Replies

1. 
   dieselpig | Oct 31, 2003 03:24am | #1

   Just reading your description of the incident makes me feel ill.  Been there myself...more than once.  You are so correct about trusting your gut in instances like that.  Been pulled back up on the roof by my bags myself for not listening to it.  Glad to hear you're ok....your adreneline stop pumping yet?

2. 
   alias | Oct 31, 2003 03:36am | #2

   glad your somewhat unscathed...wwwwhhhhooo baby ditto on the skin crawling.....

   "expectations are premeditated resentments"
1. 
   DavidxDoud | Oct 31, 2003 03:44am | #4

   tho I'm seldom on the roof,  I do quite a bit of ladder work - one time I ended up upside down with my leg between two rungs,  hardly skinned a shin - still get chills,  could have/should have blown out knee,  factured leg,  etc - -

   I was lucky,  glad you were too - -

3. 
   BossHog | Oct 31, 2003 03:40am | #3

   Glad to hear you're still in good shape. Nothin' like a subtle wakeup call.

   Condoms aren't completely safe.
   A friend of mine was wearing one and got hit by a bus.

4. 
   FrankB89 | Oct 31, 2003 04:13am | #5

   You dodged a major bullet...and I'm glad to hear you're intact....and wiser!

   DW is an RN and while she may get annoyed at some of my tool expenditures, she fully understands health and welfare and injury costs.

   Several years ago I mentioned that I was forking out a few $100  for some scaffolding....her reply was "an emergency room visit would cost more than that!"

   I still have a close call on occasion, but, as my knees get creakier, I've become more analytical about the positions I'm getting myself into before I get into them.

   I don't hesitate to purchase or rent equipment to enhance the safety factor of a job....a policy I'm very adament about with clients (with little or no disagreement).

   I have a close friend who is a "Quad" because he snapped his neck falling of a single story roof while trying to help an inlaw on a weekend.

   When that bell goes off in your head that says "that doesn't look good," pay attention.

   Save your courage for something important.

    

5. 
   toast953 | Oct 31, 2003 06:20am | #6

   I, Thank You, for the reminder. Oh so quick, does. Oh so slow, I heal. Jim J

6. 
   andybuildz | Oct 31, 2003 11:04am | #7

   Don't worry bout  the hair..it'll probably fall out eventually anyway.....its whats inside the head that counts and thank god you didn't crack yer skull open.

   You call it a wake up call......I always call it a warning from our higher power.

   Even hitting my finger with my 28 oz'er is a warning that I'm not paying attention enough.

   Once had some moron working for me that took a sheet of subfloor that wasn't yet nailed down away from the left side of my ladder to use somewhere else....

   I came down the ladder carrying a ton of stuff....put my left foot down and fell through the rafter twisting my ankle way bad.......still hurts me every morning.

   Be WELL!

              andy

   My life is my practice!

   http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM

7. 
   Piffin | Oct 31, 2003 01:11pm | #8

   Thanks for the reminder. Years of experience can fine tune those instincts when we don't always have a conscious reason why.

   but we need to think too and not just go with those fine tunmed inner feelings. I used to always go down ladders face first simply because I could. I was athletic enbough to be able to do the balancing on rungs and walk down like it was stairs.

   Then one fine day, I missed my step completely and went down about fourteen rungs on my butt with a can of paint in one hand and a paintbrush in another.

   Two of my cheeks turned bright red and the other two turned black and blue. When the paint can hit the ground a rooster tail splash hit me across the shoulder and neck

   So I was a very multicoloured specimen modeling how NOT to run down a ladder

   ;) Thought a humourus side to this subject could help you laugh it off. I still get vertigo sometimes thinking about my last fall.

   .

   Excellence is its own reward!

8. 
   MarkH | Oct 31, 2003 03:32pm | #9

   Glad you came out OK. I rode down a 28' aluminum extension ladder once. I was painting and leaned way over to stretch as far out as I could. Ladder starts to go skidding and it was all over. Then it snagged the triplex service cable,  and I thought I was going to be killed by electrocution, but no, then one side locked to the wire, but the ladder kinda spun me off and I fell, but my shins hit on the top of the chain link fence, slamming me head first into the roses and thorn bushes, but I still had the death grip on the paint bucket which amazingly still had some paint in it. Somehow the spilled paint mostly ended up on the back of my head. I was sore but basically uninjured.

1. 
   seeyou | Oct 31, 2003 06:23pm | #11

   Where are the guys with the video cameras when we neeed 'em.

1. 
   MarkH | Nov 01, 2003 04:06am | #18

   "Where are the guys with the video cameras when we neeed 'em."

   Fortunately, none were around. Although it would have been interesting to have seen the episode from another viewpoint than my wide eyed one.

2. 
   BillMcG | Oct 31, 2003 06:44pm | #12

   but I still had the death grip on the paint bucket which amazingly still had some paint in it

   Sorry, but the Yankee in me has to ask - did you use the paint that was still left?

