For many people, climbing a ladder to do construction or repair work can be intimidating. The fear of heights is an instinctual survival mechanism, but it is one that we must overcome when it is time to paint the ceiling in the foyer or hang Christmas lights from the eaves of our homes. However, with careful preparation, climbing a ladder and working above the ground can be done safely.
Picking Your Ladder
Picking the correct ladder can make the job at hand easier. Step ladders are appropriate for light-duty painting and inside construction work, such as hanging a ceiling fan or light fixture. Extension ladders should be used on outside projects like hanging Christmas lights or cleaning eaves troughs.
Most homeowners can get by with a household-rated ladder, or a Type III ladder, which is duty-rated at 200 pounds. The duty rating establishes the maximum safe capacity of the ladder. Your weight while fully clothed plus the weight of any tools and materials that are carried onto the ladder must be less than the duty rating to ensure safe use. Ladders have color-coded stickers that indicate their duty rating.
Once you have determined how strong your ladder must be, consider the height at which you will be working. Extension ladders typically range in height from 16 feet to 40 feet. For optimum safety, the height of the ladder should be 7 to 10 feet above the height of the support. A useful household extension ladder for chores like cleaning gutters or painting the trim around a house is at least 24 feet long. It is a generally accepted rule of thumb that a person's reach is four feet higher than the length of the ladder.
Placement
Putting the ladder on a secure foundation is essential to ladder safety. The ground should be as level and solid as possible. Placing a ladder on decorative stones or wood chips rather than on the dirt underneath is a recipe for disaster. Make sure the feet of the ladder are secure and even on the ground. Don't allow the ladder to lean to the left or right.
Think of a right triangle when planning the angle at which the ladder will lean on the support. Using the ladder as the hypotenuse, make the base of the triangle approximately one-quarter of the length of the hypotenuse. In other words, if you have a 24-foot ladder, the feet of that ladder should not be any closer than 6 feet from an imaginary line coming down from the point where the ladder meets the support.
Climbing
Climbing higher than the fourth rung from the end of an extension ladder is considered unsafe by the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration. For step ladders, climbing higher than the second rung from the top is considered unsafe.
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