Telescopic ladders were invented for the professional market by Teletower. The original notion was to create ladders with telescopic actions that would not take up a lot of space, but could be used to escape from a burning building or other emergency. They began to design telescopic ladders, which were soon picked up by every day ladder users, especially surveyors, who require ladders frequently in their work. Travelling by car meant that taking long, extension ladders was out of the question, but a telescopic ladder takes up around a third of the space of an extension ladder and fits comfortably in a car boot (in fact there are some models that come with a carry bag so they can be carried on a push bike!).

As new Working at Height Regulations (2005) came into force, the focus shifted from ladders and step-ladders to scaffold towers and other, sturdier forms of access equipment. An example of this is the telescopic scaffold tower, also manufactured by Teletower (available in fibreglass too, for those working around electricity).

Telescoping Platform Ladders

The Teletower telescopic ladder platform or scaffold platform, comes in two parts, will fit in the back of a large car and weighs 55 kilos all together. It can be put up by one person, rather than the two or more usually needed for erecting scaffold towers and the whole process can be done in under three minutes (although it will probably take longer the first few times!). The unit has working heights of between 2.3 and 4 metres, making it suitable for nearly all jobs and because it can be used by one person, the cost savings keep on coming every time this equipment is used. At just under £1,000 it’s not cheap, but it will pay for itself very quickly through efficiency.

The telescopic ladder technology is not just confined to the scaffold tower sector though. There are telescopic ladders for the loft now, which work brilliantly in commercial applications for access to crawlspace and roofs where there is not a lot of headroom or space to have a larger ladder (perhaps where a lot of cabling and pipes goes through the overhead space). They are also particularly useful in homes where there is not enough space to enlarge a loft hatch for a sliding loft ladder, or in listed properties.

The Extendable Titan Ladder

Telescopic ladders in general are great for people with very limited space for storage. The Titan 3.8 metre telescopic ladder shuts down to just 90 centimetres, which will fit easily under a bed, next to the washing machine, under the sofa, just about anywhere! At around £99, this is a bargain, especially as it’s manufactured by Titan, who are one of the leading lights of the ladder industry. Rated to EN131 standard, this is ideal for domestic and/or trade use and comes with a free carry bag, so it can just slip into a car, under a bed or anywhere you choose to keep it and it’s easy to transport when needed.

Xtend & Climb also have a telescopic ladder with a fully extended height of 3.8 metres, but theirs shuts down to just 81 centimetres, making it even smaller than the Titan alternative. It is more expensive than the Titan model, but has the same safety ratings. If space really is at a premium but you still need the full height of the ladder, then the Xtend & Climb telescopic ladder is the one for you. There is an optional carry bag for this ladder, which is useful if you need to take it to different places frequently.

For people with limited space, but also a limited need to climb very high, the ProUser 2.9 metre telescopic ladder is the answer. It has a closed height of just 79 centimetres, which is far less than any other telescopic ladder and is ideal for use in caravans, camper vans, holiday homes and bungalows. This telescopic ladder is also rated to EN131 so can be used by both domestic and trade users and at just £89 is a real bargain.

Laurent Laveder and his Telescopic Ladder

And finally, we have looked at ladders in art on this blog in the past, but none of the artworks featured a telescopic ladder. Until now, that is! Artist Laurent Laveder created a photograph in Paris in 2011 showing a man appearing to climb to the moon. His original idea was to use an extension ladder or a stepladder for the figure to climb, but the location of the shot (up a hill) made it too difficult to carry an extension ladder up there. Laveder went and purchased a telescopic ladder (unfortunately from the image there is no way of telling what model/manufacturer he used, but it does appear to have 12 rungs) and used that instead. Because it could be shut down to a small size there were no problems getting it up the hill and the fact that part of the ladder is un-telescoped lends the image more depth, almost asking the viewer to think about whether the figure will open up the ladder some more if he can’t reach. The other advantage to using a telescopic ladder over any other kind is that Laveder could take the photograph from exactly the spot he wanted, extending the ladder as far as needed to fit in the shot, without having to work around the constraints of other types of ladder.

So there you have it! Perfect for small storage spaces, versions available for scaffolding towers and loft ladders and they have also been used as pieces of art – The telescoping ladder is a very versatile ladder indeed, if you have used these ladders for anything interesting and unusual please let us know about it by writing a comment below!