Fell off my 32' ladder today

[gregpark]

I'm OK. Not a scratch, I'm not even sore anymore. Thank the Lord I was only on the first step

[masraum]

Hahah, nice!

Thank goodness for miracles!

[stevej37]

Good that it wasn't the first step going down.

[GH85Carrera]

Gravity works 100% of the time, always instantly. Glad you were close to the ground.

[Seahawk]

These kids are way up there reroofing one of my barns years ago. Amish for the win.

Still know them both:

[Steve Carlton]

32' to 3' - "so far so good!"

[ckelly78z]

You got lucky on that one, a guy I worked with 25 years ago fell off a 6' step ladder, and severely spiral fractured his ankle. He limped around for about a year on crutches, it got infected, and they talked about amputation. After resisting for another year with constant problems, they did amputate, and he was back to pretty much normal in a month, or two. Turns out he has osteoporosis, so his bones weren't healing.

[herr_oberst]

Did you know that climbing and descending ladders creates muscle memory? How do I know? I replaced an 8 foot wooden stepladder with a 10 foot wooden stepladder, and my brain would tell me I was on the bottom rung when in actuality I had more descending to do.
I only rolled my ankle bad enough to have to soak it in ice once. But I did fall to the ground like a sack of spuds at least two other times before I started to give that ladder the respect it deserved.

[A930Rocket]

That was a close call! Good to hear you’re better.

I was working outside on the house I was building and across the street, the owner was up on an extension ladder. I heard a commotion and when I looked over, the owner had fallen off the ladder and onto the porch wrought iron rails. He was not in good shape.

Edit: not to be mean, but if anybody deserved it, he did.

[Bugsinrugs]

I went up on the second story roof on one of my rentals to clean the gutters. I had to call a friend to come and hold the ladder as I could not convince myself to get from the roof to the ladder without it sliding sideways. Never was a problem before. I turned in my man card after that.

[stevej37]

^^^
That step from the roof onto the ext ladder is always the worst.

[A930Rocket]

Originally Posted by stevej37

^^^
That step from the roof onto the ext ladder is always the worst.

Ages ago, we were rebuilding a brick chimney on a drive under. The chimney was on the low side and I had to cover it before rain came in. I had to get an extension ladder to get up on the deck...haul the ladder up to the deck...Use the ladder to get on the sunroom...Haul the ladder on the sunroom...use the ladder to get on the roof.

It all went according to plan, until it didn’t. As I was getting off the main roof, the ladder slipped and I fell down between two skylights on the sunroom roof. My knee or hip broke the OSB under the shingles.

I lay there stunned for several seconds, but being the heat of the summer it got too hot. I had to go back down the same way I came up, moving the ladder in stages.

Needless to say, I’ve been very skittish getting off a roof now.

[Bill Douglas]

I don't use high up ladders. Too scary

I've got a mobile scaffold tower that I can clean out the roof gutters on a three story house with.

I also use it as fall protection when painting roofs. I just wheel it along so it's inline with me if I slip on the roof.

[Geronimo '74]

Did you do a monkey-roll?

[GH85Carrera]

Back in my single days I borrowed a neighbor's extension ladder to work on the soffits on the peak of my house. I was up there moving at a glacial pace because any rapid movement caused the ladder to start shaking and wobbling. It was terrifying. I finish the project and gave the ladder back to the neighbor. He said I could borrow it anytime. I told him don't expect me to ever use that thing again, I will hire the most expensive company around to do the work for me before I climb that thing again.

[masraum]

I'm OK with ladders. I used to be OK getting on the roof of our old house. The roof on the new house sucks. The pitch is much more than our old house. It's ~30º which doesn't sound like much, but I've been on it, and it feels damn steep. I don't know what our old place was, but I'm guessing it was closer to 20º. At our old house, I could climb on the wooden privacy fence, and from there, get onto the roof of the garage and from there get on the roof. I walked around up there comfortably and was able to install my old weather station equipment without any issues.

Old house (when it was sold by the folks that we sold it to)


New (old) house


I'm going to avoid the roof of the new place as much as possible.

[Superman]

The rate of acceleration of a falling body is about the same as the fastest street-legal cars. It takes a little over two seconds to reach 60 mph. Gravity is not just relentless. It is powerful as well.

[gregpark]

I have 29 large solar panels on my two story house. I bought a 20' telescopic mop to clean them while standing on the ridge with a hose . Once was enough. That's what grandkids are for

[Zeke]

My first 10 years in the trades was as a painter, then painting contractor, then general. I always participated in the work, therefore lots of ladders. I've had maybe 2 scary moments but one stands high above the other (see what I did there?).

I was up leaning on the side of a house at 2nd story window height when the ladder started sliding sideways in an arc to the ground. Very fortunately there was a section of single story roof a few feet over. As I passed the edge of the roof, I stepped off (probably did a monkey roll).

The ladder continued and hit the ground in a big crash. I was stuck up on the first story roof with no ladder to get down. I almost always had a helper, this time who came around to my side and put the ladder back up for me.

I moved it over to where I was, reset it more carefully, and continued as if nothing had happened. No one home, so no drama. After that I wasn't so aerobatic when up 2 stories. I used to do some crazy siht. Hell, I was only 30.

At 18 I was climbing phone poles for the telco using spikes which are cut different than tree climbing spikes.



Highest I ever got was 90' out in the desert. the pole was 3' in dia at the base and 1 foot at the top. Had to stop 2wice to shorten the belt. After that ladders didn't seem like much.

However, the amount of ladder related deaths and injury is staggering. Each year in the U.S., more than 500,000 people are treated and about 300 people die from ladder-related injuries.

[Rikao4]

Medic riding a JP..
heights never bothered me..
but as mentioned.. that first step out...
and you gots to be real good friends with your Crew Chief..
he has a button..


Rika