Ladders & Racks

[Jill Marie Welsh]

😀
Hi Becky.
This post made me think of the auction I went to today.
I bought an 8′ step ladder for $2!
But will probably kill myself on it.
I heard of a ladder (I forget the brand)
that is a foldy-type thing, makes into either scaffolding
or a ladder and costs around $120. Our DIYs sell it.
I am terrible with ladders.
I have an 8-footer and a 6-footer. On a tall job, I will
string a strong board between the two and then put a small
3-step ladder on the board! If I worked for me I would sue myself!
Have fun.
Love…Jill
(it’s hell being short! 😳 )

[Robert Lambie]

Hi kev
The subject of ladders & access is a good one for everyone I think.
Especially these days’ with health and safety issues (don’t mention my finger 😳 )
Our company used to have 3 sets of ladders on each of our 3 vans. Not all identical but various ladders.. Anyway..
Due to some accidents, small but still accidents we had to think again.
What I ended up with is painter’s trestles. You may think yeh yeh useless. Well I cant and wouldn’t work without them anymore. They come in wood and aluminium. If you can afford to go for aluminium do it. They last a lifetime and take some much abuse.
They are ideal if you work alone!
They come in various sizes so can be bought to suit your van size, (inside)!
We have an 8-foot wooden pair with an 8-foot catwalk for our swb sprinter and a 10-foot aluminium set with a 10-foot aluminium catwalk for the lwb sprinter.
You may think 10 foot isn’t much but you erect each trestle fast by just opening up. Sit the catwalk onto each tressel and your chest (working height) is now 15 foot up.
There are rungs all the way up each side so can be set at various hights.
The best of it is. These are so sturdy and safe its great to work and walk on. No flexing or springing like a builders baton. I use ours for everything.. Shop fascias they are perfect height. We also keep a 10 foot aluminium ladder in the van just incase we over stretch just a little. If that’s the case we do everything off the trestles then at the end one guy on ladder the other holds until things are fastened.
You may say that’s all very well but what if much higher than 15 foot? Or most of the heights about 20ft? Well if it is? hire a small cherry picker. You’re working too high from a ladder! A small cherry picker costs about £50 for a days hire and the tol hire company will drop it and pick it back up free.
We all work from ladders I know and many fit from it. But we shouldn’t be! Ladders are for window cleaners, painters etc.. Not climbing with signs, tools and whatever in winds or no wind..
Last year I was up a ladder. Only went up to put a screw in a wall only about 16-17ft up. I started to screw in the screw and heard a bang and a flash. The flash was my head hitting the ground. The bang was the ladders. I hit the ground so hard I bent 2 of the aluminium rungs on the ladder.
I regard myself pretty fit and quick with regards to reacting to most things but this? This was so sudden I hadn’t time to think, I hit the floor before I knew the ladders slipped. Luckily I wasn’t hurt.. my pride was though 😳 ..
Am I accident-prone? Well that and the one I did the other day with the drill are about as serious an accident I have had in 14 years. I’m very safety conscious and don’t chance my arm with anything. But there you go..
The picture below shows me walking about freely on top of our trestles.

.

[Bill Dewison]

Those aluminuim trestles look cool! I have the wooden variety and boy are they heavy! 😮 Also I’m one trestle short of a walkway, which is not good. Thing I like about the trestle I have is the fact it stands just under 10ft tall when folded, so they’ll fit in most cars and are easy enough to negociate through doorways etc. As you say though Robert, because of the width at the base of them, they’re far more stable than any other ladders I’ve used.

I have a set of 30ft allys that I have in storage, but with my recent experiences on ladders, I doubt I’ll be rushing to drag them out for the next sign job 😕

Is that a ladder spanning the trestles Robert? If it is, I bet it makes the whole platform alot more rigid and stable.

Cheers, Dewi

[Kevin.Beck]

Trestels do seem like a good idea.

But as I don`t keep them in the van, they are locked away in the workshop, they`ll take up a bit more room than I`d like.

[Dave Bruce]

this is something I am looking in to at the moment so I am pleased to see this post.

When in to my local hire shop yesterday to price up trestles, still waiting for a reply though. There is a company in the Sign Up Date mag Standfast I think they are called do trestles, and I think the rungs are height adjustable. Has anyone used these, any comments reagarding them would be great.

