]

This one always seriously scares me! No wonder the life expectancy of a male traveller is 44.

 

[pilsbury]

I’ve got a huge chimney at the rear of my property my ladders go no where near. Need to bung a flue liner down. I’ve watched the Fred Dibnah videos for inspiration.

 

[catlad]

Please send me a link to this website that sells 15-16m
ladders as I want some.

 

[rsgaz]

a link to this website that sells 15-16m

15.7m
https://www.ladders4sale.co.uk/Class-1-Rope-Operated-Industrial-Triple-Extension-Ladders-13.asp

15.47m
https://www.laddersandaccess.co.uk/product/lyte-heavy-duty-rope-operated-3-section-3-94m/

 

[catlad]

Thanks
some weight in those big ladders.

 

[pilsbury]

Thanks
some weight in those big ladders.

Your pocket will be considerably lighter though!

 

[catlad]

I have just decided that I must be mad!
why would I want ladders that big? it would surly lead
to more crazy work which I don't need.
I might just go for 12m instead.

 

[Screech20]

16m HV pole in the middle of a cropped field where we're not permitted to take a mewp to... yeah im going up on my ladder.