How Long Can You Keep that up, lad !!!!!

[TRUSTME]

AN Hospital job, climbing off the last few rungs of a ladder into the loft space the ladder slips and slides away and I go dropping to the floor. The drop was about 12 feet. I'm laid on the floor in shock and a bit of pain. A patient waiting to see a Doctor [he's on a trolley and in a dressing gown] looks down at me laid on the floor moaning and says to me in a broad Yorkshire accent:

"Why lad, that's a q ****r job your on, tell me now how long can you keep that up". They took me into see the Doctor before him. What I remember was falling like this knocks the wind out of you, that dust from your overalls seems to shoot all over the place, that the ladder scrapes the wall and it needs to be touch up, and the weak spot is the second you rest your weight on the loft trap door and release the pressure on the ladder feet, this is when ladders slide. It happens, and can be prevented with a piece of rope-tie and a bit of common-sense. My fault entirely.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

LOL! I won't Trust you any more on a ladder!

 

[multitask]

Could have been your 'stairway to heaven'.
You maybe should try Lynyrd Skynrds 'Gimme three steps'
Me names Gary an I'm here all week!

 

[Mikefromlondon]

I knew a guy who was fitting a sky dish at the rear of the property as it faced the southern skies, but had to run the cable all the way to the front facing the north, so he climbed up top of a ladder and as he coiled al the cable and tried to throw it over the roof ridge to land on the front of the house, just as he threw, his ladder slipped from the bottom and he came crashing down 15 feet to a hard concrete floor! he was lucky as the ladder slowed his fall and his shirt also slowed him down as it got caught on the fencing panels one of which also broke! Luck man he was.
Learned his lesson hard way, never trust a ladder, and always block the bottom from sliding off, and even the top part should be tied up against sliding sideways.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

He was carried away by an ambulance as at first he could not move, and stayed in for a fortnight!

 

[foamit]

Yes we laugh when we read of ladder slips, why?some how it conjours up a tv comic sketch.Some years ago had a window company in to install new windows,yes it happenened to one of the guys,as he came down his bum went through a small leanto roof, he slid of that, I heard the noise new straight away what happened,rushed out, two chaps on floor, but wasnt sure which guy was hurt because his mate was rolling on ground laughthing his head of.

 

[shinynewboy]

Worked on a job alone last week and I could not find a place to strap the ladder to as I normally do to stop the feet kicking out. So as it was a driveway I drove my car until the bumber touched the ladder -
Safe as houses.

Yeah other than that I have a strap I use which at various times has been ancored to a spike in the ground - downpipes - window frames even temporary rawbolts if there is no other solution.

Still doesn't stop the wind blowing the ladder over if you can't secure the top though which you often cant if working on a brick face.

 

[conny]

Guy I once knew used to hammer 2 metal spikes into the mortar bed and then place a small plywood shelf over them. Stopped the sideways movement and gave him somewhere to lay a few tools while he worked. Used to carry 2 concrete blocks in his van in case he was an a concrete base and had nothing to spike the base in to. Never had a fall off a ladder in his life.

 

[gigz]

I used to live next door to a roofer, he once fell off a gable end onto a concrete flat roof, tried to break his fall but landed with the back of his hands and snapped both wrists, rolling in agony he then fell off the flat roof into the next doors back garden, when the alsatian attacked him

 

[oldgreymouse]

Was on a guttering job about 2 years ago, I climbed up on the end house extension and saw that all the houses in the row had the same extension all the way down.
I set off with a bucket, clearing the gutters that were above the extensions . After about 2 minutes clearing gutters while looking up at the sky, I dropped 15 feet into the next door neighbours garden, she was sunbathing at the time
I had failed to notice that there was an actual gap between each extension

 

[Crispier]

A few years ago a fitter I was working with hit himself on the head with a hammer. It's difficult to describe but he was trying to hit a pipe to loosen it in a confined space and he had to hit from low to high towards himself, as if he was trying to throw something over his shoulder. He braced himself for a big hit and missed the pipe and hit himself. He had an Ostrich sized egg on his head for days.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

A few years ago a fitter I was working with hit himself on the head with a hammer. It's difficult to describe but he was trying to hit a pipe to loosen it in a confined space and he had to hit from low to high towards himself, as if he was trying to throw something over his shoulder. He braced himself for a big hit and missed the pipe and hit himself. He had an Ostrich sized egg on his head for days.

I bet he saw stars he had never seen before!