When you are looking to paint or do other work on the exterior of your home that involves getting up high, you will sometimes need to make use of a ladder — but ladders sometimes need to be set up on a slope in order to be used properly.
Setting a ladder up on a slope is a bit more difficult than setting it up on a flat area — and you want to make sure that you do it correctly to stay safe and prevent a tumble.
The first thing that you’re going to want to do when you’re using a ladder on a slope is to make sure that the ladder itself is sturdy — and if it is not, it might not even work without being on a slope.
This is to say that you have to make sure that not only are all of the rungs sturdy and stable and that the ladder itself as a whole is not likely to collapse
By doing this you can be sure that the ladder won’t fall apart while you are climbing up upon it.
One of the best ways that you can be safe when you are climbing a ladder that is set up on a slope is to have someone hold the ladder for you.
Of course, holding the ladder is always the safest way to have someone else go up the ladder, but this is because the person holding the ladder will be there to make sure that the ladder will be less likely to fall down.
Though it seems like it’s a bit counterintuitive, you can actually do well in terms of making sure that your ladder will work well on a slope is to tie it down.
The key to getting the ladder tied properly is that you are going to want to find something to which you can tie it that will be immobile.
The reason this is the case is that by tying it to something this unmovable, you’re going to have a more secure base on your ladder and be less likely to have a problem with the ladder falling down.
Another way for you to make sure that you have fewer issues with your ladder when it is placed on a slope is to first build a platform so that you can stabilize the whole thing yourself and in a sense cancel out the slope with the platform.
The platform that you build will have to be placed under one side of the ladder, and built-in such a way that when you have placed that side of the ladder on it the two sides of the ladder will be even.
Even though this is one of the more difficult ways for you to have a ladder set up on a slope, it is by far worth it as you will greatly reduce the possibility that the ladder will tumble down.
Lastly, you’re going to need to make sure that the surface that you are putting the ladder on is not only clean but also stable.
This means that you aren’t going to want to put your ladder on any surface that could be composed of any sort of loose parts that might slip from under you, or even loose dirt that could slip, slide, or collapse under your ladder foot.
As stable as it might seem, you need to make sure that the four legs of the ladder will be supported weight wise wherever you put them.
At Headwaters Painting, we aim to enrich the lives of our clients by delivering a Superior Experience. We do residential and commercial, interior, and exterior painting in Forest Lake and Blaine, MN. You can reach us at 651-278-6033 or click below to schedule a virtual estimate!
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