I feel stoopid. First time I have fallen off a ladder. Several times I have stepped off the second step thinking it was the last, but this is a first. Fortunately nothing got hurt.
Here’s the pic. This is after the fall. The ladder was in the same place, except the feet were farther from the house, on the outside of the tree. Ladder was much flatter (more horizontal). Two problems: the ground was a little uneven, so I put a rubber sanding block under one leg. I was scraping paint, so I put the top of the laddder on the small section of stone above the window so i could get to all the wood.
As I’m up on the ladder, I notice how little stone there was under the ladder tips. Well, that looks ok for the short time I’ll be up here. Sure hope it doesn’t slip, or I’ll probably go through the window. Scrape a little, look at the ladder. Did it slip down a little, or is that my imagination? Ah, it’s still ok.
Woman client walks out, says she’s going to run an errand. Ok, see you later. She gets in the car, I turn back to scrape, and then I’m on the ground. No warning. In the movies you can always reach out and grab a tree or the gutter or something. Nope. Instant change of position.
She gets out of the bcar. Are you ok? Yeah but I’m stuck. The feet kicked back, the tips scraped down the glass (you can see a mark in the pic) and bounced off the stone sill. Fortunately I fell through the ladder, broke off a piece of the bush, landed on my feet, smacked my head and shin on something . But I’m stuck cuz the ladder is resting on top of the bush and my butt won’t fit through the hole. Feet just touching the ground. So she picks up the bottom end and backs me out of the bushes.
Whooee. Could have been a calamity. Least-worst case would have been busting out the glass. Worst-worse case would have me going through the glass. And 5 minutes later no one would be home.
Husband came home about an hour later, wife had already told him, I mentioned the busted bush, he just laughed with me and at me.
“When asked if you can do something, tell’em “Why certainly I can”, then get busy and find a way to do it.” T. Roosevelt
Replies
Glad your OK Ed, must of been a bit embarassing though!
Doug
I just got the plane wrapped up, and you do a Broadie?
Ok, never mind, glad ya pulled a landing, with your soul on board!
The plane leaves here tomorrow AM...BTW, I am doing a DDOUD on yer azz, this is a FREEBIE..pass it on. There is enuf for all of us ( as sloppy paraphrase of his tag line)...enjoy.
Learn to never use the feet of the ladder flat and hinged, ALWAYS kick the pawls into the surface...always.
Glad to hear you're ok. I wonder if not being very high had anything to do with your over-confidence in the ladder setup.
I don't know how you missed that window, but looks like you got lucky all around.
Depending on the damage to the bush, you might want to consider replacing it or at least buying your customers a gift certificate at a local nursery. It would be a gesture that they wouldn't soon forget.
Would a Little Giant multi-position ladder work any better?
-Don
So uhhh..you suggest a joint for him not being high, and an articulated ladder?
> Would a Little Giant multi-position ladder work any better?
Yes, in that situation. Set it up in "A" frame mode, and drop the side near the building down one rung. It would have to sink into the ground to have a problem. The other advantage is that it doesn't touch the house, so there's no problem with having to move it to paint under where the ladder was leaning.
My father took one of those falls from thinking the second to last rung was the last. Broke a leg, and wasn't able to work or even walk much for the last ten years of his life.
-- J.S.
I've always had trouble taking the step from the ladder onto the roof or from the roof onto the ladder. Kind of afraid of heights I guess..++++++++++++++++
-Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain-
Glad nothing but your pride was hurt.
Thanks for posting. Too often only the up side gets reported. Seeing how things can go wrong really fast is instructive.
Once did a job rewiring a house, dropping the light switches, for a guy who fell off a six foot ladder. He had hit wrong and broke his neck. He could only move his head. Light switches were moved down to where he could flip them with a stick in his mouth.
Everyone in construction thinks of themselves as indestructible. It is a good thing to remember that we are all one slip and failed landing away from getting around in a motorized wheelchair and flipping switches with a stick.
Glad your okay. Remember a fall I took, not hurt to speak of, but do remember a flash of me falling and it taking an instant for my hat to catch up and start falling. Sometimes the hurt pride sticks in the mind and makes us all a little more concious the next time were up a ladder.Let's not confuse the issue with facts!
