Moron Ladders
The ladders used in the construction trades come in all sizes shapes, lengths, and materials: wood, fiberglass, metal, and even plastic. In the electrical trade we shy away from anything metal. You can acquire ladders anywhere from 2 foot to 40 foot high.
(One of the guys I worked with was quite “height challenged.” We used to kid him about having a 3 foot ladder attached to his tool belt.)
Except for the joke I told early on – where I said I had fallen off of a 40 foot ladder – from the bottom rung, I never fell off of a ladder.
On the other hand, my father was an excellent “ladder faller off of.” He was able to develop techniques that kept him from getting broken when he fell. He worked in orchards and fell many times in that vocation.
My father did break his back from a fall, but it wasn’t a ladder he fell from that time. It was a rolling scaffold – but that’s a different story. And since my father is now dead, it may not ever be told.
I believe I have climbed just about every type of ladder manufactured; including one time having worked on a ladder-truck. The ladder-truck I worked with was very clumsy. Perhaps they are different today.
I had to bring the truck up close to the location I wanted to work on, run the ladder up, and if the location placement is not exactly correct (usually only discovered after having climbed to the top of it), I would have to lower the ladder, adjust it, and re-run the ladder up.
There was one advantage to a ladder truck. Because of the mechanics at the bottom of the ladder on the truck, and the fact that the ladder was manufactured out of some pretty sturdy material, the top of the ladder never slipped off the top of the building, or whatever. The truck itself was terrible. It was hard to steer and had no brakes. It scared me half to death. I’m glad there wasn’t a second one just like it at the shop.
Ladders are expensive. They are required to be built according to stringent specifications. That is why we have found it to be advantageous to have a bucket van (cherry picker). A bucket van is safer, faster and more convenient. It took me a number of years to get a set of ladders, including the bucket van, after I started my own business.
One time I borrowed a ladder from a good friend of mine. When I got done for the day, I went through the access hole in the roof and pulled the ladder up so it would be safe. When I came back the next morning it was gone. We never found it. It took some time to get the money to pay for it. Also, we left my son-in law’s ladder on a job and it disappeared. That one took $300.00 to replace.
The trouble with that is you buy a brand new ladder and you still don’t have one.