I’m in the process of staining my house. It has a metal roof and I need to use a ladder from the roof of the porch to reach the second story. How can I safely anchor the base of the ladder and avoid destroying the finish on my roof?
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Replies
Are you setting the ladder on a shed roof or a gable roof?Can u span the ridge of the roof ur resting the ladder on with the ladder?You may just have to put some temporary cleats on the roof with screws and nails and then fill the resultant holes with new screws but dont know if u have solid sheathing or what.We also always wrap our ladders with donuts of foam carpet underlayment if they are going to rest on the metal.
Without addiong cleats, there is no safe way.
Better to buy a ladder lnog enough to reach the top from the ground.
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Sky-hook?
On standing seam metal, we clamp two vise grip sheet metal tools to the seams and run a 2x4 across the top of them. Let your ladder bear against the 2x4.
REMEMBER THE BOSTON BATWANGER.
On standing seam roofs Greencu's suggestion is darn good (I wish I had thought of that). If you have the cheap kind of metal roof (exposed fasteners) I have always just backed out a couple of the field screws in two of the channels, then screw a 2x4 down flatways making sure you hit the holes in the roof exactly, then screw another 2x4 laterally across those two. Now you have a secure base to set your ladder above.
When you are done, make sure you use new rubber washer screws in the holes. Do Not try to re-use the old ones... unless you don't mind roof leaks.
Check with the pro desk at Home Depot about a magnetic ladder.
I'm sorry, I thought you wanted it done the right way.