1. 
   mitch | Oct 31, 2003 09:49pm | #13

   thanks for the memories-

   about 25 yrs ago my brother and i went up on a shake roof to patch some hail damage.  the house was on the side of a pretty steep hill and was only a little over one story tall in front but three off the back- 2 stories plus walkout basement.  anyway, it's the first job in the morning, i walk up the sunny east face of the roof and step over the ridge onto the shady, damp, and as i quickly found out, very slippery west side.  my feet shot out from under me and i go sliding on my butt for the eave.  my heels don't catch in the gutter, but right as i'm about to go airborne i grab it with both hands (very well hung, btw!)- so then i'm hanging, head and feet down, a$$ and hands up, with a commanding view of a rock garden about 25 ft below me, screaming for my brother.  luckily, he saw me slip and he was extra careful not to repeat my error- so he crept down and hauled me back up by my tool belt.  some days on the job are more exciting than others...

   m

1. 
   TrimButcher | Nov 01, 2003 03:04am | #16

   Greencu, thanks for a very important, serious thread, but when Mitch says:

   i grab it with both hands (very well hung, btw!)-

   Am I the only one who thinks he should quit bragging?  :-)

   Regards,

   Tim Ruttan 

   Edited 10/31/2003 8:05:40 PM ET by TRIMBUTCHER

2. 
   COH | Nov 02, 2003 04:27am | #24

   In reading all this it is amazing, or maybe not, that everyone has these stories. I guess those that didn't survive are the only ones who won't be telling stories. Glad everyone survived.

2. 
   GoldenWreckedAngle | Oct 31, 2003 11:15pm | #15

   Sorry, but the Yankee in me has to ask - did you use the paint that was still left?

   He, he, he... I'm picturing someone trying to cut a straight paint line after an incident like that.

   I almost got knocked off a two story once and I've been oh so cautious up high ever since. I was the center guy of three Einsteins ripping a ledger board off of a dormer. The two guys on the end decided, enough already with this nail pulling business - Yank! I was just concentrating on pulling my nails in the middle when I noticed the board start to "frown" toward me. Next thing I hear is a loud "PHWAP" as the ledger snapped loose and caught me right in the chest.

   I caught the soffit as I was going over and managed to hang on. Man that looked like a long way to the ground with all that empty space to stand on. I'll add another shudder and a pat on the back. Glad you faired as well as you did too.Kevin Halliburton

   "I believe that architecture is a pragmatic art. To become art it must be built on a foundation of necessity."  - I.M. Pei -

1. 
   seeyou | Nov 01, 2003 03:10am | #17

   This reply wasn't to me, but made me think. 30 seconds after I got myself out of that mess, I was sitting talking with the building owner about the project. He seemed more interested in why I had no skin on my right shin, why my shoe was full of blood, why my shirt was mostly ripped off, and why my scalp was bleeding and I was missing hair. I was more interested in getting a contract signed and a deposit check. I was happy I didn't have to ride in an ambulance again. I didn't even think too much about it until I got home several hours later and my wife asked what happened to me and I saw that look in her eyes when I answered. I've hit the ground at 70+ miles per hour twice. Both times it was somewhat because of another's error, but I made it my own by trusting something I should have been sure of. As they used to say on Hill Street Blues "be careful out there".

3. 
   MarkH | Nov 01, 2003 04:11am | #19

   "Sorry, but the Yankee in me has to ask - did you use the paint that was still left?"

   He!! yes, but I had to scratch the dried up grass, leaves, and dirt off the brush after I found it in the yard. I didn't want to waste what paint was still left loaded in it.

1. 
   mitch | Nov 01, 2003 04:59am | #21

   excuse me, the gutter was "well installed" or perhaps "securely or sturdily attached" now, you get your mind out of it ;-)

   m

9. 
   RichBeckman | Oct 31, 2003 03:59pm | #10

   Glad to hear you escaped without serious injury. Thanks for helping the rest of us stay on our toes (and ladders!).

   Rich Beckman

   Another day, another tool.

10. 
    NickNukeEm | Oct 31, 2003 10:50pm | #14

    Ladder accidents and falling off of roofs are all too common.  I had to replace a gable vent on a two story Colonial a number of years ago.  I built a platform on the mud room roof and propped a ladder and proceeded to work.  With all but the last nail out, I yanked the vent, and the platform, which I had failed to anchor to anything, kicked out, sending me and my ladder down.  I hit the ridge (I was in shorts) knee first (same knee rebuilt the year previous) and rolled down the mudroom roof.  As I rolled over the edge, I managed to grab a rung of the ladder I had propped up to get to the mudroom roof.  No damage, not counting the loss of about a pound of flesh.

