Ladders at Large

By William T. Cox Jr.

Good as your type 1a stepladder may be for interior work, it will run you ragged outdoors. Besides being built for light jobs, a typical 6' stepladder adds a maximum of about 3' to your reach, and you will spend more time moving the ladder than working. For painting or repairing the exterior of, say, a two-storey Victorian house, you'll want a variety of exterior ladders and accessories.

Start your collection by buying a single well-built extension ladder rated Type 1A (300 pounds capacity) or Type 1 (250 pounds). Not only are these types better built than other ladders (see Next Ladder, Best Ladder Sept./Oct. '99), they're required by OSHA regulations if you plan to add accessories for a quick scaffold. Aluminum is the most popular exterior ladder material. Fiberglass is more expensive, but light, strong, and nonconductive if you will be around electricity. Buy a ladder long enough to extend 4' beyond the eave line of the house, not so much for climbing onto the roof, but to provide a hand-hold when climbing down. You may believe you'll never have to get up on that slate or ceramic tile roof (they last forever), but what about inspecting gutters and flashing, or repointing the chimney years from now?

Accessories
from here, start filling out your equipment. You don't need to buy everything at once; I buy or rent as specific jobs come along. Just start with quality products.

When the time comes to reglaze a window on the second floor, buy a stand-off bar to hold you in the center. Without it, no matter where you put that ladder, the work will be just out of reach. Please don't try using a gutter or the meeting rails of the window sash to support an extension ladder. By the time you climb to the top, you may find yourself back inside picking through a window catalogue. But remember you won't be able to reach into corners if you keep the stand-off bar on the ladder. Ladder mittens are a must too. Using an extension ladder without the mittens will scrape or gouge the siding.

Once you have learned to handle that first extension ladder like a fireman, buy a second one along with more mittens. Then invest in a pair of brackets to hold a walk board. The first time I climbed onto this precarious looking staging I was surprised how comfortable I felt. It greatly improves access without moving your equipment, and the set-up time is minimal.

Check out both aluminum and wood for walk boards. Wood 2x12s must have an OSHA stamp to be used as walk boards. Before the days of regulations, I would handpick my boards at the lumberyard and pay a premium to do so. Then I would set the boards between two sawhorses and bounce on them to see if they split. Those that wouldn't pass I would square off and band at the ends to prevent splitting. We always needed a few short boards when erecting scaffolds.

Scaffolding
large houses are often the scale of small commercial buildings, and the most efficient way to work around either of them is with metal scaffolding. For restoration carpentry, most contractors use frames that are 5' high by 5' wide with a 7' span. Each section comes with two end frames, two cross braces, and four pins for stacking, plus you will always need leveling jacks, base plates and/or casters. When you position two sections end-to-end, they are just the right length for a couple of 16' walk boards. (Nail a cleat at each end of the boards and they aren't going anywhere.) You shouldn't need more than four or five sections of scaffolding unless you find it more economical to scaffold the entire house. The math says that a stack of four 5' high sections plus jacks should put your head at an elevation of 28'. When working that high, rent three aluminum planks. These cat walks are a little over 19 wide and 7' long and made especially for spanning the 7' spread of the scaffold frame. Also, rent handrails and toe boards when working at the very top. I like to use one plank as a worktable and backboard (to prevent me from accidentally backing off the scaffolding), while using the other two planks for standing. This way, I have a frame at each end secured with one cross-brace and my work totally unblocked. Having a frame at the ends makes it easier to grab hold and crawl through the hole and climb down the ladder rungs.

When erecting your scaffold, make sure you always line up the frames, hole over hole and ladder over ladder (photo left). This way you'll have an infinite number of adjustments. I've always rented scaffolding as I needed it because I lacked storage space; otherwise I would have no problem buying scaffolding. Should I want to sell it later, used scaffolding brings a premium price. I've been to many auctions of closed-out contractors and scaffolding always sells for near retail! Casters and leveling jacks are costly too, but sell just as well as scaffolding.

If you have the room to move a small vehicle around your old house or maybe just along the sides, look into renting a one-man lift or scissors-lift truck. Though these devices have their costs, they can save money by saving hours on a project. If you are acting as your own general contractor, planning to hire skilled labor, give them the best and safest work platform you can afford. Carpentry goes much better when carpenters feel safe.

William T. Cox, Jr. is based in Memphis.


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