Err- Mrs. Homeowner can you help me get this ladder out from being wedged into my family jewels?? Yes thank you very much!
Very embarrassing for sure! Not easy to forget that one!
Stu
Nice one! Glad it worked out for ya.
Been there done that. You have to learn to spring back up and take a bow. At the same time kicking yourself in the arse.
http://www.hay98.com/
At least you're OK!
Headstong, I'll take on anyone!
My uncle is building a house here in York, PA and fell with the ladder back in September.
He was running speaker wire for whole house audio and was about 10 feet in the air. Another guy was working below him so he had the feet of the ladder too far from the wall. It was sitting at a very shallow angle from the floor. He only needed to run up to the top for literally 10 seconds and didn't bother to reposition the ladder. No sooner he got the top and the ladder slide out from under him. He rode the rung of the ladder to the floor. The arch of his foot landed on the rung. His heel literally shattered...not just a break but 8 seperate fractures in the heel bone. The images of the fracture were unbelievable.
He had surgery about a week and a half after the fall to fastener it all together with a screw. He has just recently graduated to a cane and is still enduring physical therapy.
The extra minute to position and secure the ladder is pretty measly compared to the result of the fall.
Got an appointment Jan 15 with foot doc to see if there's any fixing my Fuped heel/ankle from a ladder slipping out on a concrete patio.
Broke that heel bone in 3 pieces. The bad news I think is all your weight lands on all those squishy pieces in your ankle before it breaks the bone. 5 years later every step hurts, standing on a ladder is a bitch, but it coulda been worse.
Good luck to your uncle.
Joe H
C'mon, tell us the whole story. Didn't grab anything huh? I see those Christmas lights hanging down.
Glad yer ok...its a warning!
Be forwarned
andy
The secret of Zen in two words is, "Not always so"!
When we meet, we say, Namaste'..it means..I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides, I honor the place in you of love, of light, of truth, of peace. I honor the place within you where if you are in that place in you and I am in that place in me, there is only one of us.
thanks for sharing. It is a good reminder how quick things can go wrong. I remember every second of my fall from a ladder (many years ago) like it was yesterday.
It was a multi=joint ladder with plywood platform on top. Set up was an upside down U. the plywood was quick and easy to put on but --- larger than the ladder width. Much larger. After much confidence, stepped where the plywood was but the ladder wasn't. Fell hard and quick (Lucky not far). Hurt but not bad.
Still remember the daze that follows..
Glad you shared and are ok
-Bob
In fairness Eddie,
Your fall was entirely forseeable-------as you had the ladder set up incorrectly
In fact------ I think the ladder is STILL set up incorrectly in the picture------ too flat of an angle.
Standing on the pivoting feet of the ladder( with your back straight)---extend your arms straight forward in a horizontal position, shoulder high-------- if you can easily grab the rungs of the ladder in line with your shoulder------ you have the angle ok.
no fair leaning forward to grasp the rungs
If you can't easily reach the rung while keeping your back errect-----the ladder angle is too flat and at risk of kicking out. I think the picture you provided shows the ladder STILL at to flat of an angle( but I might be delusional LOL)
I usually set my ladders just a little steeper than the angle I described---------- It's a constant battle between feeling like the feet are gonna kick out vs feeling like the top is gonna fall away.
Most people that don't spend much time on ladders think the danger is the top of the ladder-------- but I know the danger is the feet.
don't feel too bad though-------- despite my pompous attitude---- I had a similar thing happen to me last year---------- had the ladder set up on a customers patio-------- turns out the feet were on an invisible patch of glare ice------ feet kicked out and I rode that ladder all the way down---POW right on my hands and knees-----this was maybe 6-8 weeks AFTER I had just had knee surgery
won't be making THAT mistake again( knock on wood)
Good luck, Stephen
Most guys feel like I set my ladders too steep, and they are steeper than typical written sugestions, but as the vetern of three ladder rides, I leasned to be certain before stepping up on them.Ed - I give you a 6 of ten for the Olympic trials in ladder rides
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Piffen,
I prefer working alone----which usually lets me set up my ladders MY way-----a little steep.
also last 6 months or so I have begun carrying a little length of light rope in my nail bags to tie off the TOP of the ladder also---which I rarely did before.
