A Nifty Construction Trick

[craigster59]

The Boss wanted a new fixture in the staircase to replace the 1980's fixture that was there along with an old fixture in the dining room and 2 ceiling fans in the upstairs bedrooms.

The problem with the staircase fixture was that it dangled in the center of the staircase, no way to access it safely with scaffolding or ladders.

Came upon this video and I have to say it worked like a charm. I had to do a little tweaking but my electrician friend who was helping thought it was pretty cool.

[craigster59]

Old fixture....



Scaffold.....



Wiring the new fixture...



All done...



All in about $50.00 in materials. That rig could have held over 1,000 lbs and no drilling or bolting required.

[sand_man]

Nice!!! Thank you for this!

[masraum]

That's really cool! Thanks for posting.

[jabb]

Great idea

[herr_oberst]

Now you know what to do when it's time to get up and clean that new chandelier!

That is a great solution to a real problem!

[fastfredracing]

Looks like you need the little giant ladder system .

[Tobra]

That is sort of like how Wayne filled in his swimming pool

[craigster59]

Originally Posted by fastfredracing

Looks like you need the little giant ladder system .

I've got a Little Giant, a 6', an 8', a 10' and a 22' extension ladder. Believe me, if any of them would have worked (safely) I would have used them.

[fastfredracing]

That is pretty ingenious, the way you cribbed it off the ledge, so that you did not have to anchor in the wall. Brilliant actually.
I was just ribbing about the ladder, but they are pretty handy . I got one that was left in one of our rental houses, and I use it all the time for off the wall stuff

[VincentVega]

cool, thanks for sharing

my (least?) favorite way to do that is with 2 ladders, but that can be scary and unstable. This method looks better, if you can convince me the vertical supports will stay in place.

[john70t]

You might be able to fit a 'little giant' type ladder on the landing.



(have help carrying)

[CurtEgerer]

Another option ...

[craigster59]

Originally Posted by john70t

You might be able to fit a 'little giant' type ladder on the landing.



(have help carrying)

The problem was the landing was 3-4 feet away from the light. I could have built a platform to rest one leg of the ladder and the other on a stair but then I was still looking at only a 2x12 as a platform and at 14' in length you'd get a lot of flex. I'm too friggen old to spend my Sunday in an ER and a few weeks on disability. It really didn't take that long, maybe 15 minutes to build by myself and 5 minutes to setup with my friend. Safety first!

[john70t]

(On second look I finally saw that problem)
Nicely done, sir.

[RSBob]

Ingenious

[look 171]

That poor cleaning lady.

[porsche4life]

We have one in a weird spot near a railing. I just waited until the mrs. wasn’t home and reached over the railing and changed it. She was not happy when she came home, saw it was changed and realized we don’t own a ladder that would reach. 😂😂😂

[Baz]

Pretty cool, Craig....thanks for sharing!

I don't have a second floor here at home but I do sometimes need to access things that are in a precarious location while doing my landscape work.

I've had my share of falls too. Always feel like a dumbazz immediately afterwards for not paying heed to that little voice.

I used to prune some palm tress at an account and one of them was so tall, I would set my extension ladder up from a nearby garage roof. I was just as high up from the ground but on a ladder that wasn't as extended. For some reason - that made it feel much safer.

[kach22i]

Cool video, sent the link on to a couple of people.