    My SIL, on the other hand, had her ladder propped on the driveway and was at the top of the 30 footer when the ladder kicked out.  She rode it all the way down hugging the ladder, which was a bad move.  When she hit the pavement, her arms were broken (compound) in three places.  She had horizontal bruises across her body where the rungs were when she hit.  Two years later, she has yet another operation scheduled to remove another steel pin.

    Be careful out there, and expect the unexpected.

    I never met a tool I didn't like!
11. 
    fortdh | Nov 01, 2003 04:18am | #20

    Glad you you didn't do the non-parachute skydive, and thanks for telling all. May keep someone else safe.

    I will share two stories:

    A plumber working on a neighbor water line about 35 years ago. House about 150 ft from street, leak in water line about mid way across the yard. The plumber dug up the wet spot, found the leak, and cut the copper line in half to remove the cracked section. When he bridged the gap of the two pipe ends,one in each hand, he was electrocuted. Something in the house was shorted, and the panel ground was fastened to the water line.

    The copper provided a better conductor than the earth...

    About 25 years ago,I was helping some buddies put in a yard watering well system in Clearwater, Fla. The procedure was to dig about 2' into the very sandy soil, then hold up a 20' piece of 3' dia sch 40 pvc pipe. On one end of the pipe, we had fitted a coupling, reduced it to pipe 3/4" threads and coupled to a garden hose fitting. We then would turn on the water, and the "drill rig" would bore its way into the ground. When only a foot of pipe above the ground, we would remove the coupling, drop in a well point on the end of a 20'piece of 1" pvc, and pull the 3" casing up and off the well line, move over 10-15' and do it again.

    3-4 shallow wells tied together in trenches would provide all the free yard water a 1 hp pump could pull.

    We had started the third hole, the yard was a flood from rain and our drilling, and the shovel hit a "root". The shovel digger, Charlie, couldn't cut through it, so Bill tried. No luck, so Charlie put his arm in the 2' hole full of water to feel the direction of the root to see how to miss it. AS he wrapped his fingers around the root, he went white and speechless. He jumped up and said "we have been trying to cut through the underground electric service cable to the house, it is three conductor and I had my fingers wrapped around it." The utility spray paint markings on the ground had washed away long ago and we had not kept up as to where they were. When we could laugh about it, I realized I had been sitting on an aluminum ladder, holding the 3' casing vertical, in the same 3" of water they were standing in.

    As an extra item, Charlie was a salesman of aluminum electrical cable for an aluminum company. We were lucky to have a dull shovel and a tough jacket on that cable. Someone watching over...

    Paul

    Energy Consultant and author of Practical Energy Cost Reduction for the Home
12. 
    RodBishop | Nov 01, 2003 10:56pm | #22

    A couple years ago I was building a center chimney on an old house. Had staging going up the back of the house, with a power ladder set up to bring materials up to the top.For those of you who aren't familiar with a power ladder, it is sections of ladders, (16', 8' & 4'), put together with brackets to reach whatever height you might need. Brackets are bolted so each ladder section is tied together.

    At least they are supposed to be bolted together.

    I didn't bother to bolt them for years, just slid the sections together and off we go to work.

    One fine day instead of climbing up the staging, I decided to climb up the power ladder to the top of the staging. Done it many times before.

    Got just past the 16' mark and the ladder broke at the brackets. The bottom section fell towards the house , the next section, (which I was hanging on to for dear life), fell backwards.  What a strange feeling knowing I was falling backwards and no way of helping myself. What saved me ( I believe), is that the bottom section hung up on the crossbars of the staging and was suspended a few feet of the ground. I landed on that. It acted like a stretcher. My leg got caught up in the rungs, and at 300 lbs I bent the hell outa some of the rungs.

    But I didn't break any bones, ...........nothing. I worked until 3:00 that day, (Hell, I had a batch of mud already made, couldn't waste it). Took the next 2 days off I was so sore. Didn't feel it at first. Must've been the adrenilan!

    Had to buy a new bottom section of ladder, and yes, I DO bolt the sections together now.

    I always thought I was safety concious, but I guess I'm not as much as I hoped. I'm still learning.                                                                                      Rod

    
1. 
   DanT | Nov 02, 2003 02:33am | #23

   greencu,

   Glad you were not seriously injured.  Man what a scary story.  I have to admit to being disapointed at the story after my initial thought of what getting lucky might mean! :-)  DanT

13. 
    hasbeen | Nov 02, 2003 04:58am | #25

    Yow!  Glad to hear you're OK!

    I went out and bought a big pile of scaffolding before starting my new place.  Several friends said I should have saved $ and time and gone with pump jacks.  But, once 20 plus years ago I was way up on pump jacks and one slipped for no reason we could figure out.  I've been scared of em since.  You make be feel better about my "wasting time and money" using scaffolding. 

    Betting on a gut feeling?  You better believe it!

    Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a carpenter to build one.

1. 
   Pierre1 | Nov 02, 2003 09:04am | #26

   Stepping off one scaffold plank onto another sometimes feels like a long way down, doesn't it? ;)