Most of my regular subs like a flatter ladder angle than me----as it is easier to carry bundles up the flatter angle---------- but to be fair------ they generally stack 2-3 bundles of shingles behind the ladder feet---or at least drape one bundle over the bottom rung.
One of the best---perhaps THE best roofing co.s here still usues ONLY wooden ladders-------- I see their trucks all the time and they always have a wooden ladder aboard---but NEVER an old one---always pretty new
I have often wondered if they throw all their ladders away each year and buy new ones each spring.
Stephen
Glad you're ok, and thanks for the lesson learned for the rest of us.
"I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul." Invictus, by Henley.
I went to go look at a job last night with a GC and I met his mason and his mason told us that his employee went to help out another contractor on Friday and while he was climbing up the contractors wooden ladder the rung snapped in half and the guy fell down 23' on his head and was killed instantly. The mason was at the funeral Tuesday night and said it was horrible. The guy was only 29 with two kids and his wife is expecting another baby.
OSHA came in and the police were there and OSHA said the ladder was old and was already in bad shape and now the contractor is being charged with some degree of manslaughter because of using faulty equipment.
I guess if anyone is still using wooden ladders, you better make sure they’re in good shape.
I can't even begin to tell you how often I see old wooden ladders on job sites. We call them OSHA Ladders.I worked on a site during the fall to help out a buddy and he had 3 on the job. I wouldn't climb any of them. Next day I came to work with two of my own and threw his in the dumpster. My buddy got pissed and took them out. After he left I threw them back in. Day 5, his laborer walked in with a limp. He had taken one of the dumpster ladders home so he could paint his apt. One step broke. He fell along with a gallon of paint. Shin is tender to the bone and ankle is weak.That could and would have happened on the job. I just can't understand why he hadn't gotten rid of them sooner. They wobbled, screws had to be tightened regularly and nails had popped and basicaly had zero holding ability. When he saw that I had thrown the ladders in the dumpster he commented that one was from before he started working full time and the others were from his first real job. Not a good reason to keep a ladder around.There are 3 new ladders on the job now.FThere he goes—one of God's own prototypes—a high powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live and too rare to die.—Hunter S. Thompson
from Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas
Next time, cut all his steps in half.Joe Carola
I was working at a friends and he had a sketchy wooden OSHA special, I insisted he destroy it, he argued, but knew if we threw it out, one of the flunkies on site would take it and be hurt at a later date.
To prove my point I whacked it once on the side with my estwing and a step popped out...
see... I dont want to die.
the good news is the wood was so old that Mr Sawzall rocked through it....
Drop the word, wooden,, Joe. Any ladder can wear out and fail. I know a kid who rode a 40 footer from 30' down to 18' where it flipped him off to land on head and shouldrs. Fortunately only broke his collar bone 'cause he was young and flexable and the LZ was snow. This was from a dog failure. Four other guys had just gone ahead of him up the same ladder.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
"Drop the word, wooden,, Joe. Any ladder can wear out and fail."Your right but I doubt the step on an aluminum ladder will slit in half like a wooden one. It would have to break at the end first. I would never stand on someone’s 20 year old wooden ladder.In 22 years I've only seen wooden ladders fail so far. I'm not saying that aluminum ladders wont but I have yet to see one. I've even seen beams dropped on the steps and not break.Anyway the whole story was tragic and I hope everyone makes sure their ladders are in good shape.
Joe Carola
fell of the top of a 4' stepladder once I was finishing a job saw one small thing to correct , had 6' and 8' ladders on the truck but was carrying the 4' one so I set it up (on uneven ground ) stood on top and reched over to tie a wire down ladder went sideways I came down on my right heel
the orthopedic surgeon said I "exploded" my heel not large enough peices left to operate , so 10 days in hospital . foot was too swollen to put in a cast . 8 weeks in a cast on cruthes and now 7 years later still a fair amount of pain he said I could have lost the foot .
be carefull of those ladders evan a small fall can be serios