The last company I worked for had a twin set of very long ladders (can’t remember the size) and we were always compromising on the correct angle against the wall, so now I am on my own I am prepared to pay for something better. Sound like ali is the way to go if the wood ones are that heavy Dewi.

At the moment I use scaffolding but it takes so long to erect and dismantle (and it is the quick slot together stuff).

Cheers

Dave

[Jill Marie Welsh]

Thanks for re-posting those pictures, Robert!
I found them quite….informative!
Love…Jill 😮

[Robert Lambie]

dewi the cat walk can be bought from the same place as the trestles. its alluminium, with aluminium rungs but also but has wood slats for grip in the damp weather. it is quite broad and 10 foot long or whatever you ask for it to be. they go upto about 20 foot long.
they are excellent and a must have with the trestles. so sturdy and easy to use you will wonder how you managed withought.
if any of you want to buy some or look into it ill dig out the details. i have had our alloy ones now about 3 years and still in “perfect condition” and used ever day!

kev i know what you mean about storage but fold up tressle like a step ladder and lean against the wall. same with catwalk. all 3 are same hieght and width and really dont take up muc room.
even if stored in van, they can lie flat on floor or sit on their side..

[David White]

try a company called WILCO on 0207 7296619 they are the best roof rack manufacturers i know I have had 4 up to now they also fit etc well worth a call the only draw back is they are in East London

Dave

[Paul Goodwin]

Jill you wasn’t looking at the trestles were you 😉

I was looking for some on friday, and a company near me can get hold of a similar system for around £600 quid.
These ones are like 2 ladders held together witha scissor system, u pull them apart then put the walkway on any of the rungs for the hight you need. Looked very compact, maybee in a few months once funds let me 😥

[Darryl Seager]

get down to your local hire shop and see what products they have to offer in the way of access equipment.
The boards that Rob mentioned in his post are called ‘Spandex’ and can be used in collaboration with the trestles as per, or, as we use them with a builders trestle,which is basically 2 upright tubes with 2 tubes that slide in side the others and can be ‘locked’ at a few preset heights by means of a pin inserted through both.The tubes are braced according ly and you lay your spandeck across 2 of them, to form the catwalk. there is a shorter version of the builders trestle, this is called a plasterers trestle, these only extend to probably 2″6′ or thereabouts so that plasterers can do the business on ceilings etc and avoid keep kicking a milk crate about!!
Darryl
(P.S these trestles are dead cheap)

[Bill Dewison]

I can see the benefit of the aluminium trestles, both weight wise and for durability. What I failed to mention earlier is a silly mistake I made very early on. I doubt anyone is as ‘Homer Simpson’ as me, but I’ll tell you what I did and when you stop laughing, you probably won’t make the same mistake (as if anyone actually would) 😀

I needed a platform to work off, and I heard the term trestles so off I went to get my wooden ones. All is brilliant so far, I have my trestles. So I load them into the dewi mobile, and off I go to fit a sign. I set them out, climb up and begin the job. Then I climb down, move them a few metres and start the other side. Now, you’re probably thinking ‘Blimey, must’ve been a long sign!’…. um, 🙄 🙄 😆

The sign was only 4m, but when I heard the term trestles I didn’t know at the time this was the plural for a trestle. I bought one! 😮 😮 No catwalk, no 2nd trestle, I was just using them as a large stepladder 😕

No wonder that sign job took me so long! If I’d bothered to log in to the boards and lookup some pictures of a pair of trestles in use I wouldn’t have been left scratching my head to why I couldn’t ‘walk’ the length of the sign as I’d heard others doing. Cue the D’oh! 🙄 🙄

Cheers, Dewi

[Robert Lambie]

this is another good use of our tressles. this time not so high but help to hold a large metal sign in place by one guy, while he fastens the sign to the poles at the hieght he needs it.

[Dave Bruce]

Do you have the details of the supplier Robert?

Cheers

Dave

[John Childs]

Anyway…………….

To get back to the original question…………

http://www.edstrom.co.uk

Although I don’t know if they do exactly what you want, they have all manner of mobile workshop related goodies and will be worth a call.

[nelijane]

mmmm… trestles (two of) are obviously the way to go. I’ve had enough of dodgy ladders and standing on top of a pick up truck. shall be purchasing myself a fine pair. will probably need a new van as well judging by the size of them, only have a little astra van at present. nelijane

[Robert Lambie]

you can by them various hieghts and lengths of catwalk. shortest is about 4-5 foot